{"id":183,"date":"2012-03-06T09:39:52","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T14:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vhdesigns.com\/?p=183"},"modified":"2012-03-06T09:39:52","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T14:39:52","slug":"david-markley-blog-archive-vmware-server-2-on-centos-5-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/06\/david-markley-blog-archive-vmware-server-2-on-centos-5-4\/","title":{"rendered":"David Markley \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5.4"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Markley \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5.4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Repost:<\/p>\n

VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5.4<\/a><\/h2>\n

November 20, 2009 \u2013 9:47 am<\/abbr><\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m sure that there are many people that are running VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5. After all, it\u2019s one of the major Host OSes that VMware recognizes. Popularity notwithstanding, there is a major bug that can bring your VM screamer to a hault.<\/p>\n

CentOS 5.4 has a new\u00a0glibc<\/em>\u00a0package that essentially breaks VMware Server\u2019s\u00a0hostd<\/em>process. There are many posts out there regarding the issues, and various means of fixing them. However, I am just going to summarize info I\u2019ve found out there on the net, and hopefully you should be able to follow very easily and get your VMs back up and running.<\/p>\n

PROBLEM:<\/h2>\n

VMware Server 2 (hostd<\/em>) crashes on CentOS 5 after upgrading to the latest releases ofglibc<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0glibc-common<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTE ON SOLUTIONS:<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>There are two methods to solve this. The first requires downgrading the libraries system-wide. This should be fine if you only use the CentOS host as a VMware Server Host and nothing else. However, if you are in doubt whether your other applications, etc. on that host will run on a slightly older version of glibc, please use SOLUTION METHOD 2 as it will only affect VMware, and essentially tell VMware Server where to look for the correct libraries it needs.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>I am not responsible for you rendering your server useless. When in doubt, don\u2019t upgrade to CentOS 5.4\u2026 Although, you probably already did that, and this is why you\u2019re here.
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

SOLUTION METHOD 1:<\/h2>\n

Step 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Go to \/etc\/yum.repos.d and copy the file CentOS-Base.repo to CentOS53-Base.repo<\/p>\n

Step 2:<\/strong>\u00a0In\u00a0CentOS53-Base.repo<\/span><\/em>, rename all the packages to reflect the 5.3 version. So, change:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
[<\/span>base]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>base53]<\/span>\n[<\/span>updates]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>updates53]<\/span>\n[<\/span>addons]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>addons53]<\/span>\n[<\/span>extras]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>extras53]<\/span>\n[<\/span>centosplus]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>centosplus53]<\/span>\n[<\/span>contrib]<\/span> --&<\/span>gt; [<\/span>contrib53]<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Step 3:<\/strong>\u00a0In\u00a0CentOS53-Base.repo<\/span><\/em>, replace all instances of\u00a0release=$releasever<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0withrelease=5.3<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Step 4:<\/strong>\u00a0Now, downgrade the glibc and glibc-common libraries by running the following commands:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
yum downgrade glibc glibc-common<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Step 5:<\/strong>\u00a0To avoid any problems with future upgrades\/updates, it would be best to exclude them from the list of available updates on yum. Add the following to your \/etc\/yum.conf file:<\/p>\n
\n
exclude=glibc glibc-common glibc-devel glibc-headers glibc-utils nscd<\/pre>\n
Step 6:<\/strong>\u00a0Reboot the server, and now re-run \/usr\/bin\/vmware-config.pl to reconfigure with downgraded glibc libraries.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\/<\/span>usr\/<\/span>bin\/<\/span>vmware-config.pl<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Step 7:<\/strong>\u00a0(Optional) Run the following command to make sure future upgrades\/updates will not download the updated glibc* libraries.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
yum list glibc*<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Now,<\/strong>\u00a0if you have other applications installed on CentOS, and you don\u2019t want to worry about any issues with future use of glibc on your server, please follow the next method to manually link VMware hostd process to use the older glibc libraries.<\/span><\/p>\n
SOLUTION METHOD 2:<\/h2>\n
(Make sure you are logged in as root for these steps)<\/p>\n
Step 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Install the latest 2.0.2 VMware Server package and run the configuration. It will crash, but just ignore this for now.<\/p>\n
Step 2:<\/strong>\u00a0Run the following command, and make note of the response.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
arch<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Step 3:<\/strong>\u00a0Run the following commands, and replace any instance of {ARCH} with the result of Step 2:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
mkdir<\/span> ~\/<\/span>vmwareglibc\ncd<\/span> ~\/<\/span>vmwareglibc\nwget<\/span> http:\/\/<\/span>mirror.centos.org\/<\/span>centos\/<\/span>5.3<\/span>\/<\/span>os\/<\/span>{<\/span>ARCH}<\/span>\/<\/span>CentOS\/<\/span>glibc-2.5<\/span>-34<\/span>.{<\/span>ARCH}<\/span>.rpm\nrpm2cpio glibc-2.5<\/span>-34<\/span>.{<\/span>ARCH}<\/span>.rpm |<\/span> cpio<\/span> -ivd<\/span>\nmkdir<\/span> \/<\/span>usr\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>vmware\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>libc.so.6\nmv<\/span> lib64\/<\/span>libc-2.5<\/span>.so \/<\/span>usr\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>vmware\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>libc.so.6\/<\/span>libc.so.6<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Step 4:<\/strong>\u00a0Open the VMware\u00a0hostd<\/em>\u00a0process script for editing.<\/p>\n
vim \/usr\/sbin\/vmware-hostd<\/pre>\n
Step 5:<\/strong>\u00a0At line 372, before the program is called, insert two empty lines and add the following:<\/p>\n
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\/usr\/lib\/vmware\/lib\/libc.so.6:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH<\/pre>\n
Before Example:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
if<\/span> [<\/span> !<\/span> \"@@VMWARE_NO_MALLOC_CHECK@@\"<\/span> = 1<\/span> ]<\/span>; then<\/span>\n     export<\/span> MALLOC_CHECK_<\/span>=2<\/span>\nfi<\/span>\n\neval<\/span> exec<\/span> \"$DEBUG_CMD<\/span>\"<\/span> \"$binary<\/span>\"<\/span> \"$@\"<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After Example:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
if<\/span> [<\/span> !<\/span> \"@@VMWARE_NO_MALLOC_CHECK@@\"<\/span> = 1<\/span> ]<\/span>; then<\/span>\n     export<\/span> MALLOC_CHECK_<\/span>=2<\/span>\nfi<\/span>\n\nexport<\/span> LD_LIBRARY_PATH<\/span>=\/<\/span>usr\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>vmware\/<\/span>lib\/<\/span>libc.so.6:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH<\/span>\n\neval<\/span> exec<\/span> \"$DEBUG_CMD<\/span>\"<\/span> \"$binary<\/span>\"<\/span> \"$@\"<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
NOTE:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>In Step 3, the wget command may in the future be this as 5.3 repositories are taken off of the main CentOS Mirrors:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
wget<\/span> http:\/\/<\/span>vault.centos.org\/<\/span>5.3<\/span>\/<\/span>os\/<\/span>{<\/span>ARCH}<\/span>\/<\/span>CentOS\/<\/span>glibc-2.5<\/span>-34<\/span>.{<\/span>ARCH}<\/span>.rpm<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Either method you use should get you the desired end result: VMware Server 2 running on CentOS 5.4<\/p>\n
Be sure to comment if this helped you. Thanks.<\/p>\n
2\/11\/2010 UPDATE:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0A bug exists to where if you\u2019re on the VMware Host server and trying to access the VMware Web Access UI with HTTPS via Firefox you will simply see a blank screen. Instead, use http:\/\/<HOST_IP_ADDRESS>:8222\/ui<\/p>\n
2\/12\/2010 UPDATE:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Firefox 3.6 does not work with the Remote Console Plugin \u2013 you must use 3.5.7 or earlier, Internet Explorer, or use the VI Client. \u2013\u00a0VMware Communities Thread<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Markley \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5.4.       Repost: VMware Server 2 on CentOS 5.4 November 20, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vhdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}