This page (revision-40) was last changed on 23-Apr-2022 17:06 by Harry Metske

This page was created on 23-Apr-2022 17:05 by Harry Metske

Only authorized users are allowed to rename pages.

Only authorized users are allowed to delete pages.

Page revision history

Version Date Modified Size Author Changes ... Change note
40 23-Apr-2022 17:06 41 KB Harry Metske to previous
39 23-Apr-2022 17:05 41 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
38 23-Apr-2022 17:05 40 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last --biosbootmenu disabled, not more than one cpu
37 23-Apr-2022 17:05 38 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
36 23-Apr-2022 17:05 37 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
35 23-Apr-2022 17:05 37 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
34 23-Apr-2022 17:05 37 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
33 23-Apr-2022 17:05 37 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
32 23-Apr-2022 17:05 37 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
31 23-Apr-2022 17:05 36 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
30 23-Apr-2022 17:05 35 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
29 23-Apr-2022 17:05 35 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
28 23-Apr-2022 17:05 35 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last guest properties
27 23-Apr-2022 17:05 33 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
26 23-Apr-2022 17:05 32 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
25 23-Apr-2022 17:05 32 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
24 23-Apr-2022 17:05 31 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
23 23-Apr-2022 17:05 30 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
22 23-Apr-2022 17:05 30 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last
21 23-Apr-2022 17:05 29 KB Harry Metske to previous | to last cpu affinity

Page References

Incoming links Outgoing links
VirtualBox
VirtualBox

Version management

Difference between version and

At line 2 added one line
[{TableOfContents }]
At line 8 added 2 lines
%%warning A new report on [VirtualBox-4.1] is also available %%
At line 12 added 3 lines
%%accordion
%%tab-VBoxManage
At line 303 added 2 lines
%%
At line 315 changed one line
* startup vboxgtk and register the CD image (manage VDI's)
* startup ''VirtualBox'' (or the old vboxgtk) and register the CD image (manage VDI's)
At line 343 changed one line
--------------------
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ vb modifyvm ubuntu910 --memory 255 --vram 1 --pae off --hwvirtex off --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --hda /home/metskem/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/ubuntu910.vdi --dvd /home/metskem/Downloads/ubuntu-9.10-rc-server-i386.iso --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 wlan0 --vrdp on --vrdp 10910
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
At line 356 added 10 lines
** main memory is 255 MB
** graphics memory 1 MB
** pae (Physical Address Extensions) off
** no hardware virtualization
** bootorder, dvd first, disk second
** attach a vdi file that we will create later
** use bridged networking (most suitable for servers)
** use the host's wlan nic as bridgeadapter
** use the DVD (we need that to boot from the first time)
** if started headless (with VBoxHeadless cmd), use port 10910
At line 347 changed one line
metskem@gneisenau ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks $ VBoxManage createhd --filename ubuntu910.vdi --size 2000 --format VDI
metskem@gneisenau ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks $ VBoxManage createhd --filename ubuntu910.vdi --size 2000 --format VDI --remember
At line 359 removed one line
* now fire up the VM (you can use the vboxgtk for that) but I prefer cmdline, so : ''__ VBoxManage startvm ubuntu910 __'' (that name was given to this VM)
At line 381 added one line
!! Starting the VM
At line 383 added 13 lines
* now fire up the whole thing (you can use the vboxgtk for that) but I prefer cmdline, so : ''__ VBoxManage startvm ubuntu910 __'' (that name was given to this VM)
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ vb startvm ubuntu910
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Waiting for the remote session to open...
Remote session has been successfully opened.
}}}
\\This will show a popup and you can go on:
[vboxrunning.png]
At line 397 added 540 lines
The manual (Chapter 6) has more information on this.
I chose bridged networking, as this is most suitable for servers.
You can choose a host adapter that acts as the bridge adapter.
On the host this looks like :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 00:24:81:56:01:f9 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wmaster0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
link/ieee802.11 00:22:fa:8f:fd:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
link/ether 00:22:fa:8f:fd:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.0.164/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global wlan0
inet6 fe80::222:faff:fe8f:fd0a/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
7: vboxnet0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.2/8 brd 10.255.255.255 scope global vboxnet0
inet6 fe80::800:27ff:fe00:0/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ ifconfig vboxnet0
vboxnet0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 0a:00:27:00:00:00
inet addr:10.0.2.2 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::800:27ff:fe00:0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:292 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:19247 (19.2 KB)
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ ip r
10.0.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.0.164 metric 2
10.0.2.0/24 via 10.0.2.2 dev vboxnet0 scope link
10.0.2.0/24 dev vboxnet0 scope link
169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
default via 10.0.0.138 dev wlan0 proto static
}}}
On the VM (guest) it looks like this :
{{{
root@ubuntu:/etc/init.d# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:f5:1f:e9:04 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.0.172/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global eth0
inet6 fe80::a00:f5ff:fe1f:e904/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
root@ubuntu:/etc/init.d# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:f5:1f:e9:04
inet addr:10.0.0.172 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00:f5ff:fe1f:e904/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:14721 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14884 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1074906 (1.0 MB) TX bytes:14917902 (14.9 MB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd020
root@ubuntu:/etc/init.d# ip r
10.0.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.0.172
default via 10.0.0.138 dev eth0 metric 100
}}}
!! Shared Folders
This feature is only available when you install the guest additions.\\
Once you defined a shared folder for a guest, you can access inside the guest with an NFS-like mount :\\
''mount -t vboxsf SharedFolderDefault /tmp/ff'' .\\
I could not get this to work, I keep getting
!! Guest properties
This is also only available when guest additions have been installed.\\
You can assign (from the host) key/values to a guest , and after that you can read (and/or write) those values from within the guest.
''vb guestproperty set ubuntu910 GUESTNAME ubuntu910 --flags RDONLYGUEST''
And then in the guest :
{{{
root@ubuntuminimal:/proc# VBoxControl guestproperty enumerate
VirtualBox Guest Additions Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Name: /VirtualBox/HostGuest/SysprepExec, value: <NULL>, timestamp: 1257533847419218000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/HostGuest/SysprepArgs, value: <NULL>, timestamp: 1257533847419316000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Product, value: Linux, timestamp: 1257533870949479000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Release, value: 2.6.31-14-generic, timestamp: 1257533870949929000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Version, value: #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:04:26 UTC 2009, timestamp: 1257533870950252000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/ServicePack, value: <NULL>, timestamp: 1257533870950573000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version, value: 3.0.10, timestamp: 1257533870950879000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Revision, value: 54097, timestamp: 1257533870951186000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/LoggedInUsers, value: 1, timestamp: 1257535893474621000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/NoLoggedInUsers, value: false, timestamp: 1257533900982916000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/Count, value: 1, timestamp: 1257535893475150000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP, value: 10.0.0.177, timestamp: 1257535893475491000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Broadcast, value: 10.0.0.255, timestamp: 1257535893476082000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Netmask, value: 255.255.255.0, timestamp: 1257535893476291000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/Status, value: Up, timestamp: 1257535893476635000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/GUI/LanguageID, value: C, timestamp: 1257533747000847000, flags: <NULL>
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/VBoxVer, value: 3.0.10, timestamp: 1257533847421017000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/VBoxRev, value: 54097, timestamp: 1257533847421081000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/LoggedInUsersList, value: metskem, timestamp: 1257535893474087000, flags: <NULL>
Name: GUESTNAME, value: ubuntu910_minimal, timestamp: 1257535894696852000, flags: <NULL>
}}}
!! Snapshots
TODO..............
!! Installation of guest additions
* scp file ''/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso'' from the host to your guest
* login to guest and mount the iso ''mkdir /tmp/ff && sudo mount -o loop /tmp/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso /tmp/ff''
* ''apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.31-14 linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic gcc''
* run it:
{{{
root@ubuntuminimal:/tmp/ff# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.0.10 Guest Additions for Linux installation........................................................
VirtualBox 3.0.10 Guest Additions installation
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel module...
Building the shared folder support kernel module...
Building the drm support kernel module...
Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Could not find X.org or XFree86 on the guest system. The X Window drivers
will not be installed.
}}}
!! Management of VM's
Statistics from the GUI:
[vboxstats.png]
! Setup statistics collection
Use the __'' VBoxManage metrics setup ''__ command :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ VBoxManage metrics setup --period 10 --samples 600 ubuntu910 CPU/Load,RAM/Usage
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
}}}
You can display the current collection settings with the ''__ VBoxManage metrics list ''__ command
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ vb metrics list ubuntu910
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Object Metric Unit Minimum Maximum Period Count Description
---------- -------------------- ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -----------
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User % 0 100000 10 600 Percentage of processor time spent in user mode by VM process.
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:avg % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:min % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:max % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel % 0 100000 10 600 Percentage of processor time spent in kernel mode by VM process.
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:avg % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:min % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:max % 0 100000 10 1
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used kB 0 2147483647 10 600 Size of resident portion of VM process in memory.
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:avg kB 0 2147483647 10 1
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:min kB 0 2147483647 10 1
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:max kB 0 2147483647 10 1
}}}
! Displaying statistics
Use the ''__ VBoxManage metrics query __'' command to display usage stats :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/bin $ vb metrics query ubuntu910
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Object Metric Values
---------- -------------------- --------------------------------------------
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User 0.22%, 0.09%, 0.15%, 0.30%, 0.20%, 0.15%, 0.36%, 0.09%, 0.30%, 0.15%, 0.15%, 0.40%, 0.25%, 0.35%, 0.20%, 0.22%, 0.40%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:avg 0.23%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:min 0.09%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/User:max 0.40%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel 0.18%, 0.09%, 0.15%, 0.35%, 0.30%, 0.25%, 0.27%, 0.09%, 0.20%, 0.20%, 0.10%, 0.20%, 0.15%, 0.20%, 0.30%, 0.18%, 0.25%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:avg 0.20%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:min 0.09%
ubuntu910 CPU/Load/Kernel:max 0.35%
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB, 136452 kB
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:avg 136452 kB
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:min 136452 kB
ubuntu910 RAM/Usage/Used:max 136452 kB
}}}
!! Mass VM creation
! Preparing mother system (DSL)
I created a fairly small Linux image with a DSL (Damn Small Linux) distro.\\
This guy runs with only 24M RAM.\\
The following was done to create this one :
* download iso image
* ''vb createvm --name dsl01 --register --ostype Linux''
* ''vb createhd --filename HardDisks/dsl01disk.vdi --size 250 --format VDI --remember''
* ''vb modifyvm dsl01 --memory 24 --vram 1 --pae off --hwvirtex off --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --hda HardDisks/dsl01disk.vdi --dvd /home/metskem/Downloads/dsl.iso --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 wlan0''
* give the VM a name that can be queried by the guest: ''vb guestproperty set dsl01 vmname dsl01 -flags RDONLYGUEST''
* to use this name in the guest, you first have to install the guest additions, see Chapter 4.3.1 ''Installing the Linux Guest Additions''
* start the vm with ''vb startvm dsl01''
* make sure the ssh daemon is started during boot so we can remote login, create symlink in /etc/rc5.d: S25ssh -> ../init.d/ssh
* set password for user dsl
* create the following script and create symlink in /etc/rc5.d: S22tellip -> ../init.d/tellip.sh :
%%prettify
{{{
IP=`ifconfig eth0|grep inet|awk '{ print $2}'|awk -F: '{print $2}'`
wget -q -O - http://www.computerhok.nl/IAM:$IP
}}}
%%
This tells us which machine is using which IP address.
! Preparing mother system (Ubuntu)
The same thing was done with a rather minimal Ubuntu910 server.\\
To summarize :
* 1.5 GB filesystem
* set the hostname inside the guest to guestproperty GUESTNAME by adding the following to /etc/rc.local:
{{{
# set the hostname to the value that is set by the hypervisor
HostName=`VBoxControl guestproperty get GUESTNAME | grep Value | cut -d' ' -f2`
hostname $HostName
echo $HostName > /etc/hostname
logger "$0 : hostname set to $HostName"
}}}
* store my id_rsa.pub file in ~/.ssh
* visudo so that I can easily su without prompting
* removing /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules (or you get eth1 in use instead of eth0 on the cloned guest)
! Cloning
Now I want to clone this and create a whole lot of them (in a script).
The following actions the have to be done (XX = sequencenumber) :
* ''vb clonehd HardDisks/dsl01disk.vdi HardDisks/dslXXdisk.vdi --remember''
* ''vb createvm --name dslXX --register --ostype Linux''
* ''vb modifyvm dslXX --memory 24 --vram 1 --pae off --hwvirtex off --boot1 disk --hda HardDisks/dslXXdisk.vdi --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 wlan0''
See the following simple script :
%%prettify
{{{
#!/bin/sh
#
# script to generate VBoxManage VMs
#
NUMVMS=$1
for N in `seq 2 $NUMVMS`
do
echo "Creating VM $N"
VBoxManage clonehd HardDisks/dsl01disk.vdi HardDisks/dsl${N}disk.vdi --remember
VBoxManage createvm --name dsl$N --register --ostype Linux
VBoxManage modifyvm dsl$N --memory 24 --vram 1 --pae off --hwvirtex off --boot1 disk --hda HardDisks/dsl${N}disk.vdi --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 wlan0 --vrdp on --vrdpport 100$N
done
echo ""
echo "VirtualBox's known VMs :"
echo " -------------------------------------------------------------"
VBoxManage list vms
echo ""
echo ""
echo "VirtualBox's known HDDs :"
echo " -------------------------------------------------------------"
VBoxManage list hdds
}}}
Or the new script for Ubuntu:
%%prettify
{{{
#!/bin/sh
#
# script to generate VBoxManage VMs
#
NUMVMS=$1
for N in `seq 1 $NUMVMS`
do
echo "Creating VM $N"
VBoxManage clonehd HardDisks/ubuntu910disk.vdi HardDisks/ubm${N}disk.vdi --remember
VBoxManage createvm --name ubm$N --register --ostype Ubuntu
VRDPPORT=`expr 10000 + $N`
VBoxManage modifyvm ubm$N --biosbootmenu disabled --memory 64 --vram 6 --boot1 disk --hda HardDisks/ubm${N}disk.vdi --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 wlan0 --vrdp on --vrdpport $VRDPPORT
VBoxManage guestproperty set ubm$N GUESTNAME ubm$N --flags RDONLYGUEST
done
echo ""
echo "VirtualBox's known VMs :"
echo " -------------------------------------------------------------"
VBoxManage list vms
#echo ""
#echo ""
#echo "VirtualBox's known HDDs :"
#echo " -------------------------------------------------------------"
#VBoxManage list hdds
}}}
%%
!! CPU Usage
__Tickless kernel__
Running 5 dsl guests concurrently almost eats 50 % of the host system, I suspect that the non-tickless (2.4) kernel of DSL is the cause of that.
So I did the same clone excercise with a brand new Ubuntu 9.10 (2.6.31 kernel), which has a tickless kernel (CONFIG_NO_HZ).\\
These guests run with 64 MB, 1 GB VDI file (680 MB hda for the guest, the rest is swap).\\
One [caveat with eth0 eth1|http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20082] , I solved that by removing __ /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules __
__ CPU Affinity __
Another thing that is mentioned on the forums is that assigning cpu aff. to a process reduces CPU consumption of a guest.\\
Experimented this by running two identical guests for many hours, one with aff. (ubm1) and another one without aff. (ubm2), here are the start commands :
{{{
taskset -c 0 VBoxManage startvm ubm1 --type headless
VBoxManage startvm ubm2 --type headless
}}}
After a couple of hours, we look at the cpu time :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/Downloads $ ps -f -p 10591 10622
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY STAT TIME CMD
metskem 10591 9922 0 Nov03 ? Sl 7:44 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless --comment ubm1 --startvm 59034198-f98e-447d-896d-cd87cead96c2 --vrdp off
metskem 10622 9922 0 Nov03 ? Sl 12:13 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless --comment ubm2 --startvm 108de229-caef-4fb8-b4bf-973155c945d1 --vrdp off
}}}
As you can see, this makes quite a difference, 464 seconds versus 733 seconds (__ 37 % less CPU usage __)
Just to be sure I started two additional guests :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/Downloads $ taskset -c 1 VBoxManage startvm ubm3 --type headless
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Waiting for the remote session to open...
Remote session has been successfully opened.
metskem@gneisenau ~/Downloads $ VBoxManage startvm ubm4 --type headless
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Waiting for the remote session to open...
Remote session has been successfully opened.
metskem@gneisenau ~/Downloads $ vb list runningvms
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
"ubm1" {59034198-f98e-447d-896d-cd87cead96c2}
"ubm2" {108de229-caef-4fb8-b4bf-973155c945d1}
"ubm3" {6f01d4b5-1628-428b-9d37-1226a5e774bd}
"ubm4" {bd613011-305d-469a-8492-15977ffdcc49}
}}}
Results:
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/vbox $ ps -f -p 17654 17687
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY STAT TIME CMD
metskem 17654 9922 0 Nov04 ? Sl 4:33 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless --comment ubm3 --startvm 6f01d4b5-1628-428b-9d37-1226a5e774bd --vrdp off
metskem 17687 9922 0 Nov04 ? Sl 5:01 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless --comment ubm4 --startvm bd613011-305d-469a-8492-15977ffdcc49 --vrdp off
}}}
!! Nice and Handy to know
* Use 'Right Ctrl' (the host key) key to capture the mouse/keyboard again
* show VM info with __'' VBoxManage showvminfo <vmname> ''__
* start your VM's with ''VBoxHeadless --startvm ubuntu910 --vrdp=config'', this way you don't need X on the host, and you still have console access via rdesktop, the vrdp config is read from the configxml (port is important if you run multiple guests)
* set UTC=no in ''/etc/default/rcS'' (or dhclient will fail during start, and you get a DHCP address one hour after the boot)
* most proper __start command__ : __'' nohup taskset -c 0 VBoxHeadless --startvm ubm1 &''__
* how to determine the ip address of the guest (DHCP):
{{{
metskem@gneisenau ~/vbox $ vb guestproperty enumerate ubuntu910 | grep IP
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP, value: 10.0.0.177, timestamp: 1257594803542047000, flags:
}}}
* what irritated me is that the output of the VBoxManage command is always cluttered with Sun advertisement :
{{{
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
}}}
also the long command name VBoxManage with two capitals in it is not quick to type, so I got rid of that by create this one line script :
{{{
VBoxManage $* |grep -v 'VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version' | grep -v 'Sun Microsystems, Inc.' | grep -v 'All rights reserved'
}}}
* you cannot assign more than one CPU, if you do it looks like it needs hw-virt, in VirtualBox gui you cannot even select more than one cpu, with the commandline you can, but it won't boot (even if ''--hwvirtex off'' has been set) :
{{{
Error: failed to start machine. Error message: VT-x is not available. (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).
Unknown error creating VM (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX)
}}}
!! "Resize harddisk"
Sooner or later you run into the situation that your guest's hda is full, and you need a larger one.\\
Do the following :
* create a new (larger) vdi ''vb createhd --filename HardDisks/ubuntu910disk.vdi --size 1500M --remember''
* attach it to the guest: ''vb modifyvm --hdb HardDisks/ubuntu910disk.vdi''
* boot the VM
* logon and copy disks : ''sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=2M''
* shutdown VM
* reassign disk for VM:
** ''vb modifyvm ubuntu910_minimal --hda none --hdb none
** ''vb modifyvm ubuntu910_minimal --hda HardDisks/ubuntu910disk.vdi''
* reboot the VM
* now the physical disk is larger, but you are not there yet (this guest uses LVM :-) ) :
* ''fdisk /dev/sda3'' , create new primary partition (nr3), write partition table and quit
* signal the kernel that partition table has changed : ''partprobe''
* create new physical volume : ''pvcreate /dev/sda3''
* add it to the existing volume group ''vgextend ubuntuminimal /dev/sda3''
* extend the logical volume: ''lvextend --size +532M /dev/ubuntuminimal/root''
* resize the filesystem: ''resize2fs /dev/mapper/ubuntuminimal-root 1160M''
!! Performance
! tar -czvf
I wanted to get an idea of much overhead there is, so comparing running a load on native hardware against running under VirtualBox.\\
Now you do a complete study on this subject, but no time for that.
I did just one very simple test :
{{{
metskem@ubm7:/tmp$ time tar -czf /tmp/ff.tar /usr/*
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
tar: Removing leading `/' from hard link targets
real 1m20.259s
user 0m27.586s
sys 0m27.286s
}}}
Then scp this tar file to the host, untar it to a temp directory and tar it again in the same way :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau /tmp/fff $ time tar -czf /tmp/ffnative.tar usr
real 0m29.273s
user 0m26.282s
sys 0m1.284s
}}}
||type||host ||guest
|real|29|80
|user|26|28
|sys|1|27
This is rather disappointing, I like to do some testing with a Java workload....
! ant compile jspwiki
{{{
metskem@ubm7:~/jspwiki$ time ant clean compile
Buildfile: build.xml
clean:
[delete] Deleting directory /home/metskem/jspwiki/build
[mkdir] Created dir: /home/metskem/jspwiki/build/tests/classpath
init:
[mkdir] Created dir: /home/metskem/jspwiki/build/classes
compile:
[javac] Compiling 431 source files to /home/metskem/jspwiki/build/classes
[javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
[javac] Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 15 seconds
real 0m16.701s
user 0m3.372s
sys 0m7.512s
}}}
{{{
metskem@gneisenau /tmp/fff/jspwiki $ time ant clean compile
Buildfile: build.xml
clean:
[delete] Deleting directory /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build
[mkdir] Created dir: /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/tests/classpath
init:
[mkdir] Created dir: /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/classes
compile:
[javac] Compiling 431 source files to /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/classes
[javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
[javac] Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 10 seconds
real 0m10.653s
user 0m17.541s
sys 0m0.744s
}}}
||type||host (taskset -c 1)||host ||guest (taskset -c 1)||guest
|real|17|11|17|20
|user|16|18|3|4
|sys|1|1|8|9
This is a strange result, the host takes 18 user seconds versus 3 user seconds in the guest, for the host the wall-clock time is less than the sum of user and sys (2 cores, that's why ?), ............Yes indeed, that's why :
{{{
metskem@gneisenau /tmp/fff/jspwiki $ time taskset -c 1 ant clean compile
Buildfile: build.xml
clean:
[delete] Deleting directory /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build
[mkdir] Created dir: /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/tests/classpath
init:
[mkdir] Created dir: /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/classes
compile:
[javac] Compiling 431 source files to /tmp/fff/jspwiki/build/classes
[javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
[javac] Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 16 seconds
real 0m16.766s
user 0m15.897s
sys 0m0.816s
}}}
This page (revision-40) was last changed on 23-Apr-2022 17:06 by Harry MetskeTop