Update vmware server 2.0 from beta 2 to rc1

Just some quick notes on this "upgrade" from beta 2 to rc1 - which is more of a reinstall!

Note: pre-release versions forcefully expire (becomes rather apparent when starting a vmware instance) - but the error message is not that clear - "Failed to start, General error" may appear in the logs as the error but is preceded by a more subtle "version expired, there's a new version out" type message - which is the actual problem.

Basic steps:

Stop/suspend all vm's

Stop services
#service vmware stop

[Recommended - move VMs (for safety/paranoia!), simply mv the whole vmware directory]
[Recommended - good time to check system is up-to-date]

Remove/uninstall existing version (based on 2.0 beta2):
#rpm -e VMware-server-e.x.p-84186.x86_64

install rc1
#rpm -ivh VMware-server-2.0.0-101586.x86_64.rpm
or
#rpm -Uvh VMware-server-2.0.0-101586.x86_64.rpm

configure as per normal
#vmware-config.pl

check running via web management console

service vmware stop

move vmware images back

start services again

Note, VM images have to be reloaded into the VM inventory - apart from that everything is entirely straightforward!

Alternative approach from tarball:

#tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz

#vmware-server-distrib

#vmware-install.pl


Some relevant links:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/154503?tstart=0
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/154668?tstart=0
http://communities.vmware.com/message/901195;jsessionid=77A29EE9DF1ADEBF37027EB347D638F3
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/vmware-on-centos5-rhel5-64-bit-version.html
http://kirkpbm.wordpress.com/category/vmware-server/
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-4111
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/143674

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