9.3. VMware
VMware provides a Mac OS X native virtualization client, dubbed Fusion. VMware Fusion is a type 2 hypervisor, meaning that it runs on top of an existing operating system (OS X) as an application. Furthermore, the application currently requires an active user session, which definitely has implications when deploying in a server environment. In such a case, a type 1 hypervisor, or bare metal hypervisor, is typically desirable in a server environment, allowing a system's virtualized operating systems to operate independently of each other. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing there are no true type 1 hypervisor's available for OS X. That said, VMware Fusion does have support for hosting both Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 server environments. Where Fusion succeeds is desktop OS virtualization, such as Microsoft Windows. A little later, VMware came on strong with Mac support and provides through Fusion a stable solution with good features and very decent performance.
The best way to deploy VMware Fusion to Mac clients is via an installer package. However, at first glance, the VMware Fusion installer is actually an application, and not an installer package. Never fear, there is in fact a native installer package, it's just hidden inside the application bundle's Resources folder. As such, you can extract this package for mass deployment, without the installer application, to deploy VMware Fusion with very little effort, provided that you do not require any customizations. Many environments will choose to customize the application installer. If you plan to do so then you may need to create a package or use a combination of two packages, one to deploy the actual package and another to deploy the license file. The VM itself will typically warrant its own installer as well. Splitting items up into individual packages can enable you to later replace only specific components on clients, conserving bandwidth, disk space and other resources.
Deploying VMware Fusion on Mac OS X is a three-step process. The first step is to deploy the VMware Fusion application. This is the software that allows you to run a guest operating system in a virtual machine. The second step in the process is to deploy the virtual machines themselves. Each virtual machine will run its own guest operating system which will need its own post-deployment configuration. This final configuration makes up the third step. In many cases, the guest operating system will be able to hook into an existing Windows deployment infrastructure and utilize in-place systems for policy management, and automations. Since this is not always the case, once we cover the initial deployment process, we will review bolting on a new management infrastructure for Open Directory environments.
For those using a package based imaging solution, we typically recommend breaking your VMware Fusion deployment up into three separate packages. The first will be the VMware Fusion 2 installer package. The second will be the serial number (unless you embed the serial number into the installer package) and the third will be the virtual machines, where each likely has a separate package. The more granular the approach, the more work it will seem like you have up front, yet a granular approach will require less work once you move from imaging to patch management.
9.3.1. VMware Fusion in Monolithic Imaging
As described in Chapter 6, a monolithic image will contain all of the items needed to deploy a workstation in a single image and will not typically rely on bolting any additional software. Adding VMware Fusion to a monolithic Mac OS X image is a fairly straightforward process: manually install VMware Fusion on your base image using a volume license. If you don't have a Volume License, then you'll need a post-flight script or package to deploy a new license on each client after they receive the initial software.
NOTE
With any monolithic imaging solution it is strongly recommended that you maintain a change log to track software that has been added or removed from your image. It is also recommended that you list any necessary automations and the utility they provide. Having a detailed change log becomes a key component to the ongoing management of most any imaging scenario, but more so in a monolithic imaging environment.
To install VMware Fusion, begin by mounting the VMware Fusion disk image or launching the installation media that came with the software. Next, double-click on the Install VMware Fusion icon. At the Welcome to the VMware Fusion Installer prompt, click on Continue, as seen in Figure 9-1.
Figure 9.1. The Welcome to the VMware Fusion Installer prompt
At the screen for Software License Agreement, read the agreement carefully and then click on the Continue button. This will bring up a dialog box for you to accept the license agreement. If you agree with the licensing terms then click on Agree to continue, as shown in Figure 9-2.
Figure 9.2. Software License Agreement screen
Next, you will see the Mount Virtual Disk Support screen, where you will be able to choose whether or not to install the latest version of MacFUSE. This is open-source software that has a plug-in to allow VMware Fusion users to mount volumes used by virtual machines, and it allows a user to browse the file system of a virtual machine from the native OS X Finder, provided the vm is not running. If you would like to enable this feature for end users, check the box to do so and click on Continue (see Figure 9-3).
Figure 9.3. The Mount Virtual Disk Support screen
At the Standard Install screen (shown in Figure 9-4), you are able to customize which Mac OS X volume VMware Fusion will be installed or you can click on the Install button if you don't wish to perform any customizations. By default, VMware Fusion will install in the /Applications directory of the volume you are currently booted from. If your monolithic image is to be a single volume then this is fairly straightforward. If not, then while you can install it on disks other than a boot volume, you should not do so on a volume that is destined to be a Boot Camp volume nor one that does not run HFS+.
Figure 9.4. The Standard Install screen
When the installation process has completed you will need to enter a license. Here, you should enter your Volume License Master serial number (shown in Figure 9-5), clicking on the Continue button when you do so. If you do not have a Volume License serial number, you will need to go ahead and enter a valid serial number, which will subsequently automate the replacement of a separate package.
Figure 9.5. Enter your Volume License Master serial number
A successful installation will be indicated once the process has finished. At this point, you can move on to creating a virtual machine to install a guest operating system, as described later in this section.
9.3.2. VMware Fusion with a Package-Based Deployment
VMware Fusion 2 is distributed as a package installer that has been bundled inside of an application bundle. They cleverly disguise the .app file with an installer icon, which is confusing to some administrators. When installing Fusion directly onto a client, you can deploy either package or run the application. However, when performing mass installations, installer packages are convenient. Extracting the actual .pkg file will provide you with much better mass deployment options. When you are pushing out the .pkg file, you will then be able to embed a license key in it.
NOTE
It's worth mentioning before we get too much further that some snapshot tools like Jamf's Composer include presets for automatically creating Package installers from the existing installation of VMware. These tools typically (by default) grab all files, including registration, so you may still need to manually separate your serial number files yourself. That said, if you managed to get a volume license key from VMware, this tool may save you a little bit of time by bypassing some of the steps covered in this section.
To extract the package, you will first need to mount the latest VMware Fusion disk image that can be obtained from the VMware web site (you will typically want to make sure you are deploying the latest stable release of most software). Then, control-click on Install VMware Fusion to see the menu in Figure 9-6.
Figure 9.6. Menu shown while extracting the VMware Fusion package
Next, click on Show Package Contents and then browse to the Contents folder followed by the Resources folder. Here you will find the Install VMware Fusion.pkg package, which is the actual package installer for Fusion. You can now copy Install VMware Fusion.pkg out into another location, such as the desktop. Once you have completed preparing the package for deployment, you will want to store it in your package repository.
Assuming you have a Volume License Master serial, you will now want to customize the installation package to include the license and therefore fully automate the install. The license can be included inside the Install VMware Fusion.pkg package so that when you go to deploy the package through Apple Remote Desktop or another patch management solution, the installer will not require the end user to enter a serial number—an annoyance that potentially prevents the installation from proceeding (depending on your deployment tool). To embed the license file, first create a file called license.txt. In this file, paste the Volume License Master serial (and only the serial number, because nothing else should be in this file).
Now we're going to place the Volume License Master serial file (called license.txt) into the Install VMware Fusion.pkg package that you just extracted. To get started, browse to the Install VMware Fusion.pkg package and control-click on it, selecting Show Package Contents.
Next, browse to the Contents folder and then to the Plug-ins folder, where you will see the licensingPane.bundle "installer" bundle. A .bundle directory, like an .app or .pkg directory, is simply a collection of related files which is treated by the Finder as a single entity. To once again break this facade, we're going to control-click on it and then click on Show Package Contents. Next, open the Contents folder of the bundle and then navigate to the Resources folder. This is where you are going to copy your license.txt file. The following would achieve the same result in one single step by creating a new text file in the bundle (assuming you copied the Install VMware Fusion.pkg onto your desktop):
echo "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" >"/Users/$USER/Desktop/Install VMware Fusion.pkg/Contents/Plugins/licensingPane.bundle/Contents/Resources/license.txt"
One important note about this process is that this installer package relies on scripts and executables that must run under the host operating system. If you use a product that installs packages while netbooted, this type of installer will require you to postpone this installation. This can be accomplished in tools like DeployStudio using the postpone installation checkbox or a reboot policy in Jamf's Casper suite. If you fail to do this, you may find your package installation does not complete correctly or, in the worst-case scenario, may stall your whole imaging process. If you are relying on the Apple Tools for imaging, you may want to create a self-destructing startup item that runs the installer command. More information about this procedure can be found in Chapter 8.