VMware Server is a free virtualization product for Windows and Linux servers with enterprise-class support and VirtualCenter management. VMware Server is a robust yet easy to use server virtualization product and is based on proven virtualization technology, which has been used by thousands of customers for many years.
First you need to download vmware server 2.0.x from vmware website and get the vmware server installation key.

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Install Procedure:

1. Select the option to install vmware tools on the WKS/GSX UI. Usually VM -> Install VMware Tools

2. Then log into the Gentoo VM as tools and mount the cd-rom drive.

#mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

3. Then untar the vmware tools so some temp location like /tmp

#tar xvzf /mnt/cdrom/*.tar.gz /tmp

4. Create a set of empty rc directories to fool the tools installer

#mkdir /etc/init.d/rc{0,1,2,3,4,5,6}.d

5. Run the vmware-tools installer and go with the defaults

#cd vmware-tools-distrib
#./vmware-install.pl

The above installs the vmware tools startup scripts on the rc directories. So to fix it do the following
6. Add vmware tools to startup

#rc-update add vmware-tools default

For Linux based Guest OSs:
>cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f zero.fill
Shutdown the guest OS
From the host OS run
>vmware-vdiskmanager -k myDisk.vmdk

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Original Article

So I fought this problem all day long. My Windows XP VMWare image was running like crap. I started to poke around. The first thing I did was to bring up the task manager. Sure enough, my virtual CPU was pegged at around 55-60% when the vm was doing nothing. This is not good!

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Quick and nasty hack to make vmware modules compile on Debian.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/110577;jsessionid=7AC47D2F9654000D52C97CB304113AF2?tstart=0

http://www.jeremyroe.net/?p=20

Tonight while doing maintenance on one of my virtual machines I decided it was time to remove a snapshot I created a few days ago while upgrading some software. Shortly after hitting the “remove snapshot” selection my vmware console crashed with a lost pipe error.

Attempting to reconnect yeilded:

There was a problem connecting:
511 Error connecting to /usr/bin/vmware-serverd process

I was almost ready to reboot the machine when painful memories of my last vmware snapshot gone bad experience entered my mind. I investigated further and found that there were .WRITELOCK files in place in my virtual machine folder. After checking my processes on my vmware box I noticed a file called “sdhelper” using a bit of cpu time.

After a brief google search I stumbled across this article which stated that in the event of removing large snapshots it is not unusual for the console to loose connectivity. It is important to simply wait it out and it will eventually finish recombining your disks and restore your connectivity.

I know from prior experience that snapshots are very finicky creatures and rebooting your machine at a time like this could easily lead to data corruption and the loss of your virtual machine.

Installing VMware Server on Gentoo Linux (Version 3) | Diary Products – Hannes Schmidt: “Installing VMware Server on Gentoo Linux (Version 3)”

This has the latest instructions on how to install VMware server on Gentoo linux host.

VM Where?: “VM Where?”

Pre-built VMWare machine base on the Gentoo Distro

virtualization.info

Great site on howto setup virtual machines using various VM servers and software.

Gentoo in a VM:
Another awesome site for tips on Gentoo as a guest OS