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5 64Bit virtual machine on VMware ESXi 5.0 (VM Version 7)

Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64Bit virtual machine on VMware ESXi 5.0 (VM Version 7)
February 16, 2012 By Harry Sangha Leave a Comment Step by Step guide with screenshots to installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64Bit virtual machine on VMware ESXi 5.0 (VM Version 7) to be provisioned in your private cloud. This version will run on VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later. Recommended when sharing storage with or virtual machine with ESX/ESXi versions upto 4.1 .

Click on VMWare vSphere Clinet 5.0 to launch the application to start creating virtual machines on ESXi 5.0

Log in to vSphere 5.0 Client with ESXi host IP and administrator access information

Select ESXi host from the host selection screen and right click on it to create a new virtual machine

Select new virtual machine configuration type ; Typical or Custom

Specify name and location of the machine ; follow a naming convention specific to your data center

Select storage destination for your virtual machine files

Select virtual machine version specific to compatible ESX host versions

Select Guest / Workload Operating System (OS)

Specify virtual sockets and number of CPU cores

Configure virtual machine memory usage size for the workload

Configure Network settings for virtual machine ; Select the number of NICs and type of network to use

Select the SCSI controller type ; Default is LSI Logic Parallel SCSI controller

Select a disk ; create new , re-use existing , use SAN disk or create virtual machine without disk

Configure the virtual disk space and provisioning policies; Disk Capacity, Provisioning (thick or thin) ; Location of the virtual disk (shared with workload or a different location)

Review the virtual machine / workload configurations and click on finish button to create the virtual machine. This only create a virtual machine container, we still have to install the guest operating system on the virtual machine. Follow the next steps to add operating system installation media and starting the operating system installations steps

On virtual machine creation; go back to main screen of vSphere 5.0 and select the host and

underneath host select the newly created workload and right button down on it to edit virtual machine configuration settings

In the configuration settings window, Hardware tab , select CD / DVD drive 1 settings and select the appropriate device type you want to use for loading the ISO image for the guest operating system

In the Options tab; click on Boot Options and select Force BIOS Setup ONLY in case you need to change the virtual machine BIOS related settings on boot ; Select checkbox in Failed boot recovery which will all the virtual machine to retry connecting and booting from the CD/DVD drive you configured in the previous step

On virtual machine creation; go back to main screen of vSphere 5.0 and select the host and underneath host select the newly created workload and right button down on it to power on the virtual machine and THEN click on the toolbar menu item for connect the CD/DVD drive to the virtual machine. Then click on the virtual machine console menu bar item icon in vSphere 5.0 main screen to view and interact with the virtual machine console . You may see the virtual machine BIOS settings screen if you had configured Force BIOS setup when editing the virtual machine settings in the previous steps. Virtual machine will try and boot from network and then retry from the CD/DVD drive you attached in the previous step and find the bootable ISO image for the operating system and then you will see the guest operating system installation screen

In our case we are installing RHEL 5.5 64Bit guest operating system as specified in the virtual machine creation steps. Click on Next button to proceed with the installation

Select the language for installation process and click on Next button

In the Installation Number window enter the installation or subscription number as registered with Red Hat; select Skip entering installation number if have not registered for Red Hat Support Network

Click on Skip if you have not registered for Red Hat Support Network

Select the appropriate drive partitioning policy for your Red Hat 5.5 64Bit installation

Depending upon your security policies choose Encrypt system . Click on Advanced Storage configurations to add additional SCSI drive targets

Configure (DHCP or static IP , gateway , DNS) and Enable the network interface to communicate with iSCSI targets in case adding additional SAN disk drives

Configure the iSCSI parameters for the additional iSCSI disk drives targets

Configure the attached virtual network devices with card, IP , hostname , gateway , DNS information and click on Next button

Edit the network interface to configure or modify IPv4 and IPv6 options and click on Next button

Select your time zone and click on Next button

Setup root (super user) password for the guest operating system and click on Next button

Select what function you expect the virtual machine to play in your infrastructure (development or web server) and based upon what you select the installation process will provide default selections for appropriate software packages to support the virtual machine usage or function in the next set of screens in the installation process and click on Next button

Select appropriate Desktop environment for your virtual machine and click on Next button

Select the appropriate applications that you want installed and click on Next button

Select the appropriate development tools that you want installed and click on Next button

Select the appropriate applications and toolsets that you want installed and click on Next button

Select the appropriate language support that you need installed and click on Next button

To start the Red Hat guest operating system installation click on Next button

Red Hat Guest Operating System Installation in progress

Red Hat Guest Operating System Installation in progress

Installation is complete; click on Reboot to restart the system and get the login prompt to start working on the virtual machine

Reboot post installation in progress

Post install operating system configuration steps

Agree to the Red Hat License Agreement and click on Forward button

Configure the firewall as need to support access to your web application or development work

Typically SSH is enabled to get console access to your virtual machine via a secure shell program, select SSH and click on Forward button

Setup Security enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy and click on Forward button

Enable kernel crash dump; helps in system crash situations when you want to send the state of the virtual on crash for bug reports or support to appropriate software vendors . Enable and click on Forward button

Enabling kbdump (crash dump ) requires a reboot post configurations. Click Yes and click on Forward button

Setup date and time ; if possible sync up with a NTP server

Enable NTP and click on Forward button

Subscribe (or not) to Red Hat Network to get automated S/W updates and click on Forward button

Subscribe (or not) to Red Hat Network to get automated S/W updates and click on Forward button

Subscribe (or not) to Red Hat Network to get automated S/W updates and click on Forward button

Create a non-administrator user for operational work on the virtual machine, its different from the root (super user). Use a network login if using any centralized user management frameworks like NIS , LDAP et al and click on Forward button

Use a network login->user information in case using centralized user management frameworks like NIS , LDAP et al , configure as needed and click on OK button and then click on Forward button

Use a network login->authentication configuration if using any centralized authentication management frameworks like Kerberos , LDAP et al , configure as needed and click on OK button and then click on Forward button

Use a network login->authentication configuration->Options for password management, configure as needed and click on OK button and then click on Forward button

Configure Sound card and click on Forward button

Insert any additional software component CDs at this time to complete the Red Hat guest operating system installation process and click on Forward button

Insert any additional software component CDs at this time to complete the Red Hat guest operating system installation process and click on Forward button

Reboot of the virtual machine post Red Hat guest operating system installation

Login prompt for the guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine. Enter as root or the non administrative user you created during operating system installation process

Desktop for the guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine for the logged in user

Applications menu item in the top level menu bar for the Red Hat guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine allows you to manage the installed applications

Applications->System Tools menu item in the top level menu bar for the Red Hat guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine allows you to manage the system environment

Places menu item in the top level menu bar for the Red Hat guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine allows you to manage the files, folders, networklocations, shares and more

System->Administration menu item in the top level menu bar for the Red Hat guest operating system on the newly created virtual machine allows you to manage the system administration tasks. Contact Team Cloud Creo for Live Demo or any questions regarding Cloud Appliance Factory / Cloud Management Platform. NOTE Enterprise Customers, ask Team Cloud Creo about setting up your own Cloud Service Catalogue (Public or Private or Hybrid) for your company. Save cost and be competitive.