VMWare on Mac

2008 January 28
tags: Apple · Software
by Nick

Ok, so it's a little over a week now since I've been using my MacBook and so far, so good. I have been able to use it exclusively for work. I've come across only a couple minor issues that have been no problem to overcome, but most importantly, I haven't had to the need to use my PC.

Regardless of this, I bought VMWare Fusion and just completed the installation of Windows XP Pro on a virtual machine. I thought this would be good to use for setting up a development environment as well as having Windows handy in case I do need it for anything.

What's great about vitualization is that I can potentially have multiple instances and retain a clean image just in case something gets hosed. I read a couple posts claiming better performance on VMWare and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Fusion offers the ability to create "snapshots" of your virtual machine before making any changes... you then have the ability to revert back to the latest snapshot at any time. So far, set up has been very simple and XP runs pretty smooth. I really like being able to drag-and-drop from my local disk to the virtual machine and share my local drives and clipboard... Makes me wonder why anyone would want to use BootCamp.

The new version features Unity (equivalent to Coherence in Parallels) which will actually run your Windows programs within OS X as if they were native Mac programs! This feature really works great... I would encourage anyone interested in running virtual machines on OS X to take a look at VMWare.

6 Responses leave one →
  1. rob
    rob PERMALINK
    Apr 20, 2008 at 3:59 AM

    Hi Nick;

    I just installed CF8 on my Mac and VM Ware Fusion with Windows XP and SQL-server on it. Everything seem to work as Bridged network and I can get the network to connect between the mac and xp.

    My question is
    What do I put in the CF Admin (on my mac) when setting my server path to connect new database in sql server?
    Example: //192.168.1.102/sqlserver????

    I have it stetted up like this:
    CF Data source: my database name
    Database: sql server database
    Server: ???
    User name:
    Password:
    Description

    Thanks

  1. nick
    nick PERMALINK *
    Apr 20, 2008 at 8:39 AM

    For a CF DSN, you will only need to provide the IP address of the SQL Server...

    If you're using SQL 2005, I suspect your problem is the port number. I recall having the same problem not too long ago and you have to go through the Server Configuration Manager to find the port your database is running on.

    Let me know if this helps:
    http://www.technowledgebase.com/2007/07/25/finding-the-port-number-of-a-named-sql-2005-instance/

  1. Hi,
    Hi, PERMALINK
    Apr 21, 2008 at 3:32 AM

    For the DSN on the server I'm using the //rfusion/ or //192.168.1.102 for the name or IP .

    This are steps creating the CF data source:
    1. Data Sourde name: myDB
    2. Driver: Microsoft SQL Server
    3. Server: \\rfusion\ Port:1433
    4. User name: DB user
    5. Password: xxx



    I get an error:

    The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver][Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]The requested instance is either invalid or not running.

    OR

    The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]Error establishing socket to host and port: //rfusion/:1433. Reason: protocol = socket host = null

    Some how is not finding the instance or the host.
    Also I'm using MS Sql 2000 not 2005.

    Thanks

  1. nick
    nick PERMALINK *
    Apr 21, 2008 at 8:05 AM

    You do not need to include forward or back-slash with the IP address of the server.

    So, try:
    3. Server: 192.168.1.102 Port:1433

  1. rob
    rob PERMALINK
    Apr 23, 2008 at 2:10 AM

    Hi Nick;

    I'm back on this, and kind the close to make it work.

    I've followed you suggestions and I get mix results.

    If i use the IP of from XP with the server in this case "192.168.2.8" I get an error:

    java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver][SQLServer]Login failed for user 'rAdmim'. Reason: Not associated with a trusted SQL Server connection.
    The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver][SQLServer]Login failed for user 'rAdmin'. Reason: Not associated with a trusted SQL Server connection.
    rAdmin is a registered user on SQL sever.


    If i use the name of the server in this case "rfusion" I get an error:

    java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]Error establishing socket. Unknown host: rfusion
    The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]Error establishing socket. Unknown host: rfusion

    For the one with the IP address I'm using the windows login credentials. And also tried without user name and password with the same results. and Created a SQL user account as well.

    I think the issue lies on the Driver: Microsoft SQL Server when creating a database connection. I remember when I used to develop with CF on windows I had to select ODBC driver instead of the SQL Server to make it work.

    What diver are you selecting to connect? Or How are you connecting?

    Thanks

  1. nick
    nick PERMALINK *
    Apr 23, 2008 at 4:03 PM

    Hi Rob,

    I actually have only MySQL set up currently and no longer use MS SQL for development.

    Regardless, in order to connect, you either need to change the authentication in MS SQL server to "Mixed Mode" and make sure you have a SQL user to connect with (not the Windows user), or give the Windows user proper permissions as explained here (under "A Windows account with insufficient permissions"):
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889615

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