Virtual Box Manager

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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chimpa codigo
Posts: 7
Joined: 11. Sep 2017, 01:49

Virtual Box Manager

Post by chimpa codigo »

Decided to do a small script that will allow users of the Oracle Virtual Box System to keep track of their ip addresses. There was a major issue with IP addresses being set to 169.254.*.* on system reboots or when the system was in hibernation. It automatically makes sure that no ip addresses have the ill fated 169.254.*.* ip range by recreating the adapter when this is being run.

It also has many other features as follows:

1.) Automatically create Servers based upon specific OS distributions (currently only works with centos,ubuntu, and fedora*sic*)
2.) Gives the user the ability to test connectivity of the server
3.) Allows the user to add more adapters to the adapter pool (used for checking connectivity and availability of ip addresses)
4.) Creates the ability for the end-user to start their servers in a more organized manner.

There are a few bugs as this was done rather quickly and also was just a pet project and I'm not 100% sure if there would be any need for it considering Oracle's numerous other server visualization systems.

Below are the bugs that I have found or were unable to completely fix:

1) Connecting directly to the server does not have the ability to do so (working on the terminal system, but realized it was becoming bigger than expected)
2) Installing pre-configured installs has not been implemented and therefore will not work (wanted to setup custom LAMP server installs, as well as Node.js installs and a few security protocol systems for good measure but noticed it would cost me too much time)
3) There's a small bug with the Windows system not allowing the user to see a deletion take place if canceled and then it requires an addition of an adapter manually if done out of sync (usually happens because of the firing of the script/program and currently working on a better algorithm)
4) There's a small issue with displaying servers at times (not 100% sure, but it appears as though there's some very quirky programming that takes in the DHCP servers as the server list, going to see about fixing this in a later release)
5) Menu up top has some small issues with displaying.

That's pretty much all I could find at this time.
http://taureanwooley.com/info_pull/virt ... taller.exe
mpack
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Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by mpack »

You describe a script and then attach a binary executable whose name doesn't seem to match the description. Plus eyebrows are raised when someone starts posting offsite URLs in only their third post. That said, your first 2 posts did seem to be helpful, non-botlike. So I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now.

Can you provide a little more detail about the provenance of this executable? Is this something developed completely by yourself? Otherwise what is it and who owns it? Is source code available? What is TaureanWooley.com?
chimpa codigo
Posts: 7
Joined: 11. Sep 2017, 01:49

Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by chimpa codigo »

Hello mpack. I created the source code myself using the netbeans IDE and an exe wrapper for Java jar files. The exe does nothing outside of the main OS in reference to processes or gathering data for execution.

The url has been changed to http://taureanwooley.com/virtual-box-manager/

There was a major issue about a year ago dealing with NAT and host-only adapters that required several hours of research on my part to find answers to the defunct ip addresses (169.254.*.*) which would render the servers unusable. This exe takes care of this situation in terms of refreshing adapters being used by the VirtualBox System and also allows for the users to keep track of the current ip addresses being used as well as their relationship with the ips available by the Virtual Box System.

The system also manages the virtual box instances in a formal manner that would allow the users to check open ports as well as connectivity. There are numerous other options which are currently being worked on and the source code is available at the following link. https://github.com/monkeyboz/vboxmanagergui

The main usages within the OS which would possibly require security checks, if the code were to be hijacked or used maliciously would be during the file calls to the program files directory for the VBoxManage.exe file and any subsequent command executions. This can be secured by making sure that the executions are done without administration rights so that the Windows Operating system can verify major changes (which include adapter removal and all other execusions using VBoxManage.exe)

There is a donation page under the help settings which does revert back to the http://taureanwooley.com website but will possibly be removed if there is need for it to be removed. Also there will be helpful hints added for server security as well as other unix based and auto-installer (yum & apt-get) help pertaining to proper installation of server specific setups.

Let me know if there's anything else that you would like me to talk to you about pertaining to this or the bug that required the development of this application.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by mpack »

Thanks for the reply. I agree that the application sounds legitimate, so my concerns now center on taureanwooley.com. If that is a pay site of any description (voluntary or not), then I don't think we can accept a link to it from here. If it is just a cloud storage site that you happen to use then fair enough (I've already verified that the file is too large at 2MB+ (even zipped) to be attached directly to a forum post).
chimpa codigo
Posts: 7
Joined: 11. Sep 2017, 01:49

Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by chimpa codigo »

mpack wrote:Thanks for the reply. I agree that the application sounds legitimate, so my concerns now center on taureanwooley.com. If that is a pay site of any description (voluntary or not), then I don't think we can accept a link to it from here. If it is just a cloud storage site that you happen to use then fair enough (I've already verified that the file is too large at 2MB+ (even zipped) to be attached directly to a forum post).
The website is not a pay site, but I did place a donation screen on the software directed to paypal for people who want to contribute whatever amount to the project. Let me know if you'd like for me to remove this from the software for this forum and I can do so.
socratis
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Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by socratis »

"VirtualBox Manager" is a name used to describe the main VirtualBox application window. Please consider changing the name. In fact anything that wouldn't contain "VirtualBox" would be preferred to avoid confusion...
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chimpa codigo
Posts: 7
Joined: 11. Sep 2017, 01:49

Re: Virtual Box Manager

Post by chimpa codigo »

socratis wrote:"VirtualBox Manager" is a name used to describe the main VirtualBox application window. Please consider changing the name. In fact anything that wouldn't contain "VirtualBox" would be preferred to avoid confusion...
Done deal, was thinking it would be an issue considering I spent about a week and a half trying to figure out a bug that was based on the same definition issue. So confusing that the r was correct at that point. I'll change the name sometime this weekend. Also going to be adding a visualization system for connecting servers together for easier clustering and auto bash scripting/key sharing hoping to fix a few bugs that I've run into while developing these monstrosities.
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