How to Install Ubuntu 22.04 Server on VMware Workstation Pro (Step-by-Step Guide – 2026)

In the previous article, we installed VMware Workstation Pro 25H2 on Windows. Now it's time to create our first virtual machine. Since this article is part of the DevOps Home Lab series, we will install Ubuntu Server instead of Ubuntu Desktop.

What to Expect from This Article

• Downloading Ubuntu Server 22.04 ISO from the official website

• Installing Ubuntu Server 22.04 inside VMware Workstation Pro

• Installing Apache2 and accessing its hosted webpage from the host machine

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

• Installed VMware Workstation Pro

• At least 20 GB of free storage

• At least 2 GB of free RAM

Unless mentioned otherwise, you can safely proceed with the default settings throughout the installation.

Downloading Ubuntu Server ISO

Before installing Ubuntu Server, we need to download its ISO. Downloading it is straightforward.

1. Head over to the official Ubuntu Download Page

   

2. Click on Get Ubuntu Server. You should see the latest available LTS Ubuntu Server, which is 24.04.4 LTS. But we are going with 22.04 LTS

   

3. Scroll down until you see⁣. ALTERNATIVE DOWNLOADS. Click Download 22.04.x LTS or click here for the direct download

   

4. The ISO download should begin automatically and may take a few minutes depending on your internet speed.

Creating a New VM Inside VMware For Ubuntu

1. Open VMware Workstation Pro and navigate to File > New Virtual Machine or click Ctrl + N. This will launch New Virtual Machine Wizard

   

2. Here choose Custom (advanced) and click Next > This will allow us to configure most of the hardware

   

3. Now it will ask to choose VM Hardware Compatibility. Leave it to Workstation 25H2

4. Choose Installer disc image file (iso), click Browse... and choose the ISO file we downloaded, and click Next >

   

5. Name the virtual machine. I have named it ubuntu2204 and optionally choose where to store all of its files. You may leave it at the default location

   

6. Set Number of processors to 1 and Number of cores per processor to 2. I have 8-core processor in my system, so I am allocating two cores from it. You may keep it to 1 too, but I found 2 to be optimal for me

   

7. Make sure to allocate at least 2GB memory in this step. In my tests, when I allocated it memory less than 2GB, the installer always got stuck at some place. Later, when the installation is completed, you may drop it to as low as 512MB

   

8. Keep Network Type as NAT. (We are using NAT for now so the VM can access the internet for updates. In upcoming articles, we’ll introduce host-only networking and a router VM for internal segmentation)

9. Select LSI Logic in Select I/O Controller Types window

10. Select SCSI as Disk Type

11. Choose Create a new virtual disk

    

12. Allocate at least 20GB and leave all options to default. However, if you have an HDD, I would recommend checking Allocate all disk space now and choose Store virtual disk as a single file. This literally improves performance significantly on HDD

    

13. Leave the next window to default value

    

14. Finally click Finish

    

15. Yay! Our first VM instance has been created. Next, we will power it on and see how to install Ubuntu

    

Ubuntu Server 22.04 Installation Procedure

Power on the virtual machine. Click either of the green play buttons to start the VM

1. After selecting Try or Install Ubuntu Server, the installer will load

2. Go through the initial setup screens:

   • Most of the settings not mentioned should be left as default

   • Select your preferred language

   • If asked to update the installer, Continue without updating

   • Select keyboard layout

   • Leave proxy empty

3. Once you get through the initial setup screens, you will be presented with Guided storage configuration ⁣Proceed with the default options on this page, which is Use an entire disk and Setup this disk as an LVM group

   

4. If you remember, we provisioned 20 GB of disk space, out of which 1.7 GB is being used for /boot and only 10 GB is being used for the root (/) partition. So we will increase its size

   1. Highlight the / partition > press ENTER > select unmount

      

   2. You will see ubuntu-lv as unmounted with a current size of 10GB and free space as 8.222GB. So highlight the ubuntu-lv partition > choose edit

      

   3. You should see the max size that we can configure as 18.222G so enter that value in Size field, choose Save

      

   4. And then choose 'Continue'

5. Now configure your profile. Enter your name, a name for this Ubuntu server, a username, and a password

6. Skip Ubuntu Pro when asked

7. Make sure Install OpenSSH Server is selected

8. Skip additional software recommendation

9. The installation will start now

   

10. Once the installation finishes, choose Reboot Now.

    If you see error stating Failed unmount /cdrom, don't worry, just press Enter a few times and it will reboot

11. After reboot, you should see an option to log in; enter the username and password you set earlier

12. Congratulations, you have successfully installed Ubuntu Server inside a Virtual Machine

    

Installing Apache2 and Accessing the Webpage From the Host Machine

Installing Apache here is simply to verify that:

• The VM networking is working correctly

• Services inside the VM are reachable from the host

1. Run the below command to update package mirrors and install apache2. The Apache2 service is automatically started after its installation

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y apache2

1. Now, to access it from the host machine, we need to know the IP of this Ubuntu VM. So, run ip a in the terminal and check the value of inet within ensXX where XX will be some number. In my case the IP is 172.17.18.135

   

2. Now open a browser on your host machine and enter http://<ip> where <ip> is what you obtained above. You should see a default Apache2 page in your browser. Now, you may change this page if you like; the instructions are already available on this page.

   

What Did We Do?

Just now we:

1. Created a new virtual machine within VMware Workstation Pro

2. Installed Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS inside this VM

3. Installed Apache2 within this VM and accessed it from our host machine

What's Next?

In the next article, we will download and install Rocky Linux inside another VM.
Link to Next Article: Install Rocky Linux 9 on VMware Workstation Pro (2026 Guide)

Series Roadmap

1. Download VMware Workstation Pro ✅

2. Installation Guide ✅

3. Creating Your First VM (Ubuntu Server 22.04) ✅

4. Installing Rocky Linux on VMware

5. Setting up Internal Networks

6. Configuring Static IP on Ubuntu and Rocky

7. Building a Gateway VM for Multi-VM Lab Architecture

8. Multi-VM DevOps Lab Architecture