VMX Builder: Create virtual machines in minutes (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Linux.com takes a look at VMX Builder. "While VMware Player is not designed to create virtual machines from scratch, other tools can help you to build your own VMs in a matter of minutes. You could use VMware's free VMware Server software, but it's overkill if you only need a quick-and-dirty way to build a VM. Instead, consider VMX Builder, an easy-to-use desktop tool for creating VMware virtual machines."

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VMX Builder: Create virtual machines in minutes (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 7, 2006 19:34 UTC (Tue) by RobWilco (subscriber, #40828) [Link]

1 install softs and run the xen kernel

aptitude install xen-linux-system-2.6.17-2-xen-686 debootstrap
shutdown -r now

2. create a partition

lvcreate -n itchy -L 5G sys && mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/sys-itchy
mkdir /mnt/itchy && mount /dev/mapper/sys-itchy /mnt/itchy

3. install a minimum debian system:

debootstrap etch /mnt/itchy http://ftp.debian.org/debian/

4. configure the minimum debian system :

chroot /mnt/itchy
cat > /etc/hostname <<.
itchy
.
cat > /etc/fstab <<.
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 0 1
.
cat > /etc/network/interfaces <<.
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
.
exit
umount /mnt/itchy

5. create a "xen domain" ie a vm

cat > /etc/xen/itchy <<.
name = "itchy"
kernel = "/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-xen-686"
ramdisk = "/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-2-xen-686"
root = "/dev/hda1"
disk = [ 'phy:/dev/sys/itchy,hda1,w' ]
vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3E:00:00:01']
memory = 40
.

6. Make network available to the VM (through a bridge):

sed -r -i "s/# (network-script network-bridge)/\1/" /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp
xend restart

7.test your virtual machine

xm create -c itchy
#login as root
ping www.google.com
aptitude install ssh