User Guide > Tasks > Working with Plugins > Creating a Custom Virtual Machine

Creating a Custom Virtual Machine

This procedure describes how to create your own virtual machine. A virtual machine is necessary in order to integrate with VMware Workstation. If you would like to use the pre-configured Zend Server image to create your virtual machine see Importing the ZendServer.zip Image File into VMware Workstation.

Before creating a custom virtual machine in VMware Workstation, make sure Zend Studio and VMware Workstation are open and running. See Prerequisites for more information on where to download these components.

Note:

This procedure applies to Linux virtual machines only.

Instructions on how to complete a procedure

To create a custom virtual machine:

Open VMware Workstation and create a Linux virtual machine that is compatible with Zend Server.
Power on your virtual machine in VMware Workstation.

Install Zend Server 5 or above on your virtual machine. For information on Zend Server installation see Zend Server-5-Installation-Guide-100421.pdf.
Edit the document root according to your operating system:

Ubuntu - Use a text editor to open the file located in "/etc/apache2/sites-available/default", and edit the document root both times that it appears in the file from "/var/www" to "/mnt/hgfs".
RPM and Fedora - Use a text editor to open the file located in "/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf", and edit the document root in the file from "/var/www/html" to "/mnt/hgfs".

Save the file and restart your virtual machine.

Your custom virtual machine has been created.

Important Note:

After installing your virtual machine, shared folders are disabled by default. To enable shared folders go to the VMware Workstation main toolbar and select VM | Settings | Options tab | Shared Folders and select 'Always enabled'. Click OK to save the settings.

Once you have a custom virtual machine created, you can access it through your VMware Workstation or you can run a PHP application on your virtual machine or debug a PHP application on your virtual machine in Zend Studio.