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Category Archives: How-to

Locating your VMware Workstation serial number

Ever wondered how to locate your VMware Workstation serial number after the software has been installed on your machine?

We present you with a new video today, geared towards users of our VMware Workstation product.

The serial number is listed in the order confirmation email you receive for your Workstation purchase. Workstation License Keys that have been registered will be listed in your My VMware account. See Knowledge Base article: Viewing license keys in My VMware (2006831) for additional details.

For additional information, see the associated VMware Knowledge Base article Locating the VMware Workstation serial number (1000069).

Note: For best viewing experience, ensure that the 720p quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.

Licensing VMware Fusion

Hi folks,

We have a new video today which is brief and straight to the point. This video is specifically geared towards first-time users of our VMware Fusion product.

This video discusses and demonstrates how you can license VMware Fusion.

In this brief video tutorial you will learn how quick and easy it is to license your VMware Fusion product installation on your Mac operating system.

For more information, see VMware Knowledge Base article Licensing VMware Fusion (2014287).

Note: For best viewing experience, ensure the 720p quality setting is selected and view using full screen mode.

Accessing VMware Downloads through My VMware

We have a new video for you today which discusses and demonstrates how to access your VMware Downloads using My VMware. This tutorial is short, sweet and straight to the point, providing a basic overview and is specifically geared towards towards users who aren’t familiar with My VMware.

For additional details and instructions, check out VMware Knowledge Base article Accessing VMware downloads (2006993).

Note: For best viewing results, ensure that the 720p quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.

Upgrading from VMware Workstation 8 to Workstation 9

Greetings folks!

VMware WorkstationWe have a new video today which is specifically geared towards users of our VMware Workstation product.

This video discusses and demonstrates upgrading from VMware Workstation version 8 to VMware Workstation version 9. The video tutorial depicts the process from a Windows-based environment’s perspective, however the instructions also apply to a Linux based installation.

You will need a valid My VMware account in order to download the Workstation installer binary from the vmware.com website.

For additional details and instructions, check out VMware Knowledge Base article Upgrading from Workstation 8 to Workstation 9 (2034040).

Note: For best viewing results, ensure that the 720p quality setting is selected and view using full screen mode.

How to License VMware Workstation

Today we have a new video which discusses and demonstrates how to license VMware Workstation.

This tutorial is short, straight-to-the-point and specifically geared towards users who are new to VMware Workstation.

For the purpose of this video tutorial we used VMware Workstation 9.x running on a Windows-based system, however the instructions also apply to a Linux-based installation.

For full instructions, see VMware Knowledge Base article Licensing VMware Workstation (2014291).

Note: For best viewing results, ensure that the 720p quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.

Installing Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion 5

Greetings KBTV fans and a very happy Friday to you!

Today we have a new video for our VMware Fusion users which discusses and demonstrates installing Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion 5.

A few things to point out before trying this out in your own environments:

  • Apple’s End User License Agreement allows you to install up to two additional copies of Mountain Lion on your Mac, which is already running a retail version of Mountain Lion.
  • You cannot install OS X 10.8 on a Mac running OS X 10.7.
  • Installing Mountain Lion as a guest operating system is only supported in VMware Fusion 5 and not older VMware Fusion versions.

The installation process itself is relatively straight forward and easy. Between following this video tutorial and the written instructions in VMware Knowledge Base article Installing Mountain Lion as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion 5 (2033778), you should be all set.

Note: For best viewing results, ensure that the 720p quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.

Enjoy the video and enjoy your weekend!

Upgrading the VMware vCenter Server Appliance from 5.0.x to 5.1

Happy Friday to all of our VMware KBTV fans! Upgrading VMware vCenter Server Appliance

We have a new video for your viewing pleasure today and this video will be of specific interest to any of our vSphere vCenter Server Appliance users.

This video discusses and demonstrates upgrading the VMware vCenter Server Appliance from version 5.0.x to 5.1. This tutorial is based on VMware Knowledge Base article Upgrading vCenter Server Appliance from 5.0.x to 5.1 (2033990). All of the steps performed within this video demonstration are also documented in that KB.

The upgrade process is relatively straight forward and easy to follow.

Note: For best viewing results ensure that the 720p HD quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.

Searching the VMware Knowledge Base – Easier and Better Searching

Earlier this month, we made some small changes to the Knowledge Base search interface, in an effort to make your searching experience better.

The Products drop down menu, accessible before you search, now shows only product names and not the versions. The list is much shorter now! Products are still in the same order as before / grouped by category. Even though the category names went away too, nothing has moved — Datacenter products are still in the top half of the list, Desktop products (including the Horizon products) are in the 3rd quarter, and Developer products are at the bottom.

After you search, and the results are shown, search facets appear on the side. With these, you can filter your results by product/version, by the article category, and by the article language. Watch the video below to see this in action.

We recently added a new category as well in order to help you refine your results. Stay tuned for more news about that!

Here is a video demonstrating these new changes and how you can use them to increase your searching experience and effectiveness.

How to deploy SSO in a multisite configuration

For those of you administering multiple vSphere environments, getting a SSO multisite deployment up and running in a correct configuration is very important. Multisite deployments are where a local replica is maintained at remote sites of the primary vCenter Single Sign-On instance. The process of setting this up is not complicated, but it is possible to take a wrong turn and end up wasting a whole lot of time correcting it. That is why we have created a best-practice Knowledgebase article titled: Multisite Single Sign-On deployment best practices. (2042849). We highly recommend you look at the examples in that article.

We’ve written extensively in this blog about SSO in the past. You can see all the other posts on the topic here: http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/tag/sso

If you are still at the point where you are asking yourself- what is SSO? and why do I care? we recommend you start with this great introduction from Justin King: vCenter Single Sign-On Part 1: what is vCenter Single Sign-On?

Downloading and deploying the VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.x

We have a new video uploaded to our VMware KBTV YouTube channel today.

In this video tutorial you will see the process for downloading and deploying the vCenter Server appliance. The process is rather straight forward and easy to follow. In just a few steps you will be able to download the appliance and run it within your own VMware virtualized environments.

For the purpose of this demonstration we used an ESX 4.1 based host in order to deploy the appliance, which is a really old version at this stage, but the process is relatively the same across all of the more recent ESXi versions.

For additional instructions and information, check out the related VMware Knowledge Base article Downloading and deploying the vCenter Server Appliance 5.x (2007619).

We are currently working on a video tutorial which will demonstrate upgrading vCenter Server Appliance from 5.0.x to 5.1 so watch this space for details concerning that video as the week progresses.

Note: For best viewing results, ensure that the 720p HD quality setting is selected and view in full screen mode.