Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Playing around with WSX

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I wanted to test WSX, which is part of the Tech Preview of VMware Workstation for Linux. WSX allows you to see your virtual machine’s desktop in a browser window. I installed Workstation for Linux on my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop, the process is fairly straight forward. This is what I had to do to get WSX running:

  • Download Workstation bundle
  • Install Workstation
    sudo chmod 755 VMware-Workstation-Full-e.x.p-646643.x86_64.bundle
    sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-e.x.p-646643.x86_64.bundle
  • Open a terminal and do the following to install python 2.6
    sudo apt-get install python2.6
  • When python is installed you can run WSX Server
    /etc/init.d/vmware-wsx-server start
  • Now you can open a browser session to “localhost:8888” or “<ip-address-of-VM>:8888”
  • Login using your username/password
  • Click on “Home” and then on “Configuration”
  • Click “Add Server”
  • I added my vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1
  • Click the newly added server in the left pane
  • Enter your vCenter Server credentials and click login
  • Now you will see a list of VMs which you can access… (see screenshot below, this is what you will see in your browser window when you select a VM)

My next step was digging in to a lean install for WSX, but I should have known better… William Lam posted it around the time I started looking in to it. Thanks William :-). Again, I would recommend reading this article by the WSX developer. If you run in to any issues, you could always check /var/log/vmware/vmware-wsx-server-<pid>.log.

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Comments

  1. I tried to download the linux bundle in 32 and 64 bit version, but I always receive a 20 kb File without any functionality. Are the links broken?
    I can download the Windows version without problems, but I have a Ubuntu desktop and want to play arround with WSX too.

    Kind regards
    Thorsten

  3. I have installed VMware Tech Preview 2012 64bit for on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit, installed python2.6, and started the wsx server. I am still not able to connect to http://localhost:8888. Get this….
    “Unable to connect

    Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at localhost.

    The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
    moments.
    If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network
    connection.
    If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
    that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.”

    Any suggestions?

  5. Is there an official way of checking or than typing “sudo /etc/init.d/vmware-wsx-server start” in the terminal window. After entering this command it replies…
    Starting VMware WSX Server: done

    Not sure what the process name would be, but when I check system monitor processes, I don’t believe I see it listed.

  7. Ok. That returns that the service is not running. I’m not sure how to troubleshoot this further.

  8. Try just running ‘vmware-wsx-server’ runs it in interactive mode, easier to troubleshoot

  9. hello .. instaled this fine on standalone ubuntu — but if try to install this in ubuntu inside ESXI i get error messsage that VMware tools 8.9.0 shuod be installed — but can only find 8.6.5 // anyone knows where to get latest tools?

  10. blaz, try:

    VMWARE_FORCE_INSTALL_IN_VM=yes ./VMware-Workstation-Full-e.x.p-646643.i386.bundle

    Installed this on SLES11 SP1, works fine. Tried with Firefox 8 didn’t work even though it’s supposed to support HTML5, works with Firefox 12 though.

    Great piece of software, would work well for mid size shops that can’t afford vCenter or licensed ESXi or simply as a backup in the event that vCenter fails, e.g. website that displays each ESXi host with their VM’s together with a url to the wsx server…

  12. Hi All,
    On wsx and workstation installed on Windows, you can add shared machines locally whit workstation 9? how?