Networking: A Beginner’s Guide Fifth Edition- P82:I have run into many people over the years who have gained good even impressive working knowledge of PCs, operating systems, applications, and common problems and solutions. Many of these people are wizards with desktop computers. | Chapter 23 Introduction to Virtualization 387 Install VMware Tools. Selecting this link immediately mounts a virtual CD-ROM into the virtual machine which contains the software that you need to install. The VMware Tools virtual CD contains versions for Windows and Linux guest operating systems both of which typically will automatically display the virtual CD s contents. For example Figure 23-19 shows the result in the Ubuntu virtual machine of selecting the Install VMware Tools option from the VMware management console. TIP When you install VMware Tools you no longer need to press ctrl alt to release your mouse and keyboard from the virtual machine console. Instead you can interact with the console and the guest operating system as if it were another window on the host computer s desktop. Figure 23-19. VMware Tools in the Ubuntu virtual machine 388 Networking A Beginner s Guide Backing Up Virtual Machine Data In a production environment you need to consider how you intend to back up the data on your virtual machines. There are several approaches You can shut down or suspend the virtual machines and copy the entire virtual machine file from its location in your datastore to some sort of backup media. If the virtual machine contains a number of installed applications but little changing data then this can be a good backup strategy. Note also that virtual machines can be moved between computers so to recover a virtual machine all you need to do is move it to a computer running a compatible version of VMware Server and then import the virtual machine file and start it up. From within the virtual machine you can set up a process to copy its data files to another location on your network which in turn might be backed up onto a tape drive or other backup media. Most of the higher-end backup software solutions sell add-on products that let you back up files from within VMware virtual machines. Chapter Summary In this chapter you learned the essentials of virtualization and
