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Installing MeetingPlace Express 2.0 on VMware

Submitted by sdhughes on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 23:35

I recently had the need to build a test installation of MeetingPlace Express on our VMware environment. The process is not officially supported by Cisco as it is for Communications Manager, Unity, and Presence. Here are the modifications I made ot the installation to trick it into installing on VMware:

1. Create a VM for MeetingPlace express. I created mine with 4 GB of RAM, 2 processors, 2 NICs, and a 90GB hard drive.

2. Extract a MeetingPlace installation DVD into a directory on a Linux machine

# mount /media/cdrecorder
# mkdir /scr/MPX
# cd /scr/MPX
# tar -cf - /media/cdrecorder | tar -xvf -

3. Edit the following files to short-circuit the platform and hard drive checks:

Cisco/base_scripts/check_platform.sh
Cisco/vendor/misc/bin/hw_setup.sh

In both cases, I simply put an "exit 0" on its own line immediately after the #!/bin/bash at the top of each file. The exit 0 immediately exits the script with a successful error code and avoids the nasty "Platform not Supported" message.

4. Re-roll an .iso file with your new information

# cd /scr/MPX
# chmod a+w isolinux/isolinux.bin
# mkisofs -r -T -J -b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
-c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 \
-boot-info-table -o /scr/MPX-VMWARE.iso /scr/MPX/

When you get through the OS installation, the VM will reboot. The firstboot script will prompt you to insert the Cisco Application DVD to install the MeetingPlace application. For me, I couldn't use my "custom" DVD for this step. My original MeetingPlace Express installation DVD was recognized and installed the application successfully.

#1Submitted by spankys13 on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 00:22.

Cannot extract package

Hi,

Following the instructions, I get to a point where it advises it cannot extract package cisco-firstboot-1.1.31-1.40.noarch.rpm

 

Did anyone else get around this issue? The file is located under Redhat\RPMS folder, however it is only 0Kb.

 

Thanks!

#2Submitted by jameandrew on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 00:41.

nice tutorial

Thanks a lot for sharing this post.i have been struggling for a month now on how to make this work on VM Ware i will try the steps given by you now and will let you knwo whether it worked for me or not

#3Submitted by Asim Jawed (not verified) on Mon, 01/18/2010 - 03:11.

Meetingplace 2.0

we need required the meetingplace 2.0 . please share for this version

#4Submitted by w1shm4st3r (not verified) on Thu, 10/08/2009 - 15:17.

step-by-step

first of all thanks to sdhughes..
following steps worked for me with cumpx 2.1.1.2 on vmware 6.5

Step 1 Reboot your server.
Step 2 During the reboot, there is a period when you have only three seconds to choose to update the server configuration so that you can reset the root password. When you see a screen with the word GRUB at the top and a text box with Cisco Unified Communications in it, quickly enter e.
•You must press the spacebar to enter a space before you type the e.
•You only have three seconds to press the spacebar once the system displays this screen.
•Nowhere on this screen does it say anything about pressing the spacebar to reset the root password.
Step 3 The system displays three options. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the entry that starts with "kernel."
Step 4 Press e to edit the entry.
Step 5 At the end of the entry, enter a space and then single.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note You must type a space before you type single.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 6 Press Enter to return the previous screen. The third entry should have the word single at the end.
Step 7 Press b to continue rebooting the server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESET YOUR root's PASSWORD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 8 Select INSTALL VMWARETOOLS...
mount cdrom
rpm -ihv /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-X.X.X-<xxxx>.i386.rpm
Step 9 Config VMWareTools...
run "vmware-config-tools.pl"
and config your x settings in runlevel 1
Step 10 reboot and continue your setup...

hope it helps..
kind regards,
--
KO

#5Submitted by controlplane (not verified) on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 04:36.

other examples and steps for installing MPE on VM?

does anyone have other steps-by-step examples for installing MPE 2 on VMWare than what's listed here?

But using a Windows or MAC OS X desktop?

Following the above instructions I'm getting Platform Invalid and I see many other posts here reporting the same issue.

Thank you!

cp

#6Submitted by ndorfn (not verified) on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 12:39.

Still no go

I have changed the files to have the "exit 0" command. I still keep getting the invalid platform message though. Any other ideas?

I am using ESX 3.5 and the MPX I have is 2.0.2 from the NFR kit.

#7Submitted by bpereira (not verified) on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 12:57.

Nice tutorial

I followed this scripts modifications but I keep getting the invalid platform message.

Running VMWare Server 1.0.8 and created a VM RedHat3 with 2 processors, 2048Mb Ram, 2 Ethernet and 90Gb SCSI.

No .ISO cached.

Any ideas?

Anyway you did a nice tutorial.

Cheers
Bruno

#8Submitted by sl33pyon3 (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 10:57.

X Server

Hi, this is working pretty well until it stopped after the reboot saying that the X Server could not be started. In the X server log, it states:

Fatal server error:
no screens found

So i tried to run the X configuration program, but I don't have the root password. It did try to setup for the "VMware Card" even thought I did not have a password

But it still fails. Then the message "I will disable this X server for now" shows up.

How did you overcome this?

Great post btw!

Cheers,

-Dean

#9Submitted by sl33pyon3 (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 10:59.

X Server [solved]

Okay, I looked in all the wrong places. But I did find this page http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_newguest_tools_linux.html#wp111... and it works now.

Thank you for an excellent tutorial and keep up the good work!

Cheers,

-Dean

#10Submitted by AdmanOK (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 01:18.

Root password?

I get the same error, but can't work out the root password to be able to log in and fix it. How did you do that?

#11Submitted by sl33pyon3 (not verified) on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 16:30.

Root password? con't

I'll have to look it up again. Cisco has a document that shows you the steps to reset the root password. Although you should have set that up when you went through the GUI part of the installation?

#12Submitted by remongaber (not verified) on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 05:27.

thankssssssssssssssssssssssss

thankssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Can you send me a copy of the modified files ?

#13Submitted by kdamisch (not verified) on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 17:36.

still doesn't work

No access to a linux box, so I tried this using MagicISO in Vista to edit the *.sh files you mentioned. I was using VMware Workstation 6.5 giving the VM 1GB of RAM, 2 NICs, and a 90GB IDE drive and still get the same invalid platform error with the updated ISO. I'm trying to follow the flow of the scripts when the DVD boots and can't see where its doing the checks at.

Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

#14Submitted by sdhughes on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 11:14.

IDE or .ISO caching

2 things --

I used a SCSI drive (that is the only option on VMware ESX). Not sure if that's you're problem. I'm guessing it tries to partition /dev/sd* and you have a /dev/hd*

The other thing I noticed during my testing is that sometime the VMware console would cache the contents of the .ISO files, even after I rerolled it. Using a different name for the .ISO file after you've made modifications might be something to try.