VMware Server on Linux Host (CentOS?)

I want to setup VMware server on a Linux server, leaving only the bare necessities in the host OS that are required to run VMware server. The only VMware Server tutorials so far have been based on desktop distributions.

I want a secure, lean host OS for running VMware Server, but I also want to make sure it is fully functional.

 

We don't have such a tutorial for CentOS yet, but for Debian and Ubuntu:
http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_etch_vmware_server_howto
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_feisty_fawn_vmware_server_howto

 

I guess I should've clarified my original request. I know how to install VMware Server on a CentOS box.

What I am interested in is how to get the smallest possible CentOS install and still retain all the functionality required for VMware Server. I want to know what packages I can remove and what daemons I can turn off... I want a CentOS install setup specifically as a VMware Server host and NOTHING else. I want to have a "Poor Man's ESX Server".

Does that make more sense?

 

Any progress on this?

Just wondering if you had made any progress on this that you could share. I recently went through the trials of installing CentOS 4 but had the same issue. My next step was to do minimal install then go through all the deps needed for vmware server.

Cheers,
Alex

 

Take a look here: http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_server_centos5.0

 

Clarification

Sorry, I wasn't looking to install it on a desktop. As the poster mentioned earlier in the thread he was looking to install the "smallest possible CentOS install and still retain all the functionality required for VMware Server" basically not installing X11 and all the other fluff. I had done this stuff in the past with RH 7.2 but seems like its a bit tougher to do in current releases. Thanks.

 

I haven't tries this on a CentOS server yet.
What exactly are the difficulties you're having?

 

Figured it out...

I figured it out. I had been trying RHEL 4 and earlier versions of CentOS and had no luck installing the OS without X.

But once I tried with CentOs 5 and it was more granular on what packages I could install/remove (more like RH 7.2)

So I just finished creating a barebones install with gcc, kernel headers, etc. Next I need to verify the VMware Server install and other tools I will be using.

Thanks,
Alex

 

What I would like to do is to start with a minimal install of CentOS 5... And by "minimal", I mean "uncheck every box for every package during the install"... Then I want to disable the rest of the auxiliary services (Sendmail, etc) and only install the packages required to install and run VMware Server, keep the system updated and synchronize the time.

That's it. I want it as barebones as can be, while being functional for the required role.

 

Get the vmware-server.rpm and install it via "yum localinstall --nogpgcheck" - needed dependences will be installed automatically.

Olli

 

The best howto I have found on this topic is at:

http://www.sertec.ca/howtos/VMware-server.html