VMware Workstation is a virtual PC software. Using VMware Workstation, one or more new hardware environments can be virtualized on the existing operating system, which is equivalent to simulating multiple new PCs, so as to realize on one machine Run multiple independent operating systems simultaneously.
VMware is a commonly used and powerful virtual machine management software, and there is also a commonly used lightweight virtual machine management software VirtualBox.
VMware Workstation is a kind of virtual machine management software. After installing the software, you can create multiple virtual machines (that is, virtual PCs), and then install the operating system on the virtual machines. Each virtual machine itself is like a real computer. Same.
VMware official website: http://www.vmware.com
Key features of VMware:
Can run multiple operating systems simultaneously on the same machine;
The local system can communicate with the virtual machine system on the network;
The hardware environment of the virtual machine system can be modified at any time.
1. VMware download and installation
The download address for VMware Workstation 12 Pro for Windows (64-bit) is as follows:
Official trial version address: http://www.vmware.com/cn/products/workstation/workstation-evaluation.html
License key: 5A02H-AU243-TZJ49-GTC7K-3C61N
Baidu network disk address: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1jI6WLvS
Any of the download addresses above can be used.
After downloading the installation package of VMware Workstation 12, install it directly. Although the download is a trial version, I have provided a key here, which can be used for free forever after activation with the key.
The installation method is very simple, just double-click the installer and install it by default. After the installation is complete, click the shortcut icon on the desktop, you will be prompted to enter the license key, enter the above key to activate.
2. Create a virtual machine with VMware
Open VMware software, and then click File → New Virtual Machine in the main menu bar, the following window will pop up, and select the typical options:
Click Next, the following window will pop up, select the option "Install the operating system later".
Click Next, and the following window will pop up, allowing you to select the type and version of the operating system to be installed in the virtual machine. Here, the installation of the CentOS version of the Linux system is taken as an example.
Click Next to set the name of the virtual machine and the save location of the virtual machine. The name can be chosen arbitrarily. If the save location is to be saved, it is saved in a certain directory of the C drive by default, but it is not recommended to put it in the C drive, but it can be placed in the D drive. A certain directory (such as D:\VMware Virtual Machines\CentOS6.6), which is convenient for future management.
Click Next to set the maximum hard disk space of the virtual machine. The default is 20G. Generally speaking, 10G is absolutely enough. Therefore, here I choose to allocate 10G of hard disk space as the hard disk space of the virtual machine.
Click Next, and the following interface pops up to complete the creation of the virtual machine. The interface has a "custom hardware" button, click it to set the hardware in the virtual machine, but in general, the default hardware settings are fine. If you need to change the hardware settings, we can also make flexible settings on the virtual machine interface after the virtual machine is created. Therefore, just click Finish here.
After the virtual machine is created, you can see the virtual machine CentOS6.6 we just created on the main interface of VMware, as shown below:
In this way, our virtual machine is created. This virtual machine is equivalent to a real computer, except that we have not installed an operating system on it. Before installing the operating system, if necessary, we have the flexibility to change the hardware settings of the virtual machine (such as: memory size, number of processors, network adapters, etc.). You can click "Virtual Machine → Settings" on the main menu bar to make changes.
The memory size of the virtual machine is allocated 1G space by default, and it is recommended not to exceed half of the memory size of the real machine.
The processor settings of the virtual machine can be consistent with the CPU processor settings of your real machine. The default setting is: the number of processors is 1, and the number of cores of the processor is also 1 (ie, a single-core processor). In general, the default value is fine. Unless you want the performance of the virtual machine to be very good, modify it to the maximum value.
The hard disk size of the virtual machine is the size of the hard disk you just allocated. The number of hard disks is only one by default. If necessary, you can add one or more hard disks.
The CD/DVD (IDE) (i.e. optical drive) settings of the virtual machine. The settings of the optical drive are very important. It is related to whether you can successfully install the operating system on the virtual machine later. In the device status, you can see that "Connected" is not checked. This is because the virtual machine has not been powered on. After booting, it must be checked. Otherwise, the CD-ROM will not be detected, and there is no way. Install the operating system on the virtual machine. Since our real machine has no physical drive (physical CD-ROM) and no system CD, here we choose "Use ISO image file", then click the "Browse" button on the right, and select the system image file you downloaded (such as CentOS) -6.6-i386-bin-DVD1.iso), click the OK button.
If you don't have the linux system image file, you can click http://pan.baidu.com/s/1qYESbBA to download, or find the download address on Baidu.
The network adapter settings of the virtual machine are related to whether the network connection of the virtual machine is normal.
Now, the virtual machine is created and the basic hardware settings are configured. In order to prevent future problems with the virtual machine and quickly restore it to the original state, we can use VMware's snapshot function.
3. VMware's snapshot feature
VMware's snapshot function can help us to save a snapshot state of a certain state of the virtual machine, so as to quickly restore a certain state of the virtual machine in the future. It should be noted that the snapshot function is only a function of VMware, and the real Linux system does not have this function. If you are not using the Linux system in the virtual machine, you need to pay attention to backing up the relevant files of the Linux system.
Click the icon as shown below to save a snapshot of the current virtual machine state.
Click the icon shown in the figure below to manage the snapshots of the virtual machine (take snapshots, restore snapshots, delete snapshots, clone snapshots, etc.).
4. VMware's clone function
VMware's clone feature is another very handy feature. It helps you quickly clone a copy of the current virtual machine without taking up a lot of disk space.
For example, when you need multiple linux systems for server cluster testing, you can use the clone function. If you recreate a virtual machine and then install the operating system, it will not only take a long time, but the new virtual machine will also take up more disk space. The clone is different. It can quickly clone a copy of the current virtual machine, and it only takes up tens of megabytes of disk space (the method of linked clone is required). Therefore, the clone function is very convenient and practical.
It should be noted that the cloned virtual machine is only a copy of the original virtual machine. If the original virtual machine is deleted, the cloned virtual machine cannot be used normally.
Although we have not installed the operating system for the original virtual machine, here we will demonstrate the method of cloning (usually, the operating system is installed and then cloned). The steps are as follows:
Click "Virtual Machine → Manage → Clone" on the VMware main menu bar, and the following window pops up:
Click Next and choose to clone from "Current state in the virtual machine", as shown below:
Click Next, and select "Create Linked Clone" as the cloning method, as shown below:
Click Next to set a name and save location for the new virtual machine.
Finally, click Finish. In this way, we can see two identical virtual machines on the main interface of VMware.
5. Install the Linux operating system on the virtual machine
At present, we already have a created virtual machine (CentOS6.6), and the hardware settings are also configured. We just need to install the operating system for the virtual machine.
For how to use VMware to install linux CentOS system for virtual machines, please refer to: http://blog.csdn.net/lamp_yang_3533/article/details/53136895