There is a bug in the VMWare MUI startup script and it fails. Martti Kuparinen wrote a neat solution. A small patch and made it available from his website. So to fix this type the following commands:

cd /tmp
wget http://users.piuha.net/martti/comp/ubuntu/httpd.vmware.diff
cd /
sudo patch -b -p0 < /tmp/httpd.vmware.diff

Then run sudo /etc/init.d/httpd.vmware start again and you will get this:

sudo /etc/init.d/httpd.vmware start
Starting httpd.vmware: done

Congratulations! You have now VMWare Server running on your system and when you log on to your SERVERIP:8333 with your user name and password (normal shell user name and password) you can see the MUI in action, just like here. Currently its just blank since there are no Virtual Machines:

Now , you can connect with your console already if you have Windows or Linux as a client. If not, You can do Step 5 to install the console and configure to use it over X and SSH.
Step 5: We go into our working directory again and then the console directory and run the install script:

cd ~/
cd vmware-server-console-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl

And again we accept the defaults and let the installer create all the necessary directories. Once the installation has been done we are almost finished. We now need to go to our home directory and run vmware-server-console once. It will fail and a file named preferences in a directory called .vmware will be created. We need to edit the file and add this line to it:
xkeymap.language=”XXXX”
where XXX is the keyboard map name that you pick when you do a ls /usr/lib/vmware/xkeymap. This code is your keyboard layout when interfacing with the console. You are now done. If you want the console over SSH you need to log off and log back in with a trusted connection. To get the display though, you need X11 running on your client (in Mac OS X start the X11 from the Utilities folder and in the terminal run this command):

ssh -Y -C user@host

The Y makes this a trusted connection for X and the C compresses the data stream which makes it all a bit faster i f you are NOT on a LAN.
Once you are connected run vmware-server-console
You will get then this beauty and can go work on your server

Now you have this nice server with loads of memory and all running. The next step is that some other people also want to test their stuff. What to do then?

First off let me say something. Whenever you make a new installation of a Virtual Machine, ALWAYS use a iso image to install from. It takes less then half the time then actually going through the CD drive. Now, since you are using an iso image, you might as well store them on the server for future use. I have about 20 of them, including Windows 2003 Server(MSDN), Windows Vista Business (MSDN), OpenBSD, Fedora Core, Debian FreeBSD and even Windows 95!
I wrote in the subject about multi user multi environment?
Here is the kicker. When you install a Virtual Machine for the first time, if its a *nix flavor, set the password as something generic, shut the machine down and tar gzip it and store it in a separate directory. I have a directory called ReadyVM and for every VM I make there is a copy there. The Reasoning behind this is actually 2-fold, You have a ready image that just needs a little configuration and not a complete install. AND you also have a bare-bone for other users. I have other users testing on my VMWare Server and they can unzip one of the ready VM’s and use those , play with them and when they are done, they can just delete them since we have a bare-bone. This is by far the most efficient way of doing things.
Each user that has an account on your server, also can log into the MUI and see their VMs’ status. This is perfect for testing and developing. Since a lot of Students do not have access to such hardware or the time or need to build this environment. However if a few students put themselves together and build a machine like that, everyone can benefit.

Oh, and if you are wondering if you can have an account on mine, mail me, give me a good reason and you shall have it :).

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