Posts tagged machine

VirtualBox Manager Pro – Machine Status Check Plus More

Added to VirtualBox Pro is status checking. When you login to the host your virtual machines are displayed with on/off information. In the onCreate a thread is launched that scans the server for machine status; it then updates the UI thread accordingly. I’ve also added header icons to replace the default one, and a new menu item has been added. The new menu item, in the free version, will not change. It currently dispalys information regarding upcoming features. In the Pro version the features will be implemented.

The Pro version will soon have the ability to login to individual machines, hosts or virtual machines, and scan for running processes. It will display the status of the running process and give the ability to start, stop, or reset it. Theoretically the list can be the entire contents of ps aux, but at first I will probably restrict it to Apache, Mysql, Sendmail, and Dovecot. The user can start, stop, and reset the processes the same way virtual machines are controlled in the current application. I should be done with the new features within a week or so.

Downloads look promising. In the first week there were about 250 downloads. I think this should grow being that first week downloads is always random. Users searching for random keywords to see what apps exist. As a reputation builds downloads should also be driven by word of mouth and hopefully a listing in the tops apps. In time, we’ll see. The paid version is off to a slow start, but as the free version grows in popularity I expect sales to pick up given the powerful features only available in the Pro version.

VirtualBox Manager – Version 44MPG

VirtualBox Manager was released two days ago and several updates have been published since then.

  • I have fixed a bug on the delete hosts page
  • Enhanced the header images on the delete hosts page and machine page
  • Tweaked the keyboards in the input data menus
  • Added references to the host as well as the machine in various dialog headers
  • Some code cleanup trying to do more in the oncreate rather than in methods
  • Fixed a bug in the help pages and customized the info respectively

As mentioned, therefore is a lot of code I have already written dealing with rsa key login. Now that the program is in a stable release state I plan to cleanup the code and then start looking at completing encrypted login features.

VirtualBox Manager – Whats Next?

There is a small bug on the delete hosts page that will be fixed. I’m going to keep the max number of hosts, at this time, to 7 to support smaller screens without having to rewrite the code to support multiple pages of hosts. I’m going to add, at mininum, an additional class where I want to allow users to connect to the virtual machine itself to run commands. I will configure the virtual machine menu the same way as the host control menu. VirtualBox Manager will scan the virtual machine and display buttons with relevant servers that are running. For example if the machine has apache, sendmail, and mysql it will detect them and display a button for each service. The user can then start, stop, or reset the service.

I should have this update implemented in the next couple of days. I will also set a toggle in the main menu to enable a main application password required before connecting to any host. Although I may reserve this feature for the enterprise level application.

Remote Server Management in Local Facility – LTSP

I’m using LTSP to manage a server remotely in a local facility. I setup an LTSP server on the host machine, and will place it in an air-conditioned room to preserve longevity. I configured a machine, of much lower power, to PXE boot from the server. There are several nuances to setting up an LTSP server. Once all is done you realize that it is less complicated that is can or needs to be. When things go right there is essentially three step in total. First:

sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone

This installs the works. Then configured dhcp.

sudo nano /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf

Config the subnet to the same that you are using on your router. Clearly if your routers local ip is 192.168.0.1 your subnet would be 192.168.0.0. Then set a range. Make sure you turn off the dhcp servers in any and all routers connected to the network. You need the dhcp server on the machine to be the sole and only. Set the “next-server” option to the came local ip address of the server. Then set the rest of the options; domain, default gateway, dns…. Then reboot the server:

sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Build the clients:

sudo ltsp-build-client

Thats really all there is to it. I’ve found that problems do arise, and instead of trying to fix them just purge all the installed applications and start over.

sudo apt-get remove --purge ltsp-server-standalone ltsp-server xinetd

One time I was stuck because there were two tftp inet servers, openbsd-inetd and inetd-hpa. They were conflicting. Then purge the autoremove function:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

Then start over installing ltsp-server-standalone. You can test your ltsp server using VirtualBox. Just like a real machine set the boot sequence to network as the first option. Now hook up a fancy monitor that can support 1920×1080 to the relatively low powered machine in the other room, and remotely manage your server from a pseudo local desktop environment.

Lock Down IP Addresses – SSH and Else

If you know the IP addresses that will be connecting to your machine, lock them down. Use the hosts.allow file as follows.


sshd : localhost : allow
sshd : 192.168.3. : allow
sshd : 192.168.1. : allow
sshd : ALL : deny

Using sshd : ALL : deny and listing various allow rules blocks everything other than the allowed rules. Therefore using sshd : IP : allow you will be able to connect to the machine from that IP only and everything else will be rejected. This procedure will substantially increase the security of the server.