Virtualbox + image for programming classes

[Spikeh]

Like you suggested, it was just the script processing stopping it - Cheers for the pointers

[fiza]

Does anyone have a write-up on how to do this on a vanilla windows network? I would normally research it all myself but I have limited time.

[fiza]

no one?

[Boredguy]

It's quite straightforward on a vanilla setup, or was for us

 

Follow the same instructions for extracting the MSI and certificate from the EXE.

Add the certificate into your GPO, reboot workstations then deploy VB to your workstations.

 

We then created our OS image, made it an immutable disk, and then used the xml file to configure the restrictions for VB instead of using the batch file method.

We choose to use a specific folder on the local workstation to store the Virtualbox user files and the VM, so we set an Environmental variable via GPP for all users pointing to that folder.

Finally we used the default method to create the VM shortcut to desktop and assigned that to users so they never actually see the main VB program.

 

To deploy out the VM, we use a batch file and robocopy to copy the whole VB storage folder to target machines.

 

Been working nicely for the last 3 months

[Arthur]

To save a bit of time, I have attached the certificate Oracle use to sign their VirtualBox driver with.

Oracle VirtualBox Driver Certificate.zip

[fiza]

Mine is copied to each PC. It's only 7gb (windows 7 x86 "lite") with all the relevant stuff installed.

 

@synaesthesia How did you make your image "lite". I looked at nlite but it doesn't seem to support Windows 7. Also looked at RT7lite but the links to the downloads don't work.

Edited May 9, 2014 by fiza

[fiza]

managed to download a copy of rt7lite from softpedia.

[Arthur]

managed to download a copy of rt7lite from softpedia.

Don't bother with rt7lite. It hasn't been updated for over four years. WinToolkit is much better.

 

Btw, you can also remove stuff using DISM or an AutoUnattend.xml file. e.g.

 

dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:InboxGames

Edited May 9, 2014 by Arthur

[synaesthesia]

I can't remember, it was a lite version I'd had lying around before. RT7Lite does ring a bell though, could very possibly have been that. Stripped out everything unnecessary like games, screensavers, themes yada yada, updated it fully, installed the IDE's and went from there. It's a pain if anything needs adding to it later down the line as it means redistributing a 9GB image to all our ICT machines but haven't had to do that yet.

[fiza]

Does anyone know what the licensing situation would be for the VMs if we ran Windows 7 inside them if we have an EES agreement?

[robjduk]

fairly positive you need an OEM licence for every virtual machine although if I am wrong I am sure a forum member will not take long to correct me

[fiza]

If the machine the vm is loaded on came with an oem licence does that count?

[Arthur]

Does anyone know what the licensing situation would be for the VMs if we ran Windows 7 inside them if we have an EES agreement?

Since EES includes Software Assurance, you are able to run upto four Windows VMs locally on each PC/Mac since virtualization use rights are included.

 

I assume that you are already licensed for "Windows Enterprise Upgrade" organization-wide under your EES agreement and that each PC has a qualifying base license (usually the OEM Windows license the PC came with)?

 

Sources

 

• Licensing Windows 7 for use with Virtual Machines
  
• Licensing Windows and Microsoft Office for use on a Mac
  

[fiza]

I assume that you are already licensed for "Windows Enterprise Upgrade" organization-wide under your EES agreement and that each PC has a qualifying base license (usually the OEM Windows license the PC came with)?

 

Yes and Yes

 

Thanks Arthur. Found some info about it last night but glad to get further confirmation.

[cpjitservices]

As long as your licensed I don't think you'll have any problems as it would be the same as installing it onto a machine anyway wouldn't it ?

 

Could this be of use in this scenario ?

 

phpVirtualBox | Free Development software downloads at SourceForge.net

[fiza]

In previous posts @Steve21 and others talked about mapping a drive to the users home drive using shared folders.

I have created my VM with no network card installed. I use the Shared folders setting to map it to the hosts H drive but when I look in the VM it doesn't get mapped. I have ticked Auto-Mount.

Where am I going wrong?

[synaesthesia]

Should be nothing more to it. Mine looks like

 

NAME: N_DRIVE

Path: N:\

Auto-Mount: Yes

Access: Full

[Arthur]

Where am I going wrong?

You need to install the guest additions in the VM.

[Steve21]

Aye ensure you got additions installed, and what OS are you running as the VM? Windows? As I'm using Ubuntu had to mount the share etc.

 

Steve

[fiza]

I had to tick "Make Permanent". Silly how you can miss something so obvious!!!

Working fine now.

[fiza]

I have vbox all set up now with Win7 as the VM- Thanks to all the tips on here.

Only issue I have is that as the VBOX loads it offers "Press F12 to select boot device".

How can I remove this option?

[robjduk]

Im more a VMWare guy but I would expect there would be a virtual bios where you can change the boot order.

[fiza]

Im more a VMWare guy but I would expect there would be a virtual bios where you can change the boot order.

 

Its not the boot order I want to change its the actual option. I don't want the "Press F12 to select boot device" to appear. Students will be tempted to press it. I tried and pressing F12 and then Lan as the boot device it tries to pxe boot but then halts and locks up the vbox session. Students then have no option but to log out and in again.

[robjduk]

ah i see. sorry

[fiza]

@synaesthesia - Any ideas how to remove the "F12 to select boot device" option when virtualbox is starting up?