Install Elastix on VMWare Workstation

1. A copy of VMware Player (I'm using 5.0.2 for this tutorial - at the time of writing it can be downloaded here) - you want 'VMWare Player for Windows' or 'VMWare Player for Linux'.
2. The latest build of Elastix Asterisk (I'm using version 2.4.0 for this tutorial) - at the time of writing you can download elastix here.
3. A little patience :)

Step 1 - Install VMWare Player (if you need assistance doing that, I've found a fairly good video guide to installing VMWare player here).

Step 2 - Create a New VM - either press Ctrl-N or select 'player-> File -> New Virtual Machine'

Step 3 - (Important) - select 'I will Install the Operating System Later'

Step 4 - Select guest operating system - Elastix is based upon Linux, so select 'Linux' and then either the default or 'Centos' (if you downloaded the 32 bit version of Elastix) or Centos 64-Bit (if you downloaded the 64 bit), although it shouldn't really matter what version of linux you select.

Step 5 - Make a name for your virtual machine - I'd suggest 'Elastix VM' and select where you want to save it - VM's are transportable between one machine and another so I usually save my VM's in a dedicated 'VM' folder I create in 'My Documents'

Step 6 - Specify a Disk Capacity - I'd suggest leave it at the default (20GB), although you can go as low as 5GB if you need - and then choose 'Split the Virtual Machine into Multiple Files'

Step 7 - select your newly created virtual machine, and click 'edit machine settings'

Step 8 - Change the network adapter to 'Bridged'.

Step 9 - Select CD/DVD (IDE) and select 'Use ISO Image File' - then browse to the Elastix ISO that you downloaded earlier.

Step 10 - Click OK, Select the name of your VM and Click 'Play Virtual Machine'.

Step 11 - When you get to the 'Elastix' Splash Page, left click in the window and hit enter.

Step 12 - You Mostly Need to Select the Defaults - eg:-

• Language - English
• Keyboard - US
• Would you like to erase the drive - Yes (this only erases the currently empty VM, not your PC hard drive)
• Partitioning Type - use free space and create default layout
• Review and Modify Partitioning Layout - NOx
• Would you like to configure the eth0 interface - YES