It is assumed that Debian is already installed and waiting for us.
First, from the vmware website (www.vmware.com) we download the source for VMware Server 2.0.2 (for Linux they offer 2 variants: rpm and tar.gz, we need the tar.gz one).
1) To download anything from them you need to register and get a "key" — a set of digits and letters separated by dashes — we'll need it during installation to confirm the legality of the VMware Server copy. Despite the need to register, it's free, and the server works fully with the limitations specific to VMware Server 2 (for example, only up to 2 cores per machine).
So, by following the link http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ we land on the VMware Server 2.0.2 download page. We click Download on the left side of the page and land on the registration page. We register, receive a key by email, and get redirected to the download page. There we find VMware Server for Linux in the tar.gz variant in the list and download it, after which we upload it to our Debian server, into the user's home folder.
You can also download it directly from the Debian server:
# wget http://download_link_from_vmware
2) Now we unpack the downloaded archive
# tar -xf VMware-server-x86_64.tar.gz
3) We install the necessary packages:
# aptitude install psmisc binutils gcc libc6 libc6-dev make linux-headers-2.6.26-2-amd64
If you have a 32-bit version of Debian, the last package will instead be linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686
It is also assumed that your current kernel is 2.6.26-2
4) The VMware installer requires an older version of gcc than the one already present in Debian. So we "swap out" gcc for the required version (4.1):
# cd /usr/bin
# mv gcc gcc.bak
# ln -s gcc-4.1 gcc
5) We go into the unpacked folder with the vmware files and start the installation:
# cd ~
# cd vmware-server-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl
6) During the installation, the installer will create the necessary files and tell us that there are no precompiled versions of VMware Server for our OS, so "let's compile from source". We agree.
Next we'll be asked to read the license agreement and accept it. We agree.
During installation, the installer will ask questions about network configuration. Be careful — unlike the Windows version, on the Linux version reconfiguring the network after installation will only be possible by reinstalling VMware Server! So configure the network right away the way it needs to end up being!
7) We change the gcc version back
# cd /usr/bin
# rm gcc
# mv gcc.bak gcc
8) We reboot the server
# reboot
After the server starts up, you'll be able to access the management panel via the web:
https://server_ip_address:8333/
Provided, of course, that you left ports 8222 and 8333 at their defaults.
That's it, you can now use VMware Server.
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