KWLUG Meeting: Monday, 04 February 2008

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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Imagine a live demonstration of a Content Management System (CMS) where each member of the audience can follow the presentation with their own copy of the software running on a laptop in front of them. Now, after a 10 minute break, each laptop is emulating an OLPC machine, complete with network ability. After another 10 minute break, each laptop is now running a different CMS for the audience to put through its paces.

Our own Lori Paniak will give a newbie-friendly tutorial on how to use VMware in Linux to accomplish this silicon sleight-of-hand.

The Demo Room at Ontario Linux Fest consisted of thirteen laptops each running a copy of VMware Server. Demos were VMware images which could be quickly (and remotely) switched from one presentation to the next. This presentation gives a tutorial on the preparation and installation of VMware Server on a Debian system, cloning the installation to the laptops and administering the final system.

Mondoarchive disaster recovery software, the VMware Server Console and cluster management tools such as clusterssh each play a role in the tutorial.

Several copies of the installation DVD will be given away. Each disk will install a (nearly) ready-to-go Debian Etch/2.6.22 kernel/VMware Server system on a target hard drive.