Date printed: 04-23-2024 Last updated: 03-24-2011
To view our complete support knowledge base and most current version of this article visit support.timeips.com.
Information Sales SupportDate printed: 04-23-2024 Last updated: 03-24-2011 To view our complete support knowledge base and most current version of this article visit support.timeips.com. |
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316-264-1600 Information Sales Support |
TimeIPS offers virtual machine images for environments where this is preferred to a physical server. A number of tips and resources for running TimeIPS in a virtual environment are available. Please contact TimeIPS technical support for additional information.
Customers have reported sucecssful VM installations in the following host environments
If you have chosen to use VMWARE as your virtual host enviroment then please note that you will want to use our VMDK file image. If you received an IMG file you can convert it using the following steps or you can contact support for the VMDK image.
Customers who run TimeIPS using our standard virtual machine setup use VMDK or IMG files. Customers using VMWare require a VMDK file. Files can be converted between the two formats using qemu-tools which comes installed on many linux distributions like openSUSE.
To convert an IMG file to VMDK format issue the following command:
qemu-img convert timeips.img -O vmdk timeips.vmdk
VMDK files can be converted back to a raw IMG file with this command:
qemu-img convert timeips.vmdk -O raw timeips.img
The installation may differ depending on the version of VMWARE you have. The TimeIPS guest can use networking based on DHCP or Static IP. If you need TimeIPS to have a static IP you will want to use the menu after TimeIPS starts to set the IP and other network settings. You will need to copy the VMDK file to your data store. Then do a custom install. You will want to choose use existing disk and then point it at the VMDK file that is in your data store.
Once installed you will be prompted for a user name and password. Ignore this. Find the IP that your VM Host assigned via DHCP to the new TimeIPS guest and use a web browser to browse to the IP adress. This will bring you to the set up page.
Note: If you are using ESXi / VSphere special care must be taken with the .vmdk file.
When starting, be sure to select "Virtual Machine Version: 8" when prompted to select the virtual machine version.
If possible, also use the tool provided with ESXi as shown below to convert the vmdk file:
Enable SSH on the VMWare server, then use a tool like PUTTY to get to a console. Navigate to the directory where the image is stored. Then use the folllowing:
vmkfstools -i timeips.vmdk -d thin new_timeips.vmdk
If this is not done, VMWare may have a problem where it thinks the host system disk is out of space and it then corrupts the vmdk file. If this happens, re-download the timeips.vmdk, do the conversion using the tool provided and restart. After startup, load the most recent backup to resume operation.
You will first want to convert your VMDK file into a VHD file.
The VMDK file can be converted to a VHD file for use with Hyper V. There are a number of free tools available to do this conversion, or TimeIPS can do the conversion for you. To do it yourself, for example, use the qemu-img command that is part of the qemu virtualization program. Search the Internet for instructions on how to download and install qemu on your operating system. After installing, open a command prompt. Change directory to the folder your TimeIPS image is located. Use the command: qemu-img convert -f VMDK -O VPC timeips.vmdk timeips.vpc. Then rename the timeips.vpc to timeips.vhd.
Copy the timeips.vhd file to the folder you store your virtual machine images. In hyper V you will create a new machine. During this process you will want to choose connect virtual hard disk and point it at your timeips.vhd file. Choose install OS later. Before starting your new Machine you will want to set it up to use a legacy network adaptor. On the machine settings, choose add new hardware and then choose legacy network adaptor. Set the new adaptor to the correct network to use. Now launch your new virtual machine.
Normally, once the TimeIPS VM image is up and running, it will not need to be restarted or shutdown. If the VM host requires down time (for upgrade, migration or service) the TimeIPS image should be shutdown cleanly if possible. There are several ways to do this: