VMWare Linux parameter

/etc/sysctl.conf

# vm.swappiness = 0	The kernel will swap only to avoid an out of memory condition.
vm.swappiness = 0

# TCP SYN Flood Protection
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 4096
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 3

Pinning kernel to 2.6 for ESX 4.1

Create /etc/apt/preferences.d/linux-image with this content:

Package: linux-image-server linux-server linux-headers-server
Pin: version 2.6.*
Pin-Priority: 1000

Autobuild of kernel drivers

Create /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/vmware :

#!/bin/bash

# We're passed the version of the kernel being installed
inst_kern=$1

/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl  --modules-only --default --kernel-version ${inst_kern}

# chmod 755 /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/vmware