phpVirtualbox

Stratus_ss · Sep 16, 2011

I just thought I should put a "plug" in for these guys because they do great work!

Basically its a php interface for Virtualbox which is extremely useful if you run your VMs headless (as you should be!)

Their forums/Tech support is top notch! I can't stress this enough, The turn around per post was usually less than an hour, and sometimes it was like instant messaging.

Good job guys and keep it up!

g0dM@n · Sep 16, 2011

I've been dying to set up a virtual environment but haven't invested the time to do so. Have any pointers of where to start? I love free software (I donate when I feel necessary, of course).

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

Thanks for the link, I just switched my server and intend to use Virtualbox.

petteyg359 · Sep 16, 2011

I find SSH and VBoxManage to be sufficient for any VirtualBox stuff I do. For running a large quantity of VMs, I would prefer KVM, which I haven't found any really nice tools for so far (virt-manager has way too many dependencies and is extremely unintuitive).

Stratus_ss · Sep 16, 2011

g0dM@n said:
I've been dying to set up a virtual environment but haven't invested the time to do so. Have any pointers of where to start? I love free software (I donate when I feel necessary, of course).

It really depends what your end goal is. I am the "virtual machine administrator" at work so I can probably give you some nudges in the right direction.

are you wanting to build a network of virtual machines or are they one offs?

Are you going to be remoting into them or clicking start and interacting with a popup window of sorts?

Are you looking at any sort of virtual machine manager or are you looking to build skills (i.e. with VMWare's suite)?

In terms of the guest OS, treat that the exact same as a physical computer in terms of setup

Don't fall into the common misconceptions:

1) Do backups like you would a physical machine
-- snapshots are NOT backups

2) use snapshots to save the STATE of the machine and not for file backups (i.e. snapshots are good for getting a "baseline" of configurations but not intended to back up your excel spread sheets etc)

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

Just got mine installed, but I'm having an issue where it just hangs at "Loading..." randomly. I'm at work and using a SSH tunnel to get to my home network, so I'm wondering if this is the issue. It stops at random times. I once didn't get to the home page and now I got up to creating a disk for a virtual machine. I'll have to try it later.

EDIT: How do I view the VM's?
Double edit: Looks like I need the extension pack.

Stratus_ss · Sep 16, 2011

In order to see them on the web interface I didnt need any extension packs

I built on CentOS 6

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

I'm also on CentOS 6. Once I got the pack installed, the Console tab now lets me go to it. Problem is, I think there are other ports that have to be tunneled for me to view it while outside my network. I don't have an easy way to test until I get home. I see the flash object load (I have flashblock) and then nothing happens. I can't connect to it with TightVNC on this computer either, but I think there is another port it uses.

EDIT: Also tried vncviewer from the server and it just stops with "End of stream" after a minute.

Stratus_ss · Sep 16, 2011

perhaps I am not clearly understanding what you are trying to achieve

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

The "Remote Desktop Server Port" is for viewing the screen remotely, yes? I can't connect to it.

Code:

Fri Sep 16 10:41:54 2011
 CConn:       connected to host 127.0.0.1 port 3389

Fri Sep 16 10:42:54 2011
 main:        End of stream

petteyg359 · Sep 16, 2011

Did you enable it (VBoxManage modifyvm vm-name-here --vrde on)? It is not enabled by default.

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

Yes, that is where I got what port number it uses. I'll wait until I get on my home network before I try again. It'll probably do the same thing, though.

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

As I didn't thought, it works great. Thanks for the info Stratus!

I still can't connect via VNC to the specific virtual machine, though. After a minute, it just ends. "Connection to host 192.168.x.x::3389 was closed." I'd be ok with this, but the mouse is way off when using the flash based viewer (uses relative instead of absolute).

Screenshot-phpVirtualBox - VirtualBox Web Console - Mozilla Firefox.png

insanemonkey · Sep 16, 2011

This might sound dumb and maybe you have already tried this. Have you tested network connectivity? I have had some trouble in the past with Virtual box and it came down to setting the correct network setting for the VM in VirtualBox.

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

You connect directly to the host, not the VM. Iptables/ip6tables is stopped on both machines, as is SELinux.

petteyg359 · Sep 16, 2011

What says netstat -lpn?

Or, maybe, does that application run some daemon that is monopolizing the ports?

Multiple connections to the VRDP server

The VRDP server of VirtualBox supports multiple simultaneous connections to the same running VM from different clients. All connected clients see the same screen output and share a mouse pointer and keyboard focus. This is similar to several people using the same computer at the same time, taking turns at the keyboard.

The following command enables multiple connection mode:

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --vrdemulticon on

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

Nothing listed in netstat at all for 3389.

It isn't that option as that is for letting multiple people connect to the same VM, which I'm not doing.

petteyg359 · Sep 16, 2011

Try running netstat as root, just in case your user isn't allowed to see that port. If there's nothing listed, then VirtualBox isn't running the rdp server. Run the VBoxManage command to enable it again, just for kicks

Automata · Sep 16, 2011

It isn't supposed to run as root, so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll probably try it when I have time. I have four VMs updating right now and quite a few more to install.

The phpVirtualbox (from my understanding) uses this port, which works fine.

Stratus_ss · Sep 16, 2011

just a note,

phpVirtualbox requires you to run all Virtualbox services as the "vbox" user (or whichever user you designated for Virtualbox) Running as root will actually hinder your progress in troubleshooting

also on the topic of virtualbox, we are currently migrating from VMWare server to Virtualbox so I am posting a script in the /bin section here on the forums that will help with that

phpVirtualbox

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