I think it would be a good idea to agree on a standardized way how the contestants should post their solutions.
Otherwise you may need 10 different packers with Windowshosts ....
What about something like this:
once the VM is ready for posting the vmdks are wrapped in an Isofile along with vmx-files for Windows and Linux that enable useing the VM directly from DVD or CD for a quick overview. This way you can easily built up a library of 100s of VMs without having to copy them all to harddisk.
It would be nice to create a checksum of the Iso and then compress the iso with bzip as this can be used on any platform without problems. For Windows-hosts we can use 7zip - as this can be re-distributed and does not need to be installed.
So for distribution in the Internet the VMs could travel as bzipped Isofiles ...
on a Windowshost you only need to run one cmd to extract it and Linuxhosts don't have problems with bzip as it is already built-in.
What do you think ?
Ulli
Looks like a good idea to me, I like the iso thought except it might cause issues if anything needs saved.
I like the iso thought except it might cause issues if anything needs saved.
No problem - you have 3 options to use the VM on CD/DVD
\- run from CD: all changes are temporal - for preview
\- create a directory on local disk for vmx, log ... and use vmdk from CD
\- copy complete VM to local disk
In the second option you write into a REDO that you store on the local disk - after use you can discard all your changes, you can merge the vmdk with the REDO or you can keep the REDO and reuse it next time.
This may sound a little bit tricky - but all this can be done from one html-file on CD that runs a little script if you click "use local temp-dir" in your browser.
"run on Linux" and "run on Windows" could be another button on the html-file ...
Continuum,
Your good...
Continuum,
Your good...
Yep...if you folks are serious about winning this, you're going to have to be very creative...Ulli has, for quite a while, had ideas about really innovative VMs - and[/i] he's been building and packaging "off the wall" VMs for a long time, so he's got a head start...
So - everyone's going to have to run fast to catch him, and faster to pass him
Ken and Dallas - do you praise the brown paperbag that you get when you buy a bottle of wine in a liquor-store also?
I think that Daryll has forgotten to think about a practical way of carrying the VMs on the road and so I offered to go into mass-production of paper-bags so that everybody who wants to send in a VM can use it.
Idea behind that is simple - I hate to download a large file just to find out that I can't extract it - think about self-extracting exe-files on a Linux-host or rar-files compressed with version XY while you only got XX ...
Another stupid thing that happens again and again: - users have to ask for a password in this forum, VMs are posted containing hundreds of Mbs of unnecessary files ...
Some weeks ago I tried to start a discussion about a way to post VMs that makes sense - but nobody was interested.
Now we will see thousands of VMTN-VMs soon ...
My suggestion to use Isos - compressed with a packer that works on every platform the same way makes sure that the VMs can travel healthy.
Adding the feature to run a quick preview from CD/DVD is the logical next step when we start to build a public pool of VMs - or do you really want to copy 50 VMs to a local-disk just to find which of the 50 firewall-VMs suits your needs best?
Daryll - what about making a small package that contains:
\- one html that states the rules of the challenge
\- one html with a short guide on how to setup the VM so that is compatible with all platforms
\- one html that gives the essential info for each VM - like password ... - and offers buttons for
'download on linux'
'download on windows'
'download on ESX'
'run from CD - preview mode'
'run with REDO on local disk'
'copy to local disk'
\- 'make VM roadready' - script (setup vmx and disk, make iso, make checksum)
\- 'unpack and validate downloaded VM' - script
If there is some interest I'll write the scripts for Windows this weekend ...
Maybe it is too early to think about this - in a few years from now you surely want to have a way to check a downloaded VM if it is really the one that is discussed in the "Public VMs-journal'.
A iso-wrapped VM with checksum xy is an easy way to insure that you don't download a VM that has been trojanized. So if we can agree on a smart standard now - we can maybe avoid having hundreds of polluted evil twins of good VMs flooding the web tomorrow.
Ken - I am a bloody beginner with Linux - so this is no head start - I'm just cleaning the runway for the athlets
So - anybody interested in helping with making some paper-bags?
Ulli
-
>Ken and Dallas - do you praise the brown paperbag that you get when >you buy a bottle of wine in a liquor-store also?
Not usally, but I am not afraid to give credit where it is due.
I am also new at the VMware world and looking for help or to help with some very specific VM's(paperbags). What do you think?
Dallas
There's lots of companies already making the brown, paper bags. But I'm sure there could be a small community of 'home-brew' paper bag makers.
Ken and Dallas - do you praise the brown paperbag that
you get when you buy a bottle of wine in a liquor-store also?
I'll have you know my wine comes in a fancy mylar bag, thank you very much
You mean like Edubuntu? (http://www.edubuntu.org/)
I read this as no interest ...
well... nevermind
Ulli
......
I am a bloody beginner with Linux - so this is no head start - I'm just cleaning the runway for the athletes
......
Very cool indeed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am no athlete but I like the way you see things. I agree with you 100%. Unless we pack VM's in an easy to transport/use format we will have a long way to go before these VM's because easy to use by the novice/advanced user
Wow - highroller - after 4500 views you are the first who understands what I had in mind
To the VMware-guys: if you want to introduce VMs as a standard procedure, accepted by many users and companies post like this http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=34937
should never happen.
Why don't we find out together about some standards that make sense ?
Having to post here because a password is missing is very uncool ....
Ulli
To the VMware-guys: if you want to introduce VMs as a
standard procedure, accepted by many users and
companies post like this
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=3
4937
should never happen.
Why don't we find out together about some standards
that make sense ?
Having to post here because a password is missing is
very uncool ....
I fully agree, and we're working on a system to have standards in place so that people who download an appliance VM will know what to expect. Please bear with us and stay tuned for more info.