Managing servers hosting virtual machines

There are two options for managing servers hosting virtual machines, the VMWare Server console, and a web interface to the console.

The Console Application

The console application can be used to start and stop VMs as well as set various networking and device configuration.

Using X-forwarding, open a trusted session to the host machine:

$ ssh -Y host

And start the console:

vmware &

Connect to localhost

(The console can also be used remotely, via port 902)

In order for VMs to appear in the web-based management interface, they must be listed in the Console inventory. Select "Open" from the contextual menu and browse to the .vmx file for your VMX.

The VMWare Management interface

The VMWare Management interface is a web-based interface using its own built-in apache server

To start the Apache server, type

/etc/init.d/httpd.vmware start

To stop the Apache server, type

/etc/init.d/httpd.vmware stop

To restart the Apache server, type

/etc/init.d/httpd.vmware restart

Connect to the interface:

https://host:8333/

This shell script simplifies tunneling to machines running the VMX management interface:

 #!/bin/bash
 
 user=$1
 gateway=$2
 destination=$3
 
 echo "Opening a tunnel to a VMX Management Interface..."
 echo ""
 
 if [ -z ${user} ]; then
         user=todd
 #        echo "   ---> No user provided. Defaulting to '${user}'."
 fi
 
 if [ -z ${gateway} ]; then
         gateway=brie3.cshl.org
 #        echo "   ---> No gateway provided. Defaulting to '${gateway}'."
 fi
 
 if [ -z ${destination} ]; then
         destination=freeze1.wormbase.org
 #        echo "   ---> No gateway provided. Defaulting to '${destination}'."
 fi
 
 echo "Tunneling to ${destination} through ${gateway} as user ${user}..."
 echo "   ---> To change these values:"
 echo "        $0 username gateway destination"
 
 
 ssh -t -l todd -L 8333:localhost:10000 brie6.cshl.org \
 ssh -l todd -L 10000:freeze1.wormbase.org:8333 freeze1.wormbase.org
 

See [[WormBase_Infrastructure#Frozen_release_servers Frozen Release Servers] for a list of servers hosting virtual machines.