Flatcar

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The Flatcar documentation provides information about how to install the operating system in a virtual machine.

For additional information about the operating system, refer to the Kinvolk web site. For more details about running Flatcar on VMware, refer to https://docs.flatcar-linux.org/os/booting-on-vmware/.

The Flatcar documentation includes the following topics:

• Installation Instructions for Flatcar
• Installing Tools in a Flatcar Guest
• Knowledge Base Articles for Flatcar
• VMware Compatibility Guide

You can install the Flatcar operating system on a virtual machine by using VMware OVA file format.

Installation Instructions for Flatcar

You can use the following installation steps to create a Flatcar VM by using VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, or vSphere Client.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, verify that the following tasks are complete:

• Read General Installation Instructions for All VMware Products.
• Read General Knowledge for Flatcar at the Kinvolk website.
• Open the Stable page at the Kinvolk web page and open the directory of the build that you want to deploy.
• Download the flatcar_production_vmware_ova.ova file.
  

Installation Steps for VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion

1. For VMware Workstation, right-click the flatcar_production_vmware_ova.ova file and select Open with VMware Workstation.
2. (Optional) For VMware Fusion, right-click the flatcar_production_vmware_ova.ova file and click Open with VMware Fusion.
3. Follow the prompts to finish the import process.

Installation Steps for vSphere ESXi server

1. Log in to your vCenter Server by using vSphere Client.
2. Click Actions>Deploy OVF Template... and navigate to the flatcar_production_vmware_ova.ova file.
3. Follow the prompts to complete the VM deployment.

Enable Auto Login for Flatcar

1. Power on your Flatcar VM and open the console.
2. When the boot loader prompts you to edit GRUB, enter e immediately.
3. To enable automatic login to the shell as a flatcar default user, add coreos.autologin as a boot parameter in the GNU GRUB screen, press Ctrl-x or F10 to boot.
4. Run the sudo passwd coreos command to set the login password for the coreos user.

Installing Tools in a Flatcar Guest

Use the guest OS provided Open VM Tools.

Open VM Tools in Flatcar

Open VM Tools is the open source implementation of VMware Tools and consist of a suite of virtualization utilities that improves the functionality, administration, and management of virtual machines on VMware hypervisors. VMware recommends using the Open VM Tools redistributed by the operating system vendors.

Flatcar includes open-vm-tools that is installed in the /usr/share/oem/ directory.

For additional information, see:

• Knowledge base article 2073803, VMware support of open-vm-tools, at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2073803.
• Knowledge base article 2073804, VMware support for Linux inbox VMware drivers, at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2073804.

Knowledge Base Articles for Flatcar

The following link refers to knowledge base articles on operating system specific issues. See VMware Knowledge Base for a list of known issues about the operating system.

VMware Compatibility Guide

The VMware Compatibility Guide Web site lists supported guest and host operating systems and provides related support information.