Virtual machine deployment. VMware Workstation

Let's start this article with a definition of what a virtual machine is.

What is virtual machine?

In simple words, a virtual machine is a special program that is designed to emulate another operating system, or you can say it emulates a new physical computer. This means that we can work with several operating systems on one computer. 

Virtual machines are used for:

• learning a new operating system;
• running applications developed for another OS;
• checking software for threats (it is much safer to check software in a virtual machine environment than in the main OS).

In the cycle of articles, we will look at the process of installation and deployment of popular virtual machines: VMWare Workstation (we have chosen version 16 Pro) and VirtualBox.

Let's start with VMWare Workstation 16 Pro.

The installation process for deploying a virtual machine is simple:

1. Go to the developers' website, select the required version and download the file. In our case, it is VM Workstation 16 Pro for Windows.

2. Open the file

3. Click «Next» in the «Welcome…» window.

4. Accept the terms and click «Next».
5. Select «Add VMWare Workstation console tools into system PATH».
6. Check the necessary checkboxes (you can do it as in the screenshot or you can mark it differently).

7. Install the file.
8. Finish the installation (the program shortcut will appear).
9. Open it and select the item with the free version for 30 days (if you have a license key – feel free to use it).
10. Complete the setup.

The program is installed. Now let's create a virtual machine.

Virtual machine creation

1. Click the «Create a New Virtual Machine» button.
2. Select the «Typical» type and click «Next».

3. Select a radio button with a preferred method of OS installation. You can choose the installation from a disk (if you have a disk with Windows or another OS), but the easiest way is to use the installation from an ISO image. So let's choose this method. To do this, download the installation image of the required OS.

4. Next, select the operating system and its version (we use Windows 7 x64).

5. Give a clear name to your machine. When you have many machines of the same version, you will have to run them one by one, and waste time searching for the right machine with the necessary package of installed programs. Give the names as Windows 7 x64 (Upwork) or Windows 7 x86 (IE10).
6. Click the «Next» button.

7. Choose the disk size of the virtual machine. Do not choose too little (10 GB), the space can quickly run out, especially after updates, and there will not be enough space for the application under test. 20-40 GB will be optimal (depending on the size of the tested program). However, also do not choose too much, because it can take up more storage space than it should.

8. An available for work OS will appear in the VMware window in the list after installing the operating system.
9. Click the «Power on this virtual machine» button.
10. Select the operating system from the list.
11. Choose the place where you want to install OS. Change the path to the operating system to be installed. It is better to choose any local disk except for system one (C). But if it is your only disk, you can leave it as it is. 
12. Enter the name of the user.
13. Enter the activation key to the operating system (if there is such a need). If there is no key you don't need to enter anything. In this case, the activation needs to be done manually after installing the operating system.
14. The virtual machine is created.

Opening a ready virtual machine image

In case you already have the folder with a ready VMware virtual machine image (for example, somebody shared with you their own machine) you can add this machine to your library and work with it.

To do this, you need to: 

1. Click the «File» menu and select «Open…».
2. Find the folder in which the machine is located and select the .vmx file.
3. The new machine has been added to the library. 

Set up the machine

After creating the machine we recommend providing it with optimal settings:

1. Choose «Memory» and specify the amount of RAM that the virtual machine will be able to use. You can rely on the amount recommended by the program. But it's better to check how much memory your virtual machine consumes under the nominal system load and also how much free RAM is left. For this, launch all working programs and open the Task Manager (not of the virtual machine, but your PC). On the Performance tab, you can see how much RAM is being used and how much is free.
2. Select «Processors», and set the value «1» for «Number of processors», depending on how many cores your physical processor has. For a virtual machine, do not specify all the cores available in your system, as the load from the virtual machine will slow down the main system.
3. Select «Network Adapter», and set NAT for Network connection. In this type, the network card of your main system is used. That is, the virtual machine does not get its own IP address and is not identified as a separate system in the network. Such a connection is necessary for your virtual machine to use the Internet.

If the virtual machine needs its own IP address, you need to add another network card with the «Bridge» type. Click «Add...» – «Network Adapter» – «Bridged» – «Finish».

VMware Tools Installation

VMware Tools is a set of utilities that improves the interaction between a virtual machine and the cloud platform, increases the performance of the operating system in the virtual machine, and improves the management functions of the virtual machine. Among the most important features for us is the ability to copy from a desktop to a virtual machine and back. That is why its installation is a must.

1. Right-click on a virtual machine from the library → click «Install VMware Tools...». If you already have VMware Tools installed, then instead of «Install VMware Tools...» you will see «Update VMware Tools...»

After that, Autorun should start on the virtual machine. If it doesn't, open My Computer →  open the mounted VMware Tools DVD and run setup.exe (in the case of 32 bit) or setup64.exe (64 bit).

2. During installation, you can select Custom Setup Type and choose which components to install. You can usually select Typical to install a standard set.
3. If a project requires not installing specific components of VMware Tools (for example, ThinPrint requires disabling Virtual Printing), you can cancel them in the Custom Setup window.
4. Click the «Install» button.

This is the end of the basic configuration of the virtual machine.