Install VMware server on Debian Etch in an Hetzner RootServer
January 12, 2008
In this tutorial I'll explain you how to install Vmware Server on Hetzner.de Rootserver with Debian Etch OS installed.
Note:
I've searched over the net many setup articles about vmware and Debian Etch, but unfortunately I haven't found any good tutorial for me. I'm sure that your question is: "Why you haven't found any good tutorial? Entire internet talks about Vmware products installation!" If you are in this page you are an unfortunately user as me. 
You have to know that Hetzner have a limitation in his IP addresses. In fact, to block IP Spoofing, Hetzner don't allow IP address sharing and Bridged configuration don't works with Vmware. There are limitations also when you try to install Xen and others virtualization solutions with bridged network configuration except for OpenVZ. At the moment I've seen that OpenVZ have many bugs and there isn't an updated frontend to manage simply the virtual servers configured. VMware Server is free and give you a Console to manage remotely VPS from Linux or Windows system. I've personally tested VMware Server 1.04 on RootServer DS7000 with AMD Athlon X2 6000+ and 6gb of RAM. It runs fine, but I think that if you want a very performant system, virtualization not is very well.
On Hetzner you have to ask the free additional subnet of IPs. With these additional IPs you can configure up to 6 IPs. Unfortunately, one of these IPs will must be used for the host system, and another one to make a gateway and solve the problem of bridge network configuration. In fact you have to configure the first of the additional IP on the system host where you will install VMware Server.
I've this subnet of IPs from 78.47.XXX.1 to 78.47.XXX.6 where 78.47.XXX.7 will be the broadcast. So, you have to configure in /etc/network/interfaces:
auto eth0:1
iface eth0:1 inet static
address 78.47.XXX.1
broadcast 78.47.XXX.7
netmask 255.255.255.248
To reolad configuration of network you can use "/etc/init.d/networking restart" or if you want load only the new interface added "ifup eth0:1". To ensure if your network setup is correct you have to see "ifconfig" and try to PING from another PC the ip just configured.
Before to proceed with the installation of VMware you must use enable IPv4 Forwarding simply open /etc/sysctl.conf and uncomment this line:
# Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4
net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1
or:
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
Reboot your system NOW! 
Now you can proceed with the pre installation of packages and kernel headers to run VMware Server installation.
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` libx11-6 libx11-dev x-window-system-core x-window-system xspecs libxtst6 psmisc build-essential
Now you must download VMware Server from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ and to obtain a free license code click on "Register Now" and follow the steps.
You must obtain the URL to download Vmware and related tools and proceed with wget:
wget [URL of the VMware Server for linux binary tar.gz package]
wget [URL of the Management Interface binary tar.gz package]
Unpack downloaded files
tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
tar xvfz VMware-mui-*.tar.gz
You can run now the installer script and just hit enter to keep default values.
VMware Server installation Script:
./vmware-server-distrib/vmware-install.pl
VMware WebGUI installation Script:
./vmware-mui-distrib/vmware-install.pl
Now you can login on the WebGUI and download the VMware console: https://SERVER_IP:8333 using root user and password.
When you create a New Virtual Machine you have to setup the Network Card as Bridged and in the Operative System installed on the virtual machine you have to configure one of the additional IPs with the first IP configured in the host system as gateway.
For Example, if you have installed Debian in the new virtual machine you have to setup the /etc/network/interfaces as:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 78.47.XXX.2
broadcast 78.47.XXX.7
netmask 255.255.255.248
gateway 78.47.XXX.1
Reload your network configuration (/etc/init.d/networking restart) and you have your VMware installed with bridged Network working in the vritual machine also if you are using Hetzner RootServer.
