VMware

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 documentation covers information on how to install the operating system in a virtual machine. For additional information about the operating system, refer to the instructions included in the installation media.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 documentation includes the following topics:

Installation Instructions

To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 in a virtual machine you can use the standard Red Hat distribution CD or the boot floppy/network method. The following installation instructions are for standard distribution CD.

Prerequisites

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

  • Read General Installation Instructions for All VMware Products.
  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 hugemem kernel is not supported.
  • Configure the virtual machine with at least 256MB of memory. If the virtual machine has less than 256MB of memory, Red Hat Enterprise Linux presents an error message as it loads certain VMware drivers.
  • With many Linux guest operating systems, various problems have been observed when the BusLogic virtual SCSI adapter is used with VMware virtual machines. VMware recommends that you use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI adapter with this guest operating system.

Installation Steps

  1. Insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.
  2. Power on the virtual machine.
  3. At the boot prompt, type text and press Enter.
  4. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
  5. Select the language and keyboard.
  6. In the Installation Type screen, select either Advanced Server or Custom for the installation type.
  7. In the Mouse Selection screen, choose one of the following options.
    • Generic - 3 Button Mouse (PS/2) and select the Emulate 3 Buttons option for three-button mouse support in the virtual machine.
    • If you have a wheel mouse, you can choose Generic Wheel Mouse (PS/2).
  8. In the Automatic Partitioning screen, allow automatic partitioning.
    You might see a warning that says:
    The partition table on device sda was unreadable. To create new partitions, it must be initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on the drive.
    Would you like to initialize this drive?
    This does not mean that anything is wrong with the hard drive on your physical computer. The virtual hard drive in your virtual machine needs to be partitioned and formatted.
  9. Select the Yes button and press Enter.
    sda appears in the message as the device name if the virtual disk in question is a SCSI disk; if the virtual disk is an IDE drive, hda appears in the message as the device name instead.
  10. Configure the network connection.
    VMware ESX Server, VMware VirtualCenter, or vCenter Server. If you are using the vlance network adapter in your virtual machine and your computer is connected to a LAN that provides DHCP support, in the Network Configuration screen, you can select the option Use bootp/dhcp. If you are using the vmxnet network adapter in your virtual machine, use the network configuration tools in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to configure your network connection after you finish installing the guest operating system.
  11. Install VMware Tools.

VMware Tools in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Guest

Do not start the X server in the guest operating system until you install VMware Tools.

For information on VMware Tools, see Knowledge base article 1014294, General VMware Tools installation instructions, at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014294.

Knowledge Base Articles for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

The following links refer to knowledge base articles on operating system specific issues.

VMware Compatibility Guide

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


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