If you think Microsoft is planning to enter the Linux landscape with the release of CBL-Mariner. You might not be right. Microsoft has released CBL-Mariner for its cloud infrastructure as part of an open-source initiative. Well, this is not the first initiative project by Microsoft. It has contributed its investments in developing various Linux-based technologies, such as SONiC, Azure Sphere OS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Well, if you want to dirt your hands on this Linux, you can. We are going to show you how to install the CBL-Mariner on the VMWare workstation in this post. For your info, Microsoft didn’t release either ISO or VM images for users. However, we have shared the procedure to build a CBL-Mariner ISO Image and shared the created ISO image for download.
Table of Contents
What Is CBL-Mariner?
Let’s clear the concept, CBL-Mariner is an open-source internal Linux distribution developed for Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and edge products and services. It is not the OS developed for end-users like Ubuntu, Debian, and Mint Linux distributions. It is designed to provide a consistent platform for cloud services. Visit this git page to read more about CBL-Mariner.
How To Build CBL-Mariner ISO image?
As we said earlier, Microsoft didn’t release installable images like its ISO, VHDX, or VMDK for CBL-Mariner users. The reason could be because Microsoft wants developers to build their own custom images according to their needs. However, we have shared the pre-built standard ISO file to save your time and also show you how to build ISO images on your own in a separate post. Please read this if you want to know how to build a CBL-Mariner ISO image on your own.
Step by Step Procedure to Build a CBL-Mariner ISO Image!
Download CBL-Mariner ISO file:
How To Install CBL-Mariner On VMWare?
Now, let’s see how to install CBL-Mariner on VMWare in this post.
Time needed: 10 minutes
how to install CBL-Mariner on VMWare?
- Create a New Virtual Machine on VMWare Workstation
Go to File -> New Virtual Machine.
Select Custom installation wizard then click Next.
- Select Hardware Compatibility
Select Workstation 16x, click Next.
- Select the CBL-Mariner ISO image
Browse the CBL-Mariner ISO image. Click Next.
- Select Operating System Version
Select Linux 64 and Other Linux 64 bit as shone here. Click Next.
- Name and Location of the VM
Name your VM and select the location to store the VM. Click Next.
- Assign the processer for the VM
- Assign the memory
- Select the Network adopter settings for the VM
Select the desired net work adopter settings. Click Next. We have selected Bridged Networking for demonstration.
- Select IO Controller Type
- Select Disk Type
- Create Virtual Disk for CBL-Mariner
- Allocate Disk Size for CBL-Mariner
- Finish the VM configuration
Click Finish to complete the VM configurations.
- Power on CBL-Mariner
- Booting CBL-Mariner for the first time
You will see three option to install CBL-Mariner. Chose the one you want to install. We recommend to select Graphical Installer if you are new to the Linux.
- GUI Installation Welcome Window
You will be greeted with this Welcome window when you boot for the first time. You will have two installation type out there. Full and Core. Chose the one which you think better. Click Next.
- Partition Configuration of CBL-Mariner
You can decide how you want to partition the installation disk. First option will erase complete disk and system will partition the file system for you. Second option will allow you to allocate the space for each partition based on your need.
- Enter Hostname, Username, and Password in the System Configuration window
Click Install.
- Install CBL-Mariner on VMWare
Click Install Now.
- Installation in Progress
- Completion of CBL-Mariner Installation
Click Done.
- First Log in
System will reboot the OS and ask to log in. Use the account credentials used in System Configuration.
- Working on CBL-Mariner
Run this command to update the system:
$ sudo tdnf update
Command to upgrade CBL-Mariner
$ sudo tdnf upgrade
Command to install package:
$ sudo tdnf install <package name>
This is how you should install the CBL-Mariner on VMWare workstation. You can download the ISO image and install it on VM Horizon, Virtual Box, or any virtual platform.
Thanks for reading the tutorial. Please visit our site to see more such interesting tutorials.
I found your blog post when I searched for "how to update CBL-Mariner"
In "23. Working on CBL-Mariner" the advise is given to "$ sudo tdnf update" but on an out-of-box Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) tdnf is not included. So I tried to build tdnf using some hints from "Step by Step Procedure to Build a CBL-Mariner ISO Image!" but at the end I failed.
Maybe you'd have a hint how to fix this or would consider this as a topic for a new blog post?
what I tried:
sudo apt -y install make cmake tar wget curl rpm qemu-utils python-minimal bison gawk git
git clone https://github.com/vmware/tdnf
git checkout v3.1.5
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
Error:
— Checking for module 'rpm'
— No package 'rpm' found
CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-3.13/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:452 (message):
A required package was not found
Call Stack (most recent call first):
/usr/share/cmake-3.13/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:622 (_pkg_check_modules_internal)
CMakeLists.txt:62 (pkg_check_modules)
Hello Michel,
On which Linux distribution you tried this?
thks for the iso. seems to work as designed. sad that there is not a graphical interface.
Yes, Greg. This could be because the OS is developed for cloud development, not for desktop users. And, it is one of the heavily customizable OS. Let’s find any GUI packages in its repo.