Re: [LUG] OT(ish): Building self-contained virtual Linux appliances on Windows?

2009/7/29 Rob Beard <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Grant Sewell wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone know of an open-source virtualisation tool on Windows that
> would allow me to produce a self-contained "virtual appliance" type
> app? For example, I would like (potentially) to be able to install
> Debian, configure it as a LAMP with a specific self-contained (ie no
> Internet access required) in-house built webapp installed into it and
> then make this virtual machine into a single, self-contained .exe for
> use on Windows. I say "self-contained .exe" as it would be easier than
> telling people to go download blah, then configure blah with blah
> settings before they can use the software.
>
> Cheers.
> Grant. :)
>
>
I've done a bit of Google searching (well a couple of minutes worth) and
I haven't found anything so far. Nearest thing I can think of is
building the virtual machine on maybe something like Virtual Box (or
VMWare Player) and packaging it up in an NSIS installer package. Then
basically you can get it to install the Virtual Machine software
silently, copy over the Virtual Machine files and create Desktop/Start
Menu icons. You could build it as a self contained executable installer
but it would need installing (although I'd have thought you can automate
it as much as they just run it and it installs itself with little user
interaction).

If it helps, there is a site here which details on how to install VMWare
Player silently (i.e. without any user interaction):

http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=675

You can also get the GPL'd version of VirtualBox pre-compiled for
Windows here: http://vboxwin32.sourceforge.net/

I've not tried the Windows build of VirtualBox OSE but looking at the
files on the site, there is an installer and also an .iss file (which I
gather is used to build an Install Shield installer). It looks pretty
simple as in everything is installed in the one folder and two
executables are run during setup.

I dare say you may even be able to configure the installer to install in
the users profile to get around the admin rights, or possibly build a
package to deploy via Active Directory when the machine boots up onto
the network.

Anyway, hope this helps. Sounds like an interesting little project :-)

Rob

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