Mac+VM+WINDOWS 7+SIMS=NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

[Koldov]

And so, once again I need to throw myself upon the mercy of the mighty EDUGEEK!

 

I'm going to the staffroom now to sacrifice some coffee and cake so that you, oh great hive mind might be appeased...

 

I have a Macbook (well, the Head has a Mac.... long story), but it needs SIMS.

 

It gets VMWARE Fusion and after weeks of toil, research and questioning, a Windows VM is born! It gets a static IP, SOLUS Agent, SIMS (eventually).

 

All good? Not really! All this work was done under my admin account on the Mac and my Admin account in the VM.

 

Full marks to whomever guesses what is coming next....

 

Log onto the Head's account, open Fusion and.... No beautifully crafted VM to be seen! As the VM is stored in a 'My Documents' kind of way, no other user can access it!

 

I have read on the VMware site that sharing imposes massive limitations. It will mean it cannot be suspended or a snapshot taken, all kinds of sharing/mirrored folders will be disabled. I have also seen that moving it as a copy can mean that "a new UUID and MAC address are generated, which can cause Windows to require re-activation and may cause network issues". Seriously? I have spent literally weeks getting this on the network and installing SIMS!

 

In essence or TL;DR

 

How do I move a VM on a Mac so that another user can access it?

 

Please bear in mind I am both a Mac and VM noob (obviously)!

Edited December 6, 2016 by Koldov

[Arthur]

How do I move a VM on a Mac so that another user can access it?

Move the VM to /Users/Shared/VMs and then set the permissions on the VMs folder so that all users have read/write access to all of the files contains within.

 

Logon as the other user and open the VM from the /Users/Shared/VMs folder.

[Michael]

Is Bootcamp out the question, so you cut out the virtualisation part?

[Steve21]

Not to spoil any particular reasons, but wouldn't it be quicker and simple just to have a remoteApp of SIMs? Not like it'll work without network access anyway (SIMs wise)

 

Steve

[Michael]

Long term plan B is change your MIS for a cloud based solution.

[Griff]

I think if you move it then open it it will ask you if its been moved or copied, if you say you moved it, it shouldn't create new UUID or MAC

 

https://kylebubp.com/2012/05/moving-vm-in-vmware-fusion/

 

my HT also wants a mac...I would ask you how its working out for you but given this post I assume not great...

Edited December 6, 2016 by Griff

[Chuckster]

I don't have a MAC in front of me, but couldn't you partition the HDD using Disk Utilities and then dump the VM folder on the newly created partitioned drive? You might need to set up access rights through Users & Groups preferences for the HT. That said, I think that'll ought to do it.

[Koldov]

Move the VM to /Users/Shared/VMs and then set the permissions on the VMs folder so that all users have read/write access to all of the files contains within. Logon as the other user and open the VM from the /Users/Shared/VMs folder.

 

Ok, so this is roughly what the VMware article says. I am having trouble on the 'read/write access' part. It says, "remove the extension so it looks like a folder - change the permission for everyone to read/write - use the drop down menu to apply to enclosed items" (similar to containers/subfolders in Windows I guess. But I can't see that option anywhere! This of course gives me a permission error when I log on as the other user and try to run the VM.

 

I think if you move it then open it it will ask you if its been moved or copied, if you say you moved it, it shouldn't create new UUID or MAC

 

https://kylebubp.com/2012/05/moving-vm-in-vmware-fusion/

 

my HT also wants a mac...I would ask you how its working out for you but given this post I assume not great...

 

Fingers crossed that works! Got to say, in 6 years here this is the most frustrating thing I've come across... Basically, I have posted about it before, but to cut a long story short, he had a perfectly good Windows laptop, however he just likes the shiny Mac - in fact I have spent most of my time on his Mac making it essentially like a Windows laptop (installing Microsoft Office/Outlook and now this VM for SIMS)! Adding to that the £800 odd it cost, out of a budget that we can't spare...

 

Essentially, all the other options were taken out of my hands. The Mac was bought without my knowledge, as was VMware Fusion on the advice from the schools IT consultant (aka friend of a member of SLT).

 

Mine is not to question why...

 

Edit: Ok my guess is I can't set permission to subfolders, because once I remove the file extension it shows as a 'package' and not a 'folder' as it does in the instructions...

Edited December 6, 2016 by Koldov

[Arthur]

I am having trouble on the 'read/write access' part.

Assuming you have moved the VM into a folder called VMs in /Users/Shared, right-click the VMs folder, choose "Get Info", then at the bottom of the box click the padlock, enter your admin password, for Everyone select Read & Write, then in the drop-down box with a cog on it, select "Apply to enclosed items".

 

It says, "remove the extension so it looks like a folder

I didn't bother with that.

[Koldov]

Insufficient permission to access file....

[Arthur]

Insufficient permission to access file....

Which other users or groups are listed in the Get Info box on the VMs folder? Try changing those to read & write too (and applying to enclosed items).

[Koldov]

I've got everyone, administrator, headteacher as 'read & write' the only other one is wheel (?) and that says 'read only'.

 

I read that wheel is an Apple system account and shouldn't be changed though...?

[Marci]

wheel is a group, not an account. Members of the 'wheel' group can use sudo to perform functions as root.

[Koldov]

Thanks @Marci - Unfortunately that was so far over my head it took out a passing bird...

 

As you can probably tell I'm more of a Windows point and click guy!

 

Just to add to this post though, I trashed the original VM and spun up another under the Head's log-in.

 

It didn't solve my issue though because although I managed to get SIMS working in the VM, every action within the VM led the Mac to lose its network connection (this was with 'bridged network' - static IP for host and VM)...

 

VMware's support suggesting changing the networking option to NAT (even though I'd explained that wouldn't be desirable) and yes it did even out the networking balance, but the NAT blocked access to the VM for SOLUS 3 and it seems like some sort of port-forwarding is in order - which means digging into the Fusion config files. I opened a support case but as they are on Pacific Standard Time, I doubt I will get timely responses.

 

SOLUTION - Mindful I have had the Head's laptop for a week, I downloaded the Microsoft Remote Desktop app for the Mac, pointed it to a VM on the server. I'd installed SIMS on it and made him a standard user in the VM. Job done a - couple of hours work....

Edited December 13, 2016 by Koldov

[Marci]

I'd just put the blame on VMWare Fusion (never liked it personally). I use Parallels on MacOS Sierra to host my AD-bound & managed Win7 & Win10 VMs with SIMS installed, and never had any issues with permissions across user accounts (prompts you to tick a box during creation to enable the VM to be shared across all users on the device) or bridged network connection dropping. But yes, majority of the time I just fire up MS RDP and connect to our Remote Desktop Gateway and use that instead. Edited December 14, 2016 by Marci