AutoStart VirtualBox VM

[MarcvdB]

I've installed FreeNAS 9.2.1.6 with the VirtualBox jail and I was wondering if there is a possibility to autostart the VM's I've created in VirtualBox?

Also when I enter the jail (jexec 1 /bin/tcsh) and execute this command:

I get nothing back, but I have created 1 virtual machine on the php website and I'm able to start that virtual machine in the php website.

 

[MarcvdB]

The command VBoxManage list vms works when logging into the jail via SSH as the user vbox.
But when I issue the command VBoxManage startvm WinXP then I get this error:

So something is still not correct...

 

[MarcvdB]

Ok, I found out another thing.
when using the commandline VBoxManage startvm WinXP you also have to specify the type, so when I issue the command:
VBoxManage startvm WinXP --type headless the virtual machine starts up.

So the remaining question is how to autostart this VM when FreeNAS appliance is started?

 

[cyberjock]

Sorry, I'm not in a position to check on this. I'll try to remember to try this out this weekend.

 

[Slacker]

Much googling and trial/error yielded this for autostarting VMs when the jail starts:
In the vbox jail, edit /etc/rc.local and add
su -l vbox -c 'VBoxManage startvm "VMname" --type headless'


I would say to add this for a graceful shutdown, but it doesn't seem to run when the jail is stopped...
in /etc/rc.local.shutdown:
su -l vbox -c 'VBoxManage controlvm "VMname" acpipowerbutton'

 

[Marc Allard]

Hello,

Here is what I did (and it is working perfectly at the moment)
vi /etc/rc.conf

I have put the following in the file


# this is required for networking (replaces loading remaining modules manually)
vboxnet_enable="YES"

# start VirtualBox
vboxheadless_enable="YES"

# VMs to start (whitespace-separated list):
vboxheadless_machines="NanobootXPEnology"

# definition for VM with acronym "NanobootXPEnology":
vboxheadless_NanobootXPEnology_name="NanobootXPEnology"
vboxheadless_NanobootXPEnology_user="vbox"
vboxheadless_NanobootXPEnology_stop="poweroff"

This way, the virtual machine will automatically start and stop with the jail.


As my virtual machine uses the bridged networking, I have seen that freenas host will always crash when it is "shut downed" or "restarted". I have reported it as a bug (5263). The only way I saw to solve the problem was to force a shutdown of the virtual machine before the vboxheadless shot downs the machine. So I do

mount -uw /
(to be able to change the /conf...)

In the /conf/base/etc/rc.shutdown (and also /etc/rc.shutdown)
I add the following in the beginning of the file (just after the comments)

/usr/sbin/jexec 1 /mnt/VHD/shutdown.sh
sleep 10

I put jexec 1 because I have no idea about how to find the id of a jail from its name and the jail always has an ID of 1
Without the sleep I have a crash of freenas

The file shutdown.sh content (it must be in the jail as jexec works in the jail):
I must do a su vbox as phpvirtualbox works as vbox.
Don't forget the chmod 777 /mnt/VHD/shutdown.sh
(777 is perhaps a bit too much.
#!bin/sh
su vbox -c "/usr/local/bin/VBoxManage controlvm NanobootXPEnology savestate"

 

[Slacker]

Hello,

Here is what I did (and it is working perfectly at the moment)
vi /etc/rc.conf

<snip>

I just went ahead and added the jexec save command to /etc/rc.shutdown directly, saving the extra step of creating the file.
jexec 3 su vbox -c "/usr/local/bin/VBoxManage controlvm VMNAME savestate"

Thanks for the tips!

I run a Debian x32 VM, bridged, and have no issues rebooting or shutting the thing down, btw.

EDIT: Also, the rc.conf method seemed to have added a large boot delay, so I stuck with mine to start the VM.

 

[Marc Allard]

lol I didn't even try without a file. Thank you for the tip^.

Marc

 

[andyclimb]

Cheers I've been wondering how to do this!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[loki_racer]

This doesn't appear to work for me. The jail still starts, but the VM doesn't automatically start. Just throwing my two cents into the ring.

 

[Marc Allard]

Hello,

Did you edit the /etc/rc.conf in the jail (so jexec 1 csh...)
The machine name (NanobootXPEnology) must be the name of the machine on your computer. so you should have 5 times XXX (name of the machine). I don't think the one in the comment is usefull

# VMs to start (whitespace-separated list):
vboxheadless_machines="XXXX"

# definition for VM with acronym "XXXX":
vboxheadless_XXXX_name="XXXX"
vboxheadless_XXXX_user="vbox"
vboxheadless_XXXX_stop="poweroff"

 

[loki_racer]

@Marc Thanks, that did the trick. It's all working now. Amazing.

 

[Dennis.kulmosen]

Thanks for the help. Great info.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Marc Allard]

You are welcome

Marc

 

[petr]

Hello,
...
/usr/sbin/jexec 1 /mnt/VHD/shutdown.sh
sleep 10
...

Thank you for the tip with the sleep - I've got a question.. is the 10s in any way correlated to the time it takes for your VM to shut down? My take a tad longer and I am experiencing interesting issue - if the jail takes too long to shut down, a shutdown watchdog aborts the machine shutdown, leaving it semi-shutdown state, which if far from ideal!

Any hints?

 

[Marc Allard]

Hello,

I tried 5 sec and it didn't work so I took 60 and it worked. After that I tried to reduce and I took 30 ==> 15 ==> 10
and all was fine so I didn't try anything else.

 

[Dudleydogg]

Much googling and trial/error yielded this for autostarting VMs when the jail starts:
In the vbox jail, edit /etc/rc.local and add
su -l vbox -c 'VBoxManage startvm "VMname" --type headless'


I would say to add this for a graceful shutdown, but it doesn't seem to run when the jail is stopped...
in /etc/rc.local.shutdown:
su -l vbox -c 'VBoxManage controlvm "VMname" acpipowerbutton'

This was the only solution that Actually Works

 

[Osiris]

The VM autostarts indeed, using Marc Allard's method.
However, the webgui of virtualbox isn't accessible anymore.
Did anyone else encounter this issue?

The service did start and httpd did too.
I also see this:
/usr/local/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC --auto-shutdown

EDIT: I had to reboot the host to fix it all. Weird.

 

[Dudleydogg]

I have all this working but due to the VIMAGE problem I disabled auto start of the Jails, VIMAGE will gag and bring down the entire server and you end up with multiboot hang which can be annoying.
I was going to check my startup Options and reply back to you but I cannot ssh to my box due to VIMAGE Hang.

 

[Dudleydogg]

Do you have the Apache Line in your rc.conf ?

root@Vcenter_Server:/ # more /etc/rc.conf
apache22_enable="YES"
sshd_enable="YES"
vboxwebsrv_user="vbox"
vboxwebsrv_enable="YES"
inet6_enable="YES"
ip6addrctl_enable="YES"
# this is required for networking (replaces loading remaining modules manually)
vboxnet_enable="YES"
# start VirtualBox
vboxheadless_enable="YES"
# VMs to start (whitespace-separated list):
vboxheadless_machines="vcenter"
vboxheadless_vcenter_name="Vcenter-2016"
vboxheadless_vcenter_user="vbox"
vboxheadless_vcenter_stop="savestate"