VMWare & Netware

[av8or]

Has anyone successfully installed Novell Netware 5.1 on a Virtual Machine? I downloaded an eval copy of VMWare and am wanting to try to run NW5.1 before making the purchase. I tried but, when it tries to "mount" the CD-ROM drive(from within the guest OS) it fails and then says it can't read any thing from the CD. Any suggestions or comments or even another viable solution? I'm really wanting to be able to test connnectivity between Linux and Novell but don't want to have another machine in my lab.

Or would it be possible to do a dual boot between Linux and Netware 5.1?

[ 06 July 2001: Message edited by: av8or ]

[bdg1983]

I logon to our Netware servers all the time using the Netware client software included with eDesktop 2.4.

I know that installing any version of Netware in VMWare is experimental according to VMWare, but do they not have some documentation for the installation process?

Do you have to set the bios for booting from CD first. Boot Linux normally, start the guest virtual machine with the Netware 5.1 CD in the drive.

[av8or]

I guess I should have been a little more descriptive. The installation starts fine, it lets me set up the boot partition, it goes through it's file copy process, but when the installation tries to mount the cd it can't do it for some reason. I tried doing the installation with the cd mounted and unmounted in linux but they both failed. I guess I can try a dual boot with Novell and Linux....

[bdg1983]

You shouldn't have the cdrom mounted in linux at the same time, but as you said, you've tried both ways.

Anything in the vm configuration under cdrom for persistant connections? I haven't had time to continue my VMWare testing and I cannot remember all the options.

The Netware documentation doesn't say much.

NetWare 5 Server Installation Guidelines and Known Problems

Note: Support for Novell NetWare 5 as a guest operating system is experimental at this time.

NetWare 5 can be installed in a virtual machine using the standard Novell NetWare 5 CD. Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a new virtual machine and configured it using the Configuration Wizard (or Configuration Editor).

NetWare 5 Server Installation Steps

Use the VMware Workstation Configuration Editor to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you expect before starting the installation. For example, be sure that your virtual machine is configured for at least 48MB of memory (which the NetWare server installation will require). VMware also recommends that you disable the screen saver on the host system before starting the installation process.

Insert the NetWare 5 CD in the CD-ROM drive.

Power on the virtual machine to start the NetWare server installation process. The virtual machine should be able to boot from the NetWare 5 CD. Install the software in a virtual machine as you would for a real PC.

If the virtual machine has been configured for networking (bridged, host-only, etc.), then the installation will detect a PCI Ethernet adapter and prompt you with a list of possible drivers. Select the AMD PCnet PCI Ethernet card to continue with the installation.

When the installer starts the NetWare 5 graphical console, the mouse will not be recognized unless you move the mouse while the graphical console is being loaded. You can use the graphical console with just the keyboard or disable the graphical console by removing the startx.ncf entry from the server's AUTOEXEC.NCF file at a later time.

Finish the NetWare 5 Server installation by following the on-screen instructions. Once the software has been installed; you can remove the startx.ncf line from the AUTOEXEC.NCF file if you want to prevent the new NetWare 5 graphical console from starting.

Once the NetWare software has been installed, switch to the server console and type edit autoexec.ncf. Add the following line to the server's AUTOEXEC.NCF file, anywhere below the line that starts with file server name:

load c:\nwserver\nw5-idle
nw5-idle is a CPU idle NetWare Loadable Module for NetWare 5 servers (more on this below).

Once you have updated the server's AUTOEXEC.NCF file with the above line, down the server and type exit to return to a DOS prompt.

NetWare servers do not idle the CPU when the operating system is idle. As a result, a virtual machine will take CPU time from the host regardless of whether the NetWare server software is idle or busy. To prevent unnecessary slowdowns VMware recommends that you download the NetWare 5 CPU idle program and copy it to the virtual machine's c:\nwserver directory. The line added to the server's AUTOEXEC.NCF file earlier will automatically load the CPU idle program (nw5-idle.nlm) every time the NetWare server boots.

Known Issues

NetWare 5's new graphical console does not detect/recognize the virtual machine's PS/2 mouse. As a result, the graphical console can only be operated by using a keyboard.

No VMware Tools package exists for NetWare guest operating systems; therefore, NetWare is limited to only VGA mode graphics and it is always necessary to use the Ctrl-Alt-Esc key combination to release the mouse from the virtual machine.

[av8or]

Yeah, I tried making the cdrom connection persisent but it's not an option that's available. I've read that info on VMWare's home page. I even tried digging through their support forums. I wish they had a tech. support e-mail address. Maybe they do but I just didn't look far enough for it.

[bdg1983]

Your back again... ;)

Last year when I was experimenting with raw disk access in VMware, I contacted their support and they were very helpful. They kept on emailing me just to find out if I was successful.

Try the list of contacts on the VMware support page. I think.

[av8or]

:p Whoa, contact list.... I must not be getting enough sleep to have missed that one.... lol

I can't help but be persistent. I really want to learn Netware, but don't have an extra machine to play around with.

[bdg1983]

At work we have around 50 Intranetware 4.11 Novell servers that will be upgraded to 5.1 within the next couple of months. Also have multiple AIX, NT servers and our mainframe.

I run a Intranetware 4.11 server at home with BorderManager 3.5 Enterprise Edition. Did use it for my firewall and NAT etc., but @home was on my back about changing my config over to dhcp. Got a Linksys router now and will redo the Netware server this time with Netware 5.1 and no BorderManager. All I need is time.

Nice to have a home Netware server to do network installs of Office 2000 and others. Also comes in handy to store DriveImage images of ME, W2K and Linux.

Enough ranting for now. Sorry about that.

Give VMware support contacts a try and please let me know if you are successful.

Good luck.

[av8or]

Hey md,

I emailed VMWare tech support and go a reply in less than 24 hours. I thought that was pretty good. Unfortunately, they said that Netware 5.1 would not work at all. They said that 4.? and 5.0 would work but no on P-IIIs. My machine is a dual processor P-III 866. So I guess I'll just have to come up with another computer somewhere. Thanks for all the advice md, and I look forward to reading more of your posts in the future.

[bdg1983]

Your very welcome.

Damn if I would only learn to read properly as I should have noticed the docs from VMware (5.0) and yours (5.1). Oh well.

And yes I did find their support to be very responsive.

Good luck with 5.1. I'll be installing 5.1 to replace my home 4.11 Netware server whenever I get the time. I wish I had the time for everything I want/need to do.

Maybe if I spent less time at LNO. There's an idea.

[av8or]

Hey md,

Just thought you want to know, the VMWare techies mailed me back and said that Netware 5.1 wouldn't work because it tries to force the machine into Java Emulation. Just thought you'd like to know. Happy computing!!

[bdg1983]

Thanks as I was considering trying NW 5.1 in VMware before I replaced my current 4.11 server. I didnt' know that about the java emulation. I've bought a couple of books on Netware 5.1 but haven't read them yet. Guess I should start.

Any developments on your end, then please keep in touch.