1. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 1 Secrets of the Ontario Linux Fest Demo Room Lori Paniak 4п Solutions Inc.

2. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 2 Outline Overview of the Ontario Linux Fest Demo Room Setup and install of VMware Server on Debian Linux system Flexible cloning of the Linux/VMware system to many systems: Mondoarchive Managing and using the finished system: OLPC

3. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 3 Thanks To: John van Ostrand +?: Demo room idea and conceptual development Rob Day (crashcourse.ca): Laptops Demo Room Presenters: Khalid Baheyeldin (2bits): Drupal Mike Fletcher (One Laptop Per Child): OLPC desktop Jason Kendal (Joomla!): Joomla!

4. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 4 “We came up with the idea of a demo room at the fest. It's a little late but we think there's time to organize and make it work. ”– September 27, 2007 A room of laptops configured to allow participants to use software as it is demonstrated by an expert presenter. Conflict: Want demo software to be installed and usable, but also want to be able to switch quickly between demos: Drupal ->OLPC ->Joomla!

5. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 5

6. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 6 Debian Setup Install vanilla Debian Etch with no GUI Update kernel: 2.6.18 -> 2.6.22 Install Xfce lightweight desktop Want to keep OS image size to minimum so we can fit it and VMware images for demos onto a single DVD (4.7GB) Create a directory for VM images, default: /var/vm Set network parameters: hostname, static IP

7. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 7

8. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 8 Install Prerequisites for VMware Debian Packages linux-headers-`uname-r` ia32-libs psmisc build-essential unzip libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xspecs

9. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 9 Free as in... VMware Server can be downloaded freely from the VMware site after agreeing to the EULA. Beware redistribution... Why not FLOSS (xen, qemu, kvm...) ? VMware VM images more readily available VMware Server Console more flexible and useful for the current task than xen-tools/XenMan ubuntu + kvm + virt-manager?

10. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 10 Get VMware binaries http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ Get the latest version of VMware Server binary (this installation used version 1.0.4) 186MB Also get (web) Management Interface 53MB And VMware Server Linux client package 23MB: includes Linux VMware server console Don't forget to register for keys to use the software!

11. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 11 VMware Install Extract tarballs and run install scripts: MUI, server: vmware-install.pl Warnings: Will try to install VMware in /usr – better in /usr/local Default settings are otherwise OK Will be prompted for registration key

12. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 12 VMware Server Console After a reboot, try out the console: /usr/local/bin/vmware-server-console Can connect the server to localhost, or other network-connected VMware servers.

13. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 13 VM Installation Console makes it easy to setup a new virtual machine Install from media to a blank virtual machine Prepackaged VMs: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/ OLPC: Development/shipping VMs available at http://dev.laptop.org/pub/virtualbox/ For Drupal and Joomla! demos: Installed Ubuntu server VM and setup remote ssh access to the VM for the presenters to install their software. Then snapshot.

14. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 14 Finalize System Setup Set demo user to automatically login on startup Configure VMware console to autostart and login to local VMware server Can configure VMware to open and run a particular VM image on boot. Could not figure out how to maximize the console window automatically and make the laptop appear to be the VM (ie. OLPC)

15. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 15 The Next Step: Cloning Once the system and virtual machines are setup and configured, the next task is image the system to the other hardware (laptops) The most(?) convenient way to do this is use Mondoarchive (http://www.mondorescue.org/) “disaster recovery solution”http://www.mondorescue.org/ Mondoarchive creates a bootable installer which will install a system image on a (blank) target hard drive.

16. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 16 After the Cloning: Cleanup After cloning, new systems need some adjustments Change hostname, IP address Run alsaconf to reset links to the sound card. Use speaker-test to check. On Debian, edit udev entries for new new NICs: /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules Recompile VMware server and console so connection to X-server is problem-free. New registration keys...

17. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 17 Managing the cluster: ClusterSSH The clusterssh X application allows one to have multiple, simultaneous ssh sessions with single input transmitted to multiple systems Handy for changing files, issuing commands on a set of identically configured machines

18. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 18 Demo Control Using the Server Console, one can connect to any VMware server on the network Remote control can start, stop, change settings and even control the mouse in the remote VM Several instances of Server Console can control a whole room of VMs

19. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 19 Demo Possibilities Follow along: Each audience member has their own copy of the software and mimics the actions of the presenter “Pull”: Each audience member can control the VM(s) running on the presentation machine “Push”: The presenter can control the VM on an audience member's machine (one-one). One-many?

20. VMware in Linux: A flexible demo room29/09/2016 Slide 20 Demo Example: OLPC OLPC Sugar user interface was emulated on the demo room machines Included networking (non-mesh/wired version...) Audience could explore desktop, play games with others in the room.