My Services WebSphere Training | JEE Build & Deploy | Automatic Linux Provisioning
The process will take about 30-45 minutes.
Download the 30 day trial of VMWare Workstation. open VMWare workstation: File >> New >> Virtual MAchine Select Custom (advanced) Click Next to move onto the Virtual Hardware Wizard Put Centos 5.3 DVD in drive of host machine and the Wizard will detect. Note: You can use a torrent program to download the centos 5.3 ISO image and burn to DVD. Click Next to move onto the New Virtual Machine Wizard Select Linux as the Guest operating system and Version as Red Hat Enterprise Liunx as ythis is what Centos 5.3 is. Type in a valid display name for you new VM and select a physical location where the VM file system will be installed. Select appropriate number of processors Ensure that you assign plenty of memory, I often use about 1GB or so for a Linux VM. I like to use a bridged network so that I can assign a dedicated ip address and refer to that machine as 192.168.0.x etc I leave the T/O as recommended I select create a new virtual disk, this allows this VM to be self contained and able to run in isolation. I often zip up VMware images once installed and copy onto DVD for re-use. I leave the drive as SCSI, as this is what servers really use. I assign 20GB of diskspace, and select Split virtual disk into 2GB files so that the disk grows over time. I leave the disk file naming as defaulted. I ensure the VM powers on when the wizard completes and since the DVD is already in the host DVD drive, the Centos install will start. Hit enter to start the install in Graphical mode. Move the cursor to skip, so we don't test the DVD Click Next I select English as this is what I speak I select united Kingomdom as my keyboard layout, as this is where I live I select Yes to erase all the data If you have time you can select Advanced storage configuration and or review and modify partitioning layout, but since this is a test VM, I will accept the default file system layout. Click next and then Yes to continue I edit the Network dwvice and turn off IP6 and set a dedicated ip address and netmask of / 24 (255.255.255.0) Result: I also set a DG of 192.168.0.1 which is by Broadband rooter and my networks Default Gateway I also set my DNS server as the same. I choose Europe/London as my UTC time I set the root password and click Next I select Desktop - Gnome, Server and Server GUI and enable both packages from CENTOS Extras and the customise now option I find that by selecting the following packages, that most WebSphere, OracleXE and other J2EE containers and eve ClearCase will install most times without much issues. Then click Next to continue the installation Click Next to start the installation: When the install is complete, the DVD should be automatically ejected and you wlil be prompted to reboot Click Reboot, and the VMWare server will reboot, you will then be prompted to complete some initial configuration steps I disable the Firewall as on test servers this is a real pain. For production configure the firewall as required.You can use iptables configuration later is you so wish to learn iptables. Set date and time as required Don't care about sound card, as this a test server. Do what you need to do. Click Finish to complete the installation, then select OK to reboot. When the system restarts you will be prompted to login. At this stage it is good to login and verify that you can login as root graphically as it is very useful to learn how to configure your server when needed. I recommend that you learn to do Linux administration from a console as this i how it is done in reality in organisations.
Steve Robinson has been working in IT for over 15 years and has provided solutions for many large-enterprise corporate companies across the world. Steve specialises in Java and Middleware consulting. Steve comes from both an administration and development background.
Before moving to JEE, Steve was an accomplished developer and consultant for both IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft .NET Technologies.
Follow Steve as @stevencrobinson on twitter.
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