rBuilder Online:VMware ESX Server Virtual Appliance
From rPath Wiki
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The VMware® ESX Server Virtual Appliance image build type is used to create a VMware Virtual Appliance image ready to launched in ">http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/esx/ VMware ESX Server. This image type includes more information than the VMware Virtual Appliance type because a new virtual machine is required each time the appliance is installed instead of running on an existing virtual machine. Though images generated by rBuilder can be run on other filesystem, VMware VMFS is optimized for VMware ESX Server.
TO USE THIS VIRTUAL APPLIANCE: Download the completed image, unpack the archive, and use the VMX and VMDK files to launch the virtual machine within VMware's interface.
When building the appliance group to use this image type, the specifications required are those for VMware as well as for the different processor architectures on which the VMware environment resides. The following rMake command builds group-example for VMware for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures:
$> rmake build 'group-example[vmware is: x86]' 'group-example[vmware is: x86_64]'
 | If you are interested in seeking certification in the VMware Certified Virtual Appliance Program, note that building the binary appliance group as described here ensures that the appliance includes the VMware tools required for that certification. |
The following options can be customized in the Advanced Options section when creating a build of this build type:
- Custom output filename prefix
- Use this to specify a custom prefix for filenames output from the build, overriding the default name-version-architecture prefix.
- Custom Conary installLabelPath setting
- Use this to specify the locations where the software appliance will retrieve software updates, such as a local Conary repository dedicated to the development of your software appliance. (If you do not choose this option, the install label paths are set to locations at rpath.org.)
- Automatically install required dependencies during updates
- Use this if you want the appliance to automatically install additional software on which updates may depend.
- Use NAT instead of bridged networking
- Use this if you want the appliance to use network address translation (NAT) networking instead of the default bridged mode networking.
- How many MB of free space should be allocated in the image?
- Use this to designate a specific amount of free space to be reserved in the same filespace in addition to that reserved for the operating system distribution.
- How much memory should VMware use when running this image?
- Use this to indicate to VMware how much RAM should be dedicated to the OS distribution.
- How many MB swap space should be reserved in this image?
- Use this to designate a size for the swap file in the filesystem that best meets the needs of your software appliance. The default value for this is 128 MB.
Install the Appliance on a VMware ESX Server
Use the following steps to install a VMware ESX Server appliance image from rBuilder:
- Choose or establish an ESX datastore from which the appliance image can be installed.
- Unpack the compressed appliance image folder into the datastore. Verify that the folder contains all three files created by rBuilder (two vmdk files and a vmx file).
- On the ESX server, select the Summary tab for the server where the datastore resides.
- Double-click the datastore name in the Datastore list.
- In the Datastore Browser, browse to the vmx file (which has a Type of Virtual Machine).
- Right-click the vmx file and select Add to Inventory.
- In the Add to Inventory Wizard, type a name for the virtual machine in the text box, and click Next.
- Select a resource pool within which to run the virtual machine, and click Next.
- Review the selections on the Summary screen, and click Finish.
- Close the Datastore Browser if it is still open.
- Navigate to the new virtual machine on the ESX server and verify the notes section indicates the image was built using rBuilder.
- Power on and use the virtual machine as desired.
TECHTIP: VMware Image Size Limit
Versions of rBuilder prior to 3.1.1 will fail to generate VMware virtual appliance or VMware ESX Server appliance images larger than 2 GB.
Starting with rBuilder version 3.1.1, this size limit has been increased to 4 GB.
Starting with rBuilder version 4.0.0, gzip is used instead of zip, which removes this limitation.
When these limits are exceeded, an error message similar to the following will be displayed when creating a build:
RuntimeError (Shell command "zip -rD mint-MDI-cvmpi-H5HroM.esx.zip project-1.0.0-x86" exited with exit code 6)
The following steps can be taken to reduce the size of a build:
- Reducing the amount of free space or swap size (configured via the build's Advanced Options)
- Reducing the number of packages in the group on which your build is based