Contributed by James Cornell
How to Run OpenSolaris in VMware Workstation
This procedure describes how to complete the following tasks to run OpenSolaris in VMware Workstation:
- How to setup a virtual machine guest
- How to install OpenSolaris as a guest
- How to update OpenSolaris
- How to install OpenOffice.org on OpenSolaris
- How to find further information about using OpenSolaris
If you are new to OpenSolaris and want to try it out using VMware Workstation, this guide will demonstrate the installation steps in detail allowing you to use OpenSolaris.
Before You Begin
To complete this procedure, you need:
- A copy of OpenSolaris 2009.6 on a disc or as an ISO image
- VMware Workstation 5 or higher
- 1280MB of ram is strongly suggested, with 1GB being the bare minimal on Windows XP and Linux, and 1.5GB advised for Windows Vista or OpenSolaris hosts
- 3.6GB of free hard disk space is the bare minimal necessary for this guide
- A broadband internet connection is recommended
Steps
1. Open VMware Workstation and you will be presented by a start page where you would click on the New Virtual Machine icon to start the guest wizard.
2. Select custom so you can make specific changes to your guest as the wizard progresses.
3. If you are using VMware Workstation 6.5, you will be asked to select a compatibility mode in case you are sharing your guest with older versions; otherwise you are safe to choose Workstation 6.5.
4. Insert your burned copy of OpenSolaris and it normally will be mounted under the D: drive on Windows; otherwise select the correct CD/DVD-ROM letter. If you are on Linux, your CD/DVD-ROM is normally /dev/hda or /dev/hdc depending on your primary hard disk type. If you have a SATA hard disk it occupy /dev/sda, and thus your optical drive would typically be /dev/hda; otherwise if you are using a PATA hard disk, which would typically use /dev/hda, your CD/DVD-ROM drive would be /dev/sdc. If you'd like to use an ISO image instead, choose "Installer disc image file (iso)" and browse for the file.
5. Select Sun Solaris and choose Solaris 10.
6. Use OpenSolaris as the guest virtual machine name.
7. Leave the CPU set to 1 unless you explicitly need to allocate a second core or processor to the guest for performance reasons.
8. Allocate 768MB of memory or more to the guest.
9. You should be fairly safe keeping the default (NAT) unless you need to use your OpenSolaris guest from an outside network such as a LAN or via the internet. NAT mode allows you to access the internet from the guest without exposing it to other machines. If you select host-only mode you won't be able to perform steps requiring internet access noted on page 3 or 4.
10. The default of LSI Logic for use as the SCSI adapter should be a suitable choice and is best left as-is.
11. It's safe to select either IDE or SCSI, though it is suggested that you go with SCSI.
12. Leave disk set to "Create a new virtual disk".
13. Allocate at least 8GB to the guest if you have it available, with 16GB suggested if you intend to use for development purposes or are going to make more than routine use of ZFS features.
14. A disk name of "OpenSolaris.vmdk" is suitable to use.
15. Confirm the settings presented to you and click "Customize Hardware".
16. Select Display and set the maximum resolution to a reasonable limit so the guest does not overextend its use of your workspace. If you're on a laptop with a widescreen resolution such as 1440x900 it would be ideal that either 1024x768 or 1280x720 is used.
17. Now that you're done configuring all of those settings, your inventory should look similar to ours.
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