I mentioned that we’re virtualizing our servers at work. We just got done a five day jump-start program and are slowly doing what is necessary to reach our goals (see page above for details on how that went).

Since I run linux as my main OS, lack of a linux Virtual Center client poses a problem. I got the web interface working but it didn’t look like it wanted to cooperate fully. The funny part was when it told me that my browser was not supported but it still may work right. What I haven’t told you is that I’m running Internet Explorer under Wine. When was the last time a site told you that Internet Explorer wasn’t supported? :) [yeah, I know, it was probably reporting the correct browser and OS]

I downloaded the Windows client and tried to install under Wine, with no luck (I think it wanted .NET). Failing all good faith attempts, I brought up my Windows VM and got things running, created a new server from our template, and got a little stuck before login.

How does one log in to Windows? Ctl-Alt-Del.

What happened when I did Ctl-Alt-Del? My Windows VM on the desktop wanted to lock.

What do you do to send Ctl-Alt-Del to a virtual machine? Ctl-Alt-Ins

What happened when I did Ctl-Alt-Ins? My Windows VM on the desktop wanted to lock.

It’s like what happens when you put a mirror in front of you and a mirror in back of you. The image tunnels off into infinity. And so it was with entering commands for a virtual machine into another virtual machine.

Fortunately VMware eventually got the idea and let me in but this is going to become a real Class A Headache<tm>. Hopefully it will be my biggest problem.