VMWare workstation allow you to run 1 or more Virtual Machines on a desktop computer. It can be downloaded directly from VMWare at: http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/

 

System Requirements

We recommend you install VMWare workstation on a PC with at least 6GB of RAM and running a 64-bit version of Windows or Linux. VMWare Workstation will required 2GB hard disk space, and the VisibleThread VM requires 80GB free hard disk space.

Deploying the VisibleThread VM on VMWare Workstation

Install and then start up VMWare workstation. Once it has started up you should see a screen similar to the one below 

 

Click on the 'Open a Virtual Machine' and in the File chooser navigate to the location where you downaloded the VisibleThreadServer-<version>-<build>.ova file, and choose the "VisibleThread - Team Server.vmx" file.

 

The VisibleThread team server Virtual Machine should now be added to the catalog on the left under 'My Computer'. Select the Virtual Machine, and confirm that the details are similar to those in the screenshot below

 

Next, we need to move the VM to the 'Shared VM's' section. Click on 'VisibleThread - Team Server' on the tree and drag-and-drop it to the 'Shared VM's' node in the tree on the left. You will be present with a 'Share Virtual Machine Wizard' as in the screenshot below:

 

Click 'Next' to begin the wizard. In the next screen, ensure the 'Move the Virtual machine' item is checked.

 

 

Click 'Finish', and then 'Close'.

 

Now select the 'Shared VM's' node in the tree on the left hand side, and the click on the 'Manage AutoStart VM's' in the right hand detail area (see screenshot below)

 

In the dialog that appears, check the 'VisibleThread - Team Server' and click 'OK'. This ensures that the VisibleThread virtual machine will be started automatically when the PC boots up.

 

 

Starting up the VisibleThread VM for the first time

Now right-click on the 'VisibleThread - Team Server' node in the tree, and select 'Power-> Power on' to boot up the VisibleThread virtual machine.

 

 

Once the Virtual Machine has booted up a new console tab will appear in the VMWare Workstation UI. This gives you command line access to the Ubuntu operating system on the VisibleThread Virtual machine. Clicking in to this console will direct all keyboard input to the Virtual Machine, to return back to your computer hold down Ctrl and Alt.

The user account for logging on to the operating system is :

username ‘visiblethread’

password ‘password’.

Note this account has root privileges on the system.

Login to the Ubuntu operating system using the credentials listed above

 

Configuring Networking

By default, the VisibleThread server is configured to pick up an IP address automatically from your network. To see what the ip configuration for the server is type the following at the command prompt, you should see something similar to what is displayed below:

> ifconfig

eth0     Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 40:40:2d:ef:41:54

inet addr:192.168.1.11 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

inet6 addr: fe80::4240:2dff:feef:4154/64 Scope:Link

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:17632221 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:14928547 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:8069857778 (8.0 GB) TX bytes:17026117038 (17.0 GB)

 

 

It may be useful to assign a static IP to the VisibleThread server. This way users can use a consistent address to connect to the VisibleThread server. To do so follow these steps:

Open the /etc/network/interfaces file using the pico editor:

sudo pico /etc/network/interfaces

 

  In this file you should see the following line:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

 

Replace the word ‘dhcp’ with the word ‘static’ and add the relevant information for your network settings (ipaddress, gateway etc..), for example:

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.1.11

netmask 255.255.255.0

 

gateway 192.168.1.1

Save and close the /etc/network/interfaces file. To save the file type Ctrl-O i.e. control key and the letter o (which will prompt to save the file), then hit enter. Then to exit to the console type ctrl-x.

 Restart the networking service on the Virtual Appliance:

systemctl restart ifup@eth0

Apply latest upgrade, upload license and create users

To complete the configuration of your VisibleThread installation you need to  upload your license and create some users. Follow the detailed instructions here :support.visiblethread.com/entries/22373367-Deploying-VisibleThread-behind-your-corporate-firewall#upload-license