VBoxHeadless - Running Virtual Machines With VirtualBox 3.1.x On A Headless Server

Is there an elegant way to automatically start guest VM's on a VirtualBox headless server at boot time or should I just add a static entry in /etc/rc.d/rc.local for each VM?

 

Hi Fellows,

Got this situation:

Host server running Ubuntu 9.10
Host server have 4 NICS.
4 guess machines, all of them with ubuntu.

I need to work with all 4 nics on each one of guess machine on bridge mode, but it doesnt work. Its that possible.
All nics are configure on bridge mode for on guess machine.

Thanks in advance.

 

How exactly did you create the guests, and how do you start them?

 

Hi Falko:

Tank you for your reply, this is my configuration for one of them.

Thanks in advance

Code:

<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.9-linux">
  <Machine uuid="{14628c06-f9ee-438c-80e1-db7e0654bed3}" name="Zeus_8.43_Server" OSType="Other" lastStateChange="2010-02-17T23:03:38Z">
    <Hardware version="2">
      <CPU count="1">
        <HardwareVirtEx enabled="true" exclusive="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtExNestedPaging enabled="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtExVPID enabled="true"/>
        <PAE enabled="true"/>
      </CPU>
      <Memory RAMSize="512"/>
      <Boot>
        <Order position="1" device="DVD"/>
        <Order position="2" device="DVD"/>
        <Order position="3" device="HardDisk"/>
        <Order position="4" device="None"/>
      </Boot>
      <Display VRAMSize="12" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="false" accelerate2DVideo="false"/>
      <RemoteDisplay enabled="false" port="3389" authType="Null" authTimeout="5000"/>
      <BIOS>
        <ACPI enabled="true"/>
        <IOAPIC enabled="false"/>
        <Logo fadeIn="true" fadeOut="true" displayTime="0"/>
        <BootMenu mode="MessageAndMenu"/>
        <TimeOffset value="0"/>
        <PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
      </BIOS>
      <USBController enabled="false" enabledEhci="false"/>
      <Network>
        <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027331A53" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth0"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="1" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027F784B4" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth1"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="2" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027F69EC3" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth2"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="3" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027ABC578" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth3"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="4" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027183C65" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="5" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027AF299D" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="6" enabled="false" MACAddress="0800275BBF77" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="7" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027E63516" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
      </Network>
      <UART>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
      </UART>
      <LPT>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
      </LPT>
      <AudioAdapter controller="AC97" driver="ALSA" enabled="false"/>
      <SharedFolders/>
      <Clipboard mode="Bidirectional"/>
      <Guest memoryBalloonSize="0" statisticsUpdateInterval="0"/>
      <GuestProperties/>
    </Hardware>
    <StorageControllers>
      <StorageController name="IDE Controller" type="PIIX4" PortCount="2">
        <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" port="0" device="0">
          <Image uuid="{10372a11-f162-40d8-b575-e0032cbbdc57}"/>
        </AttachedDevice>
      </StorageController>
    </StorageControllers>
  </Machine>
</VirtualBox>

Machine is started in this way:

Code:

VBoxManage startvm Zeus_8.43_Server -type vrdp

 

I guess this is the crucial part:

Code:

        <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027331A53" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth0"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="1" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027F784B4" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth1"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="2" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027F69EC3" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth2"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="3" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027ABC578" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="eth3"/>
        </Adapter>

I think you should have just one adapter per VM - eth0 for the first VM, eth1 for the second, and so on.

 

Hi Falko:

ok, this is the complete escenary:

need to get rid of 4 PCs, they work as a server. I have just one equipment with the capacity of virtualize all the services that runs on those PCs and I need/required 4 Nics, because I have:

Network gw:, 1 IP public, 1 local, 1 wireless network
Antispam: 1 ip Public
Monitoring: 1 ip public, 1 local
Vpn server: 1 ip public, 1 local, 1 wireless network

I want to connect one Network Interrace to the the public IP segment, and use that one in all the VM that requires a public IP, and so on with the other interfaces.

Is There a way to do this with VirtualBox, what do you recommend ?

Thanks in advance.

 

Do you have multiple public IPs? Only then can you assign public IPs to your VMs. If you have just one static IP which is in use on the host, this is not possible.

 

Falko:

Yes I Do, it doesn't matter for public IPs, got what I need.

 

Hi Falko:

So, is there no way todo this ?.
I been looking for information but I didn't found anything.

Thanks any way.

 

I haven't tried this yet, so I'm afraid I can't be of much help.

 

Nobody seems to have noticed the original post to this thread so I'll re-state the question: