VirtualBox image for multiple users

[edie209]

Hi I am after a bit of advise on VirtualBox I have been following other posts about creating an image for students learning programming. So I have created an image that I am really happy with in terms of isolation from the network but with the ability to save etc.

 

My problem cam when I decided to log on as a different user the image is not available. So my question how do you get over this issue, what are others doing? are you centrally serving an image or have I missed something really obvious.

 

Client machines are Windows 7

[abillybob]

As far as I'm aware you need to create and setup the virtual box machine onto every seperate user that needs to access it. I don't think you can do it via linking it up to a network share as then all the children would see where the last child has logged off and I'm guessing you want it to be a fresh OS for every student?

Bit of a tricky one really but thats how I'd approach this.

 

Hope it helps.

[Sam_Brown]

We're thinking of having one VM for everyone that resets every time the user logs on by restoring a base snapshot. But like you are having the same issue regarding having the VM accessible for everyone that logs on.

 

I've not followed this instructions but apparently this might help

 

How to Make Multiple Users of a Windows Computer Use the Same Virtual Machine

[edie209]

I will have a read of that and see thanks

[synaesthesia]

I have no idea what this means; the VM is installed locally to the machine, it resets on startup and because it registers itself as part of the batch file which runs it (and sets all the permissions etc) it just runs for the logged on user, whoever that is. Shared drive is set to N:\ (users home drive) so doesn't matter there either. Can't understand why it would behave otherwise? It's certainly nothing to do with the image.

[Boredguy]

What we did was set a environmental variable that points to our VM Image folder on the local machine. That way any user can access if via the shortcut we provide them.

[edie209]

I have been playing around with the idea from the link @Sam_Brown posted. I changed a a little to suit my needs and its works great. So I am now going to try again on a clean pc to create a msi an see if it rolls out as well

[TomCollins]

At my College, there is a VM created for each Computing student and is hosted on a Network Drive. VMWare Player gives about 5 warnings before hand but it all works.

[Sam_Brown]

At my College, there is a VM created for each Computing student and is hosted on a Network Drive. VMWare Player gives about 5 warnings before hand but it all works.

 

How much space does that take up?!!?

[TomCollins]

How much space does that take up?!!?

 

Less than 1TB if I remember correctly. All it is is an isolated image of Windows XP, Visual Basic 2008 EE and Office 2007. Those who use it either use their memory stick or store their projects on the VM.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using EduGeek

[Sam_Brown]

I have been playing around with the idea from the link @Sam_Brown posted. I changed a a little to suit my needs and its works great. So I am now going to try again on a clean pc to create a msi an see if it rolls out as well

 

I'm playing with it now but having issues. I can see the VMs when logged in as other users but it's pointing to the files under whichever user created the VM and thus giving me an error about about access being denied which is obviously correct but was assuming it would enable me. Any advice?

 

EDIT- Ok I got it sorted.

 

1) Actually moved my VM folder to the new shared folder (duh!!!)

2) Had to edit one of the XML files (I forget which one as at home) it to point to the new location of the VM.

 

All sorted now

 

If anyone wants me to do some more detailed guide I'm happy to.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Sam_Brown