I would love to have an idea on how to automatically install a Windows XP virtual machine on Virtualbox/VmWare. Is this feasable via a programming language, for example ? Or maybe an automated script ? I need this to avoid manual installation each time one of my VMs crashes.
I am not asking for a full program that does this, but I just needs technical hints on how to do this, then I will perform your suggestions myself.
Yes it's possible.
Can't you just make a snapshot to when the VM is working, or at least a "Clean Install" snapshot that saves having to reinstall your OS and common applications every time?
Yes, it is possible to do this via script. Actually, all IaaS cloud companies now try to do the deployment of VMs (and also physical servers) via automation. First of all, it's cheap a quick. And there is little human factor in it.
Not sure about VirtualBox, but if it works with VMware, KVM etc., there is no reason it shouldn't with VB.
As for the script itself, there are big money in this, so finding something may prove difficult. Try to check openStack, AFAIK it should be open source.
Does anyone know of any ways to automate the conversion of a .tib to a virtual machine file? I am looking to have a service that will automate the conversion process for my .tib files.
So far, the best solution that i found was using VMware PowerCLI, but it seems that you need access to their servers in order to use the actual conversion cmdlet (unless i am doing something wrong). If anyone has anymore information please let me know. Thanks!
VMware's standalone Converter can convert from some .tib versions and has an API, which I've never used.
I'm curious how you're doing this in PowerCLI.
edit - The Standalone Converter supports VMware Player and Workstation as destinations. See p20 here. So no, I don't think you need a full-fledged server installation to use this.
I am using a Samsung Chromebook with the Crouton chroot environment (https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton). This has revolutionized my view of how practical a Chromebook can be for developer-type work. I love it.
But now I am wanting to synchronize files between my various PCs and laptops. Using git is certainly an option, but it requires one to manually check in my work. What if I forget? I have been spoiled lately using either Dropbox or Google Drive to automagically keep my files all nicely synched up. The problem now with Crouton on my Chromebook is that I do see any obvious way to have project folder synced using Google Drive. I assume Drive would be the easier route since its a Google product. But if Dropbox can be made to work, that would be awesome too.
Has anyone looked into this and found a workable solution?
Although I haven't attempted to get it working yet, this project allows you to mount Google Drive to your Linux file system:
https://github.com/dsoprea/GDriveFS
You can access the locally synced Drive folder (as used by the rest of ChromeOS) from within a chroot at this directory:
/var/host/media/fuse/drivefs-[unique ID]/root/
Note that the unique ID is different on each machine (or possibly each google account?) - you will need to find this yourself.
This can also be accessed from the ChromeOS shell here:
/media/fuse/drivefs-[unique ID]/root/
Dropbox works fine for me within a crouton chroot.
% sudo apt-get install nautilus-dropbox
see http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/04/install-dropbox-in-ubuntu-12-04-precise-pangolin/ for a full description.
At my work I currently have my development environment inside a Virtual Machine. When I need to do work from home I copy my VM and any databases I need onto a laptop drive sized external USB drive. After about 10 minutes of copying I put the drive in my pocket and head home, copy back the VM and databases onto my personal computer and I'm ready to work. I follow the same steps to take the work back with me.
So if I count the total amount of time I spend waiting around for files to finish copying in order for me to take work home and bring it back again, it comes to around 40 minutes! I do have a VPN connection to my work from home (providing the internet is up at both sites) and a decent internet speed (8mbits down/?up) but I find Remote Desktoping into my work machine laggy enough for me to want to work on my VM directly.
So in looking at what other options I have or how I could improve my existing option I'm interested in what strategy you use or recommend to do work at home and keeping your code/environment in sync.
EDIT: I'd prefer an option where I don't have to commit my changes into version control before I leave work - as I like to make meaningful descriptive comments in my commits, committing would take longer than just copying my VM onto a portable drive! lol Also I'd prefer a solution where my dev environment stays in sync too. Having said that I'm still very interested in your own solutions even if they don't exactly solve my problem as best as I'd like. :)
A Distributed / Decentralized Version Control System solution will suit your needs, Git, Bazaar, Mercurial, darcs... you have plenty alternatives.
Use a version control software like SVN, SourceOffSite, etc. You just have to check-in all your changes and get the latest changes when you want to sync.
Or you can use Windows Live Sync -> https://sync.live.com/foldersharetolivesync.aspx
Hasn't anyone recommended rsync? Use an rsync client to send the diff between files. You can apply these diffs thus bringing your file up-to-date. For the smallest file transfer it's probably the best idea.
I simply use an external portable notebook drive and do all my work on that. All my PCs have it set to the same drive letter. So no copying anything .. I've not attempted to run VMs this way, however, but I don't see any reason it shouldn't simply work.
i use dropbox.
We use Citrix and then I do a remote desktop connection to my PC at work. It is not the fastest solution in the world, but it does eliminate the problem of keeping two or more workstations up-to-date.
Here is a solution I use.
Set up a VPN between the office network and the laptop.
Install the VisualSVN Server
Load all projects in the SCC.
When at the office I check out a project, work on it and then check it in. When at home or around the world I connect to the office via VPN, check out my project, do my thing then check it in. Via the VPN connection I can also RDP to my dev boxes and or servers.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I either connect remotely to the office SVN, or VPN in and remote desktop my dev or desktop machine and carry on working. It's very rare I sync any files, but when I do it's usually with DropBox (although you can't really do that with large files).
Write program, that will syncronize all your data through internet, and then shutwodn your computer, so at the end of the day you launch it, and go home, and when you come home all data is already there
We work with a distributed team, so it is vital everyone has easy and secure code repository access. For this, we use SVN over ssl/https. It works great, reliably and secure.
Depending on the VM software you are using why don't you set up 2 different VM disks, keep your user profile/dev files on one disk and the OS and other programs that change rarely on the other.
This way you can probably get away with only having to copy the larger disk image when you've installed something new and end up only copying a single virtual disk containing your work.
Just setup a SVN server at home, forward your router port and get on with your life. rsync is also a good, fast solution. Just remember to use it over SSH.
I had a similar problem. But fortunately we had a source control server (TFS) configured so I use to work only from the local Virtual Machines stored on my external drive and than check in the required files to the TFS as an when required.
you haven't specified the OS and virtualization system, but if you're working VM images that can be mounted, e.g. XEN on linux, then you could mount the image and sync it via rsync.
i connecting to the office net work and download the lates version form svn
use the Dev mysql server
so i am just like anther computer in the office network
I imagine that most of the time spent copying involves the database. Is that right? If so, can you not simply connect to your work DB from home using your VPN connection?
You would still copy your source files (or use a source code control system as others have suggested), but this would only take a fraction of the time.
If all you need is a virtual machine from your work computer, then you could mount a remote catalog (using nfs or smb) where is your virtual machine files store and run that virtual machine from there. This should be faster than using remote desktop.
I also use DropBox, and that is key because it is important to keep it simple.
It is generally better if you can have some type of remote desktop ability, because this will allow you to use a standard workstation configuration, and it will allow for consistent connection to network resources (database server, business servers like workflow, etc).
Working offline, in my opinion, is ok for certain tasks, but overall there are obstacles for systems which connect to other resources (unless you plan to move those resources to your home box).
It was a problem for me too. So, the company bought me a laptop, and I do my work on it, at home or anywhere else.
I have a set up where a folder on one machine is synced to a folder on another machine. any changes to the contents on one machine is also made on the other machine within a minute.
So you could sync the top level folder of your work files, and have then sync to your home machine. What I like about this is that syncing is completely transparent. As far as the user experience goes, I'm simply using the file system. No external app to interact with.
I use Live Sync Live Sync from Microsoft to this. You'll need to create a Windows Live ID to use this system. It works for windows and macs.
Dropbox and Microsoft's Live Sync are good options that have already been mentioned. My personal favorite is Live Mesh, also from Microsoft. The one great feature that puts it above the other two, in my mind, is the ability to specify which folders get synched on which computers, and where the folders are located. So, for example, I synch my Visual Studio 2005/Projects folder between my work machine and my dev box at home, and I synch Visual Studio 2008/Projects between my side gig VM and my home dev box.
i have a macbook with all my dev software on it; when i go to work, i start it in target firewire mode and plug it into my work macpro with the fast processor, lan connection, big monitor, etc. this way i never have to leave my user folder but i have access to all the software and hardware available at work.
Why don't you just use version control? A DVCS?
Find here a tutorial on DVCS for Windows users (very simple)
http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2010/03/distributed-development-for-windows.html
Some ideas:
Use network storage (with SSD cache if speed is a concern), either for your code or to host your VM.
Separate data and OS into two virtual disks in your VM.
Google drive, Onedrive, Dropbox etc.
If you use Visual Studio (Code), try the Live Share extension.
Dockerize your environment. Alternatively, I keep a bash script for all the setup I did, so I could almost one-click reinstall my dev environment anywhere.
Use a second version control, covering your whole work directory. Commit and push everything before switching environments, then pull and hard reset your commit in another machine.