How To Import VMware Images Into VMware Player/Server

Version 1.3
Author: Falko Timme

This article shows how to download a VMware image of a HowtoForge tutorial and import it into

the free VMware Player
the free VMware Server

Both VMware Player and VMware Server are available for Windows and Linux. I assume you have one of them already installed on your system because this document doesn't cover VMware installation.

If you work on Ubuntu, you can find a helpful document for VMware Server installation here: How To Install VMware Server On Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)

For Debian, take a look here: How To Install VMware Server On Debian Sarge

Apart from that, the Perfect Desktop tutorials come with installation instructions for VMware Server as well.

A updated tutorial for importing the vmware Images in OVA or OVF format is available here

How to import Howtoforge OVF and OVA Virtual Machine Images in VMware and Virtualbox

1 Preliminary Note

The standard password of all users (root, admin, MySQL root user, etc.) in HowtoForge's VMware images is howtoforge.

1.1 Images Of Server Systems

Unless otherwise noted, all VMware images of server systems from HowtoForge come with the following network configuration:

Hostname: server1.example.com
IP address: 192.168.0.100
Network Mask: 192.168.0.255
Gateway: 192.168.0.1

Depending of the values of your LAN, you might have to change one or more settings in the image. Directions about how to do this can be found in the appropriate "Perfect Setup" for your distribution here on HowtoForge.

1.2 Images Of Desktop Systems

Images of desktop systems don't come with a static IP address - the network settings are configured through DHCP. If you have a DHCP server in your network (most modern routers come with a DHCP server nowadays), then networking should work without any action from your side.

The username to log in to a desktop is howtoforge. The password is - as mentioned before - howtoforge, too.

2 Download A VMware Image

If you are a HowtoForge Supporter (i.e., have bought a membership), you can download VMware images for selected tutorials that contain the result of the tutorial so that you can play around with it.

If a VMware image is available for the tutorial, you can find a download link in the upper left corner of the tutorial (under Options For This Howto):

The image comes as a zip file (so you can unpack it on both Linux and Windows). Save it to your hard disk:

After the download has finished, unzip it with your favourite unzip tool, e.g. WinZip on Windows:

3 Import The Image Into VMware Player

I assume you have already installed VMware Player on your platform. If not, VMware Player can be downloaded from here: http://www.vmware.com/download/player

Now start your VMware Player (on Windows it's under Start -> Programs -> VMware -> VMware Player). A dialogue pops up where you are asked to browse to the location of the configuration file of your VMware image. Browse to the directory where you unzipped your image, and select the .vmx file:

If you start this virtual machine for the first time, you are most likely prompted for a unique identifier. Choose Keep and click on OK.

Your virtual machine boots up now:

That's it. Now you can explore and play around with your new virtual machine!

4 Import The Image Into VMware Server

I assume you have already installed VMware Server on your platform. If not, VMware Server can be downloaded from here: http://www.vmware.com/download/server

Now start your VMware Server (on Windows it's under Start -> Programs -> VMware -> VMware Server -> VMware Server Console). A dialogue pops up where you are asked to which VMware host you want to connect. Select Local host: