Changes between Version 1 and Version 2 of GRAPHIC2 Laptop VM Configuration


Ignore:
Timestamp:
11/15/13 15:04:15 (11 years ago)
Author:
Nick Holden
Comment:

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  • GRAPHIC2 Laptop VM Configuration

    v1 v2  
    88For REDCap, install php-pear, php5-curl, phpmyadmin. Laptops must have open-vm-tools installed in order to be able to do a 'soft' suspend.
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    10 Put the 'Virtual Machines' directory into "C:\Users\Public" and then create a shortcut to start VMWare Player and launch the relevant VM. If that shortcut were in the 'All Users' startup directory it would start automatically. But putting shortcuts in the 'All Users' directory requires admin permission.
     10The Windows host systems need VIX API installing to give the vmrun utility.
    1111
    12 The server needs suspending before the laptop is shutdown. This is accomplished with a small batch file that calls vmrun.exe to suspend the server, but it must be run as a local admin. So the laptops have additional admin users for Nick, Sue, Jay and Sue C. Laptops must be shut down using the script not the
     12Put the 'Virtual Machines' directory into "C:\Users\Public" and then create a shortcut to use vmrun.exe to start VMWare Player and launch the relevant VM. If that shortcut were in the 'All Users' startup directory it would start automatically. But putting shortcuts in the 'All Users' directory requires admin permission. DONE.
     13
     14The server needs suspending before the laptop is shutdown. This is accomplished with a small batch file that calls vmrun.exe to suspend the server, but it must be run as a local admin. So the laptops have additional admin users for Nick, Sue, Jay and Sue C. For UHL, Caroline Hughes has authorised the use of local admin rights. If, in future, a solution can be found to run vmrun.exe without admin rights, this can be changed.
     15
     16Laptops must be shut down using the script not the power button. Otherwise there is a risk of data loss because the guest system will have MySQL shut down without warning, and possibly data will be cached in memory and not yet written to disk.
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    1418For more information on the multi-machine setup of REDCap (asyncronous data collection) see [[redcap_multiserver|REDCap Multi-server set up]].
    1519
    16 4MMVLX1 is done, at least to this point, with the shortcut in my personal 'startup' directory. A support call has been logged asking for local admin rights.
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    18 JLMVLX1 has had the VM image copied to it.
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    21 On the Windows host machine, the 'all users' start menu has a shortcut to REDCap, and the 'default applications' item is removed. A batch file 'startup.bat' in the all users' startup applications folder triggers the starting of the VM.
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    23 The batch file to close the VM only works for me, not for Sue. Is this a firewall issue? I've set the network (using the Local Security Policy) to be private, and that didn't help. Andy Carruthers suggests setting other users to 'power user' status (or failing that, 'local administrator' status) and seeing if that gives them enough rights to shutdown the VMs. If it does, that is an acceptable solution, given that it's only a couple of users and a couple of laptops. On testing power user is not sufficient, but local admin is. Caroline Hughes is processing applications for local admin status.