This guest operating system is supported on the following VMware products:
The easiest method of installing Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 in a virtual machine is to use the standard Red Hat distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well.
Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created and configured a new virtual machine.
Note: Unless you are running a multiprocessor virtual machine under VMware ESX Server, pay particular attention to the notes in step 5 about how to avoid installing an inappropriate kernel.
Note: You should not run the X server that is installed when you set up Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1. Instead, to get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1.
You need to install Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 using the text mode installer, which you may choose when you first boot the installer. At the Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 CD boot prompt, you are offered a number of choices, including the following:
To choose the text mode installer, type text and press Enter.
This completes basic installation of the Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 guest operating system.
Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. Do not start the X server in the guest operating system until you install VMware Tools.
On a Linux host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.
VMware recommends you do not migrate a Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 virtual machine between hosts when one host is running on an AMD processor and the other is running on an Intel processor.
During installation, Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 chooses a kernel that is optimized for the specific processor on which it is running. The kernel may contain instructions that are available only on that processor. These instructions can have adverse effects when run on a host with the wrong type of processor.
Thus, a Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 virtual machine created on a host with an AMD processor may not work if migrated to a host with an Intel processor. The reverse is also true: a Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 virtual machine created on a host with an Intel processor may not work if migrated to a host with an AMD processor.
This problem is not specific to virtual machines and would also occur on physical computers. For example, if you moved a hard drive with a Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 installation from an AMD machine to an Intel machine, you would experience problems trying to boot from that drive.
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