About VirtualBox installation and VMs migration

[satimis]

Install that extension pack. it isn't available in the repos.

Hi,

I got it done. Thanks

I'm now migrating the VMs on the OLD HD to NEW HD. It'll take sometime.

I have following questions please shed me some light.

I keep all VMs on /data partition which is owned by root

To allow users running VMs

1)
Whether
Keep /data owned by root
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Dec 29 00:48 /data

Give rwx permission to the users of the group
$ sudo chmod go+rwx -R /data

$ cat /etc/group | grep data
www-data:33:

Add users allowed to group

www-data:x:33:userA userB userC etc

2)
How to allow userA userB userC etc running the VM owned by them only?

Now;
$ ls -al /data/VirtualBox\ VMs/

total 12
drwxrwxr-x 3 satimis satimis 4096 Dec 29 00:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 satimis satimis 4096 Dec 29 00:48 ..
drwx------ 3 satimis satimis 4096 Dec 29 00:52 cloudera
drwx------ 2 satimis satimis 4096 Dec 29 10:50 deb600dk00
etc.

satimis is the Administrator
e.g.
userA owns cloudera
userB owns deb600dk00

TIA


Regards
satimis

[CharlesA]

You would need to change the permissions and then add each VM to each user's' VBox instance.

[satimis]

You would need to change the permissions and then add each VM to each user's' VBox instance.

Could you please explain in more detail? Thanks

Regards
satimis

[CharlesA]

Could you please explain in more detail? Thanks

Regards
satimis

Each of these users will need their respective VMs in their own home directory which means importing it when they are logged in. This would mean you do not have to deal with permissions problems.

[satimis]

Each of these users will need their respective VMs in their own home directory which means importing it when they are logged in. This would mean you do not have to deal with permissions problems.

If I understand your advice correctly.

After creating userA account start VirtualBox and from there import the VM which is allowed to view? Can adminstrator view UserA's VM without login its account?

For new VM I found following reference
VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch0...age-registervm

# VBoxManage createvm --register

Then how about /data which is owned by root. The *.ova are now stored there under /data/OVA directory

Regards
satimis

[CharlesA]

If I understand your advice correctly.

After creating userA account start VirtualBox and from there import the VM which is allowed to view? Can adminstrator view UserA's VM without login its account?

That is pretty much what you would have to do. VBox doesn't support access controls and only sees VMs on a user-only level - so each user would need to import their own VMs. This gets problematic with more than one or two users.

As far as Viewing the VMs, they would need to use that user's account to view them (or if they are running, they can use some sort of remote access to view them, but I do not recommend that.)

[satimis]

That is pretty much what you would have to do. VBox doesn't support access controls and only sees VMs on a user-only level - so each user would need to import their own VMs. This gets problematic with more than one or two users.

As far as Viewing the VMs, they would need to use that user's account to view them (or if they are running, they can use some sort of remote access to view them, but I do not recommend that.)

Performed following steps


1)
login administrator, satimis

(remark: I can't create folders/directoris direct on Preference -> General -> Default Machine Folder
because /data is owned by root)

On terminal:-
$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/satimis

$ ls -ald /data/
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Dec 31 22:34 /data/

$ ls -ald /data/VirtualBox
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 31 22:34 /data/VirtualBox

$ ls -ald /data/VirtualBox/satimis/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 22:34 /data/VirtualBox/satimis/

$ cd /data/
$ sudo chown -R satimis:satimis VirtualBox

import VM.voa is without problem. All VMs imported work after changing network

2)
login as userA and create /data/VirtualBox/userA

But I'm not allowed to import its VMs because /VirtualBox is owned by administrator.

Any suggestion. TIA

B.R.
satimis

[JKyleOKC]

Any suggestion. TIA

Here's one way to do it:

1) login administrator, satimis

2) On terminal:

$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userA
$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userB
$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userC
and so on as needed

3) next, still logged in as yourself:

$ sudo chown -R userA:userA /data/VirtualBox/userA
$ sudo chown -R userB:userB /data/VirtualBox/userB
$ sudo chown -R userC:userC /data/VirtualBox/userC
and so on as needed

4) Logout as administrator, login as userA, and import VMs to /data/VirtualBox/userA.
Repeat for other users.

Others ways exist but this seems to me to be the most straightforward. With sudo you can create all the user-specific directories, and can chown them to the desired users and groups. Once that is done, each user has access to his/her own area with full permissisons.

[satimis]

Here's one way to do it:

1) login administrator, satimis

2) On terminal:

$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userA
$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userB
$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userC
and so on as needed

3) next, still logged in as yourself:

$ sudo chown -R userA:userA /data/VirtualBox/userA
$ sudo chown -R userB:userB /data/VirtualBox/userB
$ sudo chown -R userC:userC /data/VirtualBox/userC
and so on as needed

4) Logout as administrator, login as userA, and import VMs to /data/VirtualBox/userA.
Repeat for other users.

Others ways exist but this seems to me to be the most straightforward. With sudo you can create all the user-specific directories, and can chown them to the desired users and groups. Once that is done, each user has access to his/her own area with full permissisons.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. Performed following steps;

login satimis (administrator)

$ sudo mkdir -p /data/VirtualBox/userA

$ ls -ald /data/VirtualBox/userA

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan  1 21:20 /data/VirtualBox/userA

$ ls -ald /data/VirtualBox

drwxr-xr-x 4 satimis satimis 4096 Jan  1 21:20 /data/VirtualBox

$ sudo chown userA:userA /data/VirtualBox/userA

$ ls -ald /data/VirtualBox/userA

drwxr-xr-x 2 userA userA Jan  1 21:20 /data/VirtualBox/userA

logout satimis and login userA

Start VirtualBox
-> import appliance

Failed to import appliance /data/OVA/deb600dk01.ova
Could not open OVA file 'data/OVA/deb600dk01.ova

All export VMs are on /data/OVA/

userA is not on /etc/sudoer. Neither I expect /VirtualBox owned by userA

satimis

[CharlesA]

Check permissions on /data/OVA.