How to post the VMs? - a suggestion ...

[continuum]

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

[Dallas]

Looks like a good idea to me, I like the iso thought except it might cause issues if anything needs saved.

[continuum]

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 ...

[Dallas]

Continuum,

Your good...

[Ken_Cline]

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

[continuum]

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

-

[Dallas]

>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

[tysonkey]

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_Cline]

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

[jbruelasdgo]

How about a Linux for Kids Appliance[/b]?

I do not have the time to start this project, if someone, lets say that installs Ubuntu and configure just for kids, that would be nice

Best regards

JBRuelas

[trevlix]

You mean like Edubuntu? (http://www.edubuntu.org/)

[continuum]

I read this as no interest ...

well... nevermind

Ulli

[highroller]

......

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

[continuum]

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

[bac]

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.