Hi,
Thanks for the responses. I was trying with Vmware server and Vmware fusion.
Hakan - you're right . Choosing the "other" vm along with "Linux 2.6.x kernel " allows me to install the server bit. This is with Vmware fusion. With Vmware Workstation, that option doesn't quite appear. With the above "other" and "linux 2.6 kernel" option, it provides it with 384MB of Ram and 8GB hard disk. In this case you can't change the Ram which is weird again .
Surprisingly, every time you choose a different option, you'll get different settings of Ram and Hard disk . If you choose "Centos" and 64bit it allocates it 1gb ram and 20gb hard disk by default . You can change the hard disk value though.
Booting with 384MB ram , the gui installer complains saying it doesn't have enough memory to run but the command line Centos setup comes up correctly but there is no network interface! Seems to be a crazy exercise . I guess I need to play with a few more options here.
What I've found, using VMware player, is that after I've selected the ISO from which I want to install, I need to go into the VM's properties and remove the *first* CD/DVD drive...this removes the default option that VMP tries to use, and then uses the ISO I want it to use.