VMware recently announced updates to many of its virtualization products: VMware Server, VMware Workstation, VMware ACE and VMware Player.

Check out what's new in the release notes below.

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What's New in VMware Server Version 1.0.5

Version 1.0.5 a maintenance bug fix release to address security issues. See Resolved Issues for information on what has been fixed.

In addition, Version 1.0.5 improves Remote Console performance and screen refreshing.

To learn more please refer to the VMware Server Release Notes

Click to Download VMware Server 1.0.5

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Workstation 6.0.3 adds full support for the following operating systems:

• 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 7.10 as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6 as host and guest operating systems
• 32-bit and 64-bit Asianux Server 3 as a guest operating system
• 32-bit and 64-bit Turbolinux 10 Server as a guest operating system

To learn more please refer to the VMware Workstation 6 Release Notes

Click to Download VMware Workstation 6.0.3

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VMware ACE 2.0.3 is a maintenance release. This release includes some modifications to the user interface, including the following:

Power-off script

You can now configure access control policies to include a power-off script. You can use the power-off script to reset any changes made to the host from a power-on script, reset authentication settings, or other procedures you want performed as the instance powers off.

Perform the following steps to include a power-on/off script in the ACE master’s packages:

1. Create the script and save it in the ACE Resources folder.
   
2. On the access control policy page, click the Power-on/off scripts button at the bottom right. The Power-on/off scripts dialog box appears.
   
3. If the deployment platform setting in package settings is set to Both Windows and Linux, then the Choose Power-on/off scripts dialog box contains text fields for both Windows and Linux script specifications.
   
4. Select Use power-off script to set a power-off script.
   
5. Click Set to open the Set Custom Script dialog box. Refer to the ACE Administrator's Manual for details on setting custom scripts. If you are enabling a power-on/off script after you have already deployed packages with this ACE master, provide the script to the user using a policy/server update package or a custom package with ACE Resources.

Windows login

The package settings now include a Windows login feature. The ACE administrator will be required to enter the guest operating system's user name and password to perform instance customization.

Open the Package settings dialog box, enable instance customization, and select Windows Login. Enter the guest operating system's Windows login information. On managed systems, enter a user name and password. On unmanaged systems, enter only a user name.

The user name you enter must have permission to copy files into the guest operating system and to run the Microsoft sysprep deployment tools. For managed ACE masters, the user name and password are stored in the ACE Management Server. For unmanaged ACE masters, the user name is stored in the ACE master policy file. For security reasons, the password is not stored.

MAC address pools

You can now add a MAC address pool to the database of an ACE master. Note, however, that this feature might not work when the ACE Management Server uses an Oracle Database 10g.

For more information on how to add a MAC address pool, refer to the technical note at the following URL:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ams_map.pdf

To learn more please refer to the VMware ACE Release Notes

Click to Download VMware ACE 2.0.3

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VMware Player 2.0.3 addresses the following security issues:

• On Windows hosts, if you have configured and enabled a shared folder, it is possible for an attacker to write arbitrary content from a guest system to arbitrary locations on the host system (CORE-2007-0930). (bug 200360)
• This release updates the libpng library to version 1.2.22 to remove various security vulnerabilities. (bug 224453)

Bugs Reported in VMware Player 2.0.2 and Fixed in This Release

• On openSUSE Linux 10.3 hosts, USB devices cannot be used in a virtual machine unless you plug the USB device in to the host before powering on the virtual machine. (bug 177615)
• On Windows hosts, after disabling shared folders the Properties button remains enabled. (bug 194070)

To learn more please refer to the VMware Player 2.0.3 Release Notes

Click to Download VMware Player 2.0.3