- Crowded Data Centers and Service-Rich Software
- Virtualization: The "New" Kid on the Block
- Step 1: Download a Virtual Image of Your Required Operating System
- Step 2: Download and Install VMware Player
- Step 3: Run the Operating System Image
- Step 4: Shut Down the Operating System Image
- Step 5: Configure the Virtual Image for Networking
- Conclusion
Step 2: Download and Install VMware Player
VMware Player is available as a free download from the VMware site. Like the Ubuntu image, VMware Player is a chunky item, clocking in at 172MB. You might want to break out the coffeepot again.
Once you’ve downloaded VMware Player, run it from the Windows Start button, and you should see something similar to Figure 2.
Figure 2 VMware Player’s main screen.
Figure 2 represents a launch pad into the world of virtual computing. On the upper-right side are the commands available in VMware Player. You can open virtual machines available on your machine or on your network. You can also download virtual appliances—specialized virtual machines that are designed for a specific purpose. To see examples of virtual appliances, look at the Featured Virtual Appliance section in Figure 2.
Below the commands section is a list of recently run virtual machines. When you run VMware Player for the first time, you won’t see a section with recent virtual machines because you haven’t run any yet! It’s time to remedy this situation by running your first virtual machine.