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Best practices for running VBox on a headless Linux host?

Posted: 27. Apr 2016, 18:39
by harisund
Currently, I have a headless, no-GUI host running CentOS 7. It has VirtualBox installed.

I use a Windows laptop (on the same subnet, wired via GiGE ethernet), X forward to "control" it. I mainly use VBoxManage, but sometimes, clicking around just is more helpful.

I have tried executing both

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"ssh -YC vmhost VirtualBox"
as well as

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"ssh -Y vmhost VirtualBox" 
and in both cases, while it's responsive initially, it kinds of slows down after a few seconds or so.

I have also tried setting up a headless VNC server (through tigerVNC) on the vmhost itself, and access it with a VNC client on my Windows laptop. I see the same behavior. It starts out as responsive as my local install on my Windows laptop, but becomes sluggish.

Any ideas on how best to handle a remote VirtualBox installation?

(Also, yes, I am aware that there are better solutions for what I am trying to do, I should probably be using KVM / Proxmox / Ovirt or something, but let's assume I am only allowed to use VirtualBox currently.)

Re: Best practices for running VBox on a headless Linux host?

Posted: 27. Apr 2016, 18:59
by Perryg
Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ).

Re: Best practices for running VBox on a headless Linux host?

Posted: 27. Apr 2016, 19:18
by harisund
Perryg wrote:Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ).
There are no guest logs. Everything's involving the host. I am talking about sluggishness on the host before even launching a VM.

Re: Best practices for running VBox on a headless Linux host?

Posted: 27. Apr 2016, 19:30
by Perryg
Then I suspect this is a host or host app issue. Without some diagnostic information it would be impossible to know.
Could be network related as well.