Deploying VM Applications

Introduction

Appendix

Premade BOINC Wrapper

Configuration Options for vboxwrapper can be found here.

Windows

Linux

Premade Linux Images

x86: vmimagex86.vdi.gz

x64: vmimagex64.vdi.gz

Hand-build VM Image

The easiest way to begin putting together a Linux VM is to install the network install of Debian within the VM. You can find the netinst images ​here.

Main advantages:

• Small install size
• Virtualbox guest additions installed by default

The Virtualbox guest extensions are required in order to use the shared directory feature to communicate between the guest and host operating systems.

Role Selection

During install you'll be asked what role should this linux machine be configured for, make sure all roles are unselected before continuing.

Updating Grub

If you want to speed up the boot process you should change the default timeout for grub by modifing /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_TIMEOUT = 0

After saving the update run:

root@boinc-vm-image:/etc/default# update-grub

Updating Inittab

To configure Linux for automaic login you'll need to install a different terminal handler, mingetty seems to work pretty well for our purposes.

You'll need to install mingetty:

root@boinc-vm-image:/etc/default# apt-get install mingetty

Next you'll need to change the terminal handler assigned to the first virtual terminal, change line:

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

To:

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin root --noclear tty1

Updating .bashrc

Adding the following to the end of the .bashrc file for root:

# BOINC VM Initialization
echo BOINC VM Initialization [Sleeping 10 seconds]
sleep 5

The basic gist here is to give yourself time to break into a console session via CTRL-C to be able to make changes to the VM in the future. After executing any job you want the VM to accomplish you'll need to shutdown the VM. If you encounter an error shutdown the VM.

Shared Directory Usage

Adding the following to the end of the .bashrc file for root:

echo -- Mounting shared directory
mount -t vboxsf shared /root/shared
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo ---- Failed to mount shared directory
    sleep 5
    shutdown -hP 0
fi

echo -- Launching boinc_start.sh script
if [ -f ~/shared/boinc_start.sh ]; then
    cd ~/shared
    bash ./boinc_start.sh
else
    echo ---- Failed to launch script
    sleep 5
    shutdown -hP 0
fi

Be sure to create a directory called 'shared' in root's home directory.

The 'boinc_start.sh' script should contain whatever is needed to execute your job from within the VM.