VMWare on Windows and Linux

Greg · 5 Sep 2011 at 10:21

Ok, I'm not sure how simple of a question this may be, its simple to describe but I suspect the answer maybe slightly complicated?!

What I'd like to do is, using VMWare Workstation on a Windows 7 machine, run a VMWare Virtual machine running Ubuntu. Simple to start with. I've successfully managed to do this, the next bit is the tricky stage.

What I need is the Ubuntu Virtual Machine to be able to write data to an area (I.e. a specific folder) on the Windows machine (the host).

I'm at a total loss as to how to get this to work!

Any help would greatly be appreciated!

Regards,

Greg

Greg · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:13

Ok guys, this is what I half suspected! I'm a little confused as to what option to use on the network side when I set up the new virtual machine. DOes anyone know the specific option I should be using?

Greg · 5 Sep 2011 at 14:50

Could you please give me some 'settings' to plug into VMWare. I've tried to figure it out but I'm getting extremely confused between NAT, Auto-Bridging and host only etc.

(VM) Linux box: IP Address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
(Real PC) Windows 7 pc: IP Address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

Then how I actually make a connection between the two?!

Sorry to be so silly but I'm totally pulling my hair out!! (Could I be cheeky and ask for screen shots if someone has the time? I would loveyoulongtime)

Greg · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:32

walnuts said:
How much data are looking to save to Windows machine (host)?

Have you though about just using Dropbox? Anything saved to Dropbox folder in Ubuntu would be automatically synced to Dropbox folder on Windows machine. Easy to setup as well.

That sounds very interesting. I'm only looking at a few MBs of data each time, well, that's each day. We're not talking seriously large files or anything.

Greg · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:33

Donkeyfumbler said:
Host only - VM will get an address (usually on a different 192.x.x.x range to NAT) that creates a mini network between host and VM but the VM cannot communicate with anything else on the network.

This is fine, but I don't understand what IP addresses i need to put in place to enable the host to talk to the VM and vice versa!?

Greg · 6 Sep 2011 at 10:02

walnuts said:
It should work fine then plus it's very easy to setup and any files in Dropbox folder will automatically get backed up and synced between 2 machines.

Could you elaborate a little further then, n00bie instructions would be appreciated!

Ta

Greg · 6 Sep 2011 at 10:06

Donkeyfumbler said:
You shouldn't need to put any in place. For all of these options just leave the network card on the VM on DHCP.

The thing is, this laptop isn't plugged into any router or switch, so do I need to set up a local DHCP client on the laptop?!

Greg

Greg · 6 Sep 2011 at 11:25

walnuts said:
For Dropbox.

On your Windows 7 machine open up Internet Explorer and go to www.dropbox.com
Register for free account (free account can hold up to 2GB of data)
Download Dropbox software and install it. If you follow default settings during install a folder called 'Dropbox' will be created in your My Documents folder. If you want to place 'Dropbox' folder in different location like your desktop choose custom install during installation.

From Ubuntu machine you need to do the same. This time go to www.dropbox.com and login with your account (You created an account earlier). Download and install Dropbox software.

Now you have a folder called 'Dropbox' in each machine linked to same Dropbox account. If you copy a file to Dropbox folder on one machine it will automatically get copied to other machine.

Looks wicked; I'm a bit confused though, does the machine need to have permenant internet access?