We had an instance recently where one of our users downloaded the version of the Reptor Appliance for vmware server (as a rar file), un-rar-ed it on his windows laptop, copied it over to the linux server where vmware server was running, told vmware server about it, tried to power it on and was confronted with … a blank console. No error messages, nothing. Just a blank screen. Eeek!

The solution, it turns out, is permissions on the vmx and vmdk files on the underlying linux OS. Not only must they be read- and write-able for the user you log in via the vmware server console as, they must be executable too! And if they’re not, then blank console. Weird.