All,
There are some (very much) testing open-vm-tools RPMS for both the CentOS-4 and CentOS-5 i386 and x86_64 kernel-vm's and standard UP kernels.
The kernel-vm's are available here:
http://people.centos.org/~tru/kernel-vm/
(The kernel-vm kernels are designed to run inside the VMs at a clock rate of 100HZ instead of 1000Hz.)
The open-vm-tools are available here:
http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/
The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the VMware-Tools RPMS that come with VMWare.
Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install these open-vm-tools for testing.
There is an xorg.conf file that should be used to replace the one in /etc/X11/ inside the VM Client only (not on your host).
The open-vm-tools SHOULD ONLY be installed inside a VM Client and not on the VM Host.
These open-vm-tools RPMS are only designed to work with CentOS VM Clients/Guests (should not matter what the host is), though they should also work if RHEL4 or RHEL5 are the VM Clients/Guests.
Documentation for the vm tools can be found here:
http://open-vm-tools.wiki.sourceforge.net/Packaging
and chapter3 here:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/server_vm_manual.pdf
(In that PDF file, the installation parts can be ignored, but the configuration parts and usage parts should work)
Thanks, Johnny Hughes
Johnny Hughes wrote:
<snip>
There is an xorg.conf file that should be used to replace the one in /etc/X11/ inside the VM Client only (not on your host).
Here:
http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/xorg.conf
<snip>
Johnny Hughes said the following on 12/31/2007 11:37 AM: <snip>
The open-vm-tools are available here: http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/ The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the VMware-Tools RPMS that come with VMWare. Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install these open-vm-tools for testing.
Thank you for these. May I ask the costs and benefits? Following are my guesses and hopes:
My Guesses: Benefits: Easier to install, just toss into repo and yum install NAME Costs: None
My Hopes: Benefits: Easier to install, will be in CentOS repo with vm kernels No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade Time syncing is somehow better Johnny will personally help you with all your computer problems (just kidding) Costs: None
John Thomas wrote:
Johnny Hughes said the following on 12/31/2007 11:37 AM:
<snip> > The open-vm-tools are available here: > http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/ > The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the VMware-Tools > RPMS that come with VMWare. > Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install > these open-vm-tools for testing. Thank you for these. May I ask the costs and benefits? Following are my guesses and hopes:
My Guesses: Benefits: Easier to install, just toss into repo and yum install NAME Costs: None
My Hopes: Benefits: Easier to install, will be in CentOS repo with vm kernels
This will be the case, yes. Though that is not the case now.
No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
This is indeed a huge benefit, as it requires one less reboot and does not require you to do anything via your console or to rebuild anything as a user. You also do not need build tools inside your client VM now.
Time syncing is somehow better
It is not really better ... but it is the same. I have found that if your client is running fast, you need to adjust the vmware.conf file like this article says:
And that these tools will keep it from being slow.
Johnny will personally help you with all your computer problems (just kidding)
For the right price :-D
Other added benefits are that the vmhgfs works without recompiling by the user.
Costs: None
I do not see any negative issues.
I do still need to come up with something to copy the xorg.conf file into place while maintaining a backup, and also the same for a gpm config file.
But I think this will be a major improvement for VMWare users as are the kernel-vm kernels.
Thanks, Johnny Hughes
No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
This is indeed a huge benefit, as it requires one less reboot and does not require you to do anything via your console or to rebuild anything as a user. You also do not need build tools inside your client VM now.
This is indeed, very cool.
But I think this will be a major improvement for VMWare users as are the kernel-vm kernels.
Couple questions regarding these kernels... should they be run on the host or on the guest? And I see they are in -testing right now, and also in "tru's" home directory. Where is the authoritative source for them and will they end up in centosplus at some point?
Ray
Ray Van Dolson wrote:
No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
This is indeed a huge benefit, as it requires one less reboot and does not require you to do anything via your console or to rebuild anything as a user. You also do not need build tools inside your client VM now.
This is indeed, very cool.
I would like to point out that VMware is working very hard to get these tools incorporated into Linux distros right now. Whether or not we should do this or promote Xen instead is a different argument for a different time.
Many people use VMWare right now, and these tools will work in all the version, not just the free server (though that is where we develop and test them).
But I think this will be a major improvement for VMWare users as are the kernel-vm kernels.
Couple questions regarding these kernels... should they be run on the host or on the guest? And I see they are in -testing right now, and also in "tru's" home directory. Where is the authoritative source for them and will they end up in centosplus at some point?
We (Tru Huynh actually, with help from Akemi Yagi and Fabian Arrotin) created them. There is no Authoritative source (except us :D), the SRPMS are available from the current locations now. They are the EL kernel with the clock freq set to 100HZ instead of 1000HZ ... which is pretty much required to get any kind of performance inside of VMware VMs.
They will end up somewhere ... either in a virt repo or extras (as they are named kernel-vm and not kernel, they are not replacing the kernel as such).
They are designed to run inside VMs, though will run on the host as well currently. All they do is adjust the freq of the clock to 100HZ. They are not recommended for the host, however.
It is possible that we will work with the VMWare people to add other tweaks to these kernels for performance gains ... if there are specific things called out by them to increase / enhance usability or performance inside VMware VMs.
Thanks, Johnny Hughes
On Jan 1, 2008 7:53 AM, Johnny Hughes johnny@centos.org wrote:
Ray Van Dolson wrote:
Couple questions regarding these kernels... should they be run on the host or on the guest? And I see they are in -testing right now, and also in "tru's" home directory. Where is the authoritative source for them and will they end up in centosplus at some point?
We (Tru Huynh actually, with help from Akemi Yagi and Fabian Arrotin) created them. There is no Authoritative source (except us :D), the SRPMS are available from the current locations now. They are the EL kernel with the clock freq set to 100HZ instead of 1000HZ ... which is pretty much required to get any kind of performance inside of VMware VMs.
And if you are interested in how the -vm kernel was born and what the current status of development is, take a look at:
http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=2189
I would also like to encourage people to join in the effort and contribute to that bug tracker with new findings, test results, etc.
Akemi
On Tue, Jan 01, 2008 at 09:53:34AM -0600, Johnny Hughes wrote:
I would like to point out that VMware is working very hard to get these tools incorporated into Linux distros right now. Whether or not we should do this or promote Xen instead is a different argument for a different time.
Many people use VMWare right now, and these tools will work in all the version, not just the free server (though that is where we develop and test them).
It's always nice to have options. We've looked at Xen (and are looking at XenSource which I guess is the commercial offering), but a large chunk of our virtualization is Windows running on CentOS-based VMware hosts and so far Xen doesn't perform as well. We do keep trying it though.
It is possible that we will work with the VMWare people to add other tweaks to these kernels for performance gains ... if there are specific things called out by them to increase / enhance usability or performance inside VMware VMs.
Glad I found this list... as I mentioned we typically are doing CentOS hosts and virtualizing either Windows or RHEL on those hosts, so I guess in this case the -vm kernels won't help a lot, but definitely am going to take a look at the tools.
Ray
Ray Van Dolson wrote:
Glad I found this list... as I mentioned we typically are doing CentOS hosts and virtualizing either Windows or RHEL on those hosts, so I guess in this case the -vm kernels won't help a lot, but definitely am going to take a look at the tools.
you should be able to run the -vm kernels on your rhel virtualmachines just fine.
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Akemi Yagi -
John Thomas -
Johnny Hughes -
Karanbir Singh -
Ray Van Dolson