Setting up osgeo vm

>> return Cedeus IDE

---

Setting up a OSGeo VirtualBox-VM on Lautaro with SuseLinux - but using command line (because creating the VM via the graphical interface vboxgtk did not work properly). The general documentation was taken from here: http://stdioe.blogspot.com/2012/01/creating-virtual-machine-with.html

Steps:

1. install virtualbox on server/computer (done by Daniel, needs admin rights of course)
2. create a VM based on Ubuntu:

   VBoxManage createvm --name osgeo  --ostype Ubuntu --register

3. check it is there:

   VBoxManage showvminfo osgeo

4. set the memory/ram:

   VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --memory 8192

   (which is 8GB)
5. check the memory/ram:

   VBoxManage showvminfo osgeo | grep "Memory size"

6. set the number of cpu's to use (here 4):

   VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --cpus 4

7. set the network connection/routing

   VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --nic1 nat

   Here we use 'nat'-ing instead of a bridge
8. create a harddisk of 100GB size:

   VBoxManage createhd --filename osgeo.vdi --size 100000

9. define the VM's disk controller:

   VBoxManage storagectl osgeo --name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAhci

10. mount the disk:

    VBoxManage storageattach "osgeo" --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium osgeo.vdi

11. check if everything is there:

    VBoxManage showvminfo osgeo

12. add DVD device:

    VBoxManage storagectl osgeo --name "IDE Controller" --add ide --controller PIIX4

13. load the DVD device with the Ubuntu VM/osgeo iso file (check if the iso has proper rights, i.e. maybe do a chmod 775):

    VBoxManage storageattach osgeo --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium yyy/osgeolive7.iso 

14. starting VM

    VBoxHeadless -s osgeo -n -m 7777 & 

    The -s is for start, 7777 defines the port for conecting with VNC, and the & is for keeping the VM running when I disconnect from the server. Headless actually means, that we have no monitor...
15. don't forget to install VNC Viewer (e.g. RealVNC), and then connect via the defined port - to "146.155.xx.xxx:7777"
16. ... do a real install of the osgeo VM, etc.
17. install ssh server

    sudo apt-get install openssh-server

18. how to do a mapping for ssh (& ftp), so that the guest VM can be reached from the host machine is described here: http://blogs.oracle.com/rmanus/entry/virtualbox_how_to_ftp_from
    In particular one has to do the following:

    /usr/bin/VBoxManage setextradata name_of_vm "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort” 2222 

    /usr/bin/VBoxManage setextradata name_of_vm "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort” 22

     /usr/bin/VBoxManage setextradata name_of_vm "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol” "TCP" 

    These entries are then added to osgeo.vbox xml file. For ftp the port would be 21 instead of 22. To enable Apache, do the same but use: config folder "apache", HostPort "8888", GuestPort "80", Protocol "TCP", e.g. (as one line):

     VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --natpf1 "apache,tcp,,8888,,80"

    • Note, if a "Error: failed to start machine. Error message: Configuration error: Failed to get the "MAC" value (VERR_CFGM_VALUE_NOT_FOUND)" appears, then it may be necessary to change the network adapter to PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973), according to this Blog entry
19. check here on how to detach the medium use:

    VBoxManage storageattach osgeo --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium none

20. shutting down the vm per vboxmanage :

    VBoxManage controlvm <uuid>|<name> pause|resume|reset|poweroff|savestate|acpipowerbutton|acpisleepbutton

21. tomcat 6 can be found in /usr/share/tomcat6/bin. However, the start/stop command is simply:

    sudo service tomcat6 start

    Check out: Blog: How to instal Tomcat 6 on Ubuntu 12.04. Also, don't forget to create uses for the manager interface (see here). Finally, the right amount of memory can be assigned in the file /etc/tomcat6/tomcat6.conf. However, I did not had this file. So I created a new file setenv.sh in /usr/share/tomcat6/bin via

    sudo touch setenv.sh

    and then edited it adding the following lines:

    #!/bin/sh <new line> JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx2096m -Xms512m -server -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.util.prefs.systemRoot=$CATALINA_HOME/content/thredds/javaUtilPrefs" <new line> export JAVA_OPTS

    Then I stopped and re-started tomcat.
22. displaying catalina output:

    cd /var/lib/tomcat6

    tail -f logs/catalina.out

23. activate remote desktop for VBox:

    VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --vrde on

    VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --vrdemulticon on

    and define the port number

    VBoxManage modifyvm osgeo --vrdeport XXXX