Topic: Running SME on VirtualBox

[holck]

I would like to test SME as a client machine on the Oracle VirtualBox. The host is a small Centos server with 16 GB of RAM and two net cards.

Can anyone help with some recommended settings for this?

Happy Easter to everyone from Denmark -
Jesper H

[Stefano]

Hi Jesper

I use virtualbox on my laptop to test SME.. I have almost a dozen of SME's VM and I installed it almost one hundred times

anyway:
- setup the VM as RedHat 64 bit
- 1 GB of ram is enough
- set the virtual hd to 10 GB, allocated dinamically
- disable sound
- install SME in no-raid (advanced setup)

regarding nics.. SME in server only can't work as a dhcp client, so I usually set up it with 2 nics.. the first one (which will be the lan) on intnet, the second (wan side) in nat

during the setup, I enable dhcp on lan side and set the wan one as dhcp (send the mac address as..)

with this configuration
- you need a client running in intnet to work with SME.. I use a small windows machine, but any linux distro will work as well..
- you can test almost everything about SME.. just remember that if you want it to be reachable from the wan side (your centos host or other machines), you'd put the wan nic on the bridged interface

you can play with some values: ram, disk size, cpu number

you don't need the guest tools if you don't need the shared folders feature

that's all, anyway, feel free to ask

[holck]

Thanks, Stefano, for your helpful advice

A couple of more questions ...

Oracle recommends using  "Paravirtualized network  adapters" (https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html) when possible. Is this possible for SME running as a VM? How?

You recommend to install SME in no-raid. Right now my host system runs software RAID with four 1 TB disks. But when you say "no-raid", you're referring to the VM, right? So the VM will see a standard disk device?

Thanks a lot,
Jesper
 

[Stefano]

Oracle recommends using  "Paravirtualized network  adapters" (https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html) when possible. Is this possible for SME running as a VM? How?

never used them.. I always use Intel PRO/1000 adapters.. no issues at all

But when you say "no-raid", you're referring to the VM, right?

yes.. no reason to have a virtual raid.. you only need it if you're going to make some tests on raid related features

[guest22]

never used them.. I always use Intel PRO/1000 adapters.. no issues at all

Use virtio-net in advanced ethernet card settings. Faster to the virtualization layer (Virtualbox)

Please also see https://wiki.contribs.org/Virtual_SME_Server
and add practical info if you wish.

[guest22]

never used them.. I always use Intel PRO/1000 adapters.. no issues at all

yes.. no reason to have a virtual raid.. you only need it if you're going to make some tests on raid related features

That depends on if you wish to run a virtual machine in production and would like to add NAS storage (e.g. at a later stage) as an extra drive(s). Or simply as a (quick) tests machine(s). It all boils down to consider everything as real hardware and real scenarios.

[Sydney23]

Hi Jesper

I use virtualbox on my laptop to test SME.. I have almost a dozen of SME's VM and I installed it almost one hundred times

anyway:
- setup the VM as RedHat 64 bit
- 1 GB of ram is enough
- set the virtual hd to 10 GB, allocated dinamically
- disable sound
- install SME in no-raid (advanced setup)

regarding nics.. SME in server only can't work as a dhcp client, so I usually set up it with 2 nics.. the first one (which will be the lan) on intnet, the second (wan side) in nat

during the setup, I enable dhcp on lan side and set the wan one as dhcp (send the mac address as..)

with this configuration
- you need a client running in intnet to work with SME.. I use a small windows machine, but any linux distro will work as well..
- you can test almost everything about SME.. just remember that if you want it to be reachable from the wan side (your centos host or other machines), you'd put the wan nic on the bridged interface

you can play with some values: ram, disk size, cpu number

you don't need the guest tools if you don't need the shared folders feature

that's all, anyway, feel free to ask

Thanks for sharing, its works