[BlueOnyx:26598] Re: BlueOnyx 5211R Released

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Colin,

> Downloaded the latest ISO (Sept) and set up as per Michael’s instruction.
> 
> Initially it said it was running but no host name.
> 
> Went to basic settings and put host name in again and rebooted.
> 
> Once running I tried to access using VNC … said server had closed the 
> connection.
> 
> Restarted webvnc.service and same.
> 
> Tried to ping new VM … unavailable.
VMs on 6109R is a bit hit an miss. I have one node myself where I can't 
get VNC working. At all. And I can't figure out why, other than that 
it's most likely an IPv6 issue.

That "prlctl list -a" or "list" don't show the hostname of a VM? Yeah, 
that is about par for the course and expected, but it works anyway:

[root at hegira ~]# list
NAME                             T  STATUS       HOSTNAME
311                              CT running      updates.blueonyx.it
313                              VM running      -

That VM 313? It's working, but won't show a hostname due to the OS I use 
inside that one. The command "prlctl" has some issue resolving the 
hostnames of VMs that use certain OS's. That includes EL8, EL8 and 
certain Debian and Ubuntu versions-

So here is my write-up for how you do it on 6109R. This assumes two things:

- The VPSID is 115 (change it to whatever you want to use)
- The ISO has been downloaded to /vz/ISOs/

Create a "KVM" via the GUI, give it the VPSID (115 in our example), 
configure IP, Hostname and DNS Server(s) and tick "Autostart".

For BlueOnyx set the "Distribution" to "centos" or "centos-7" (even if 
you install an EL9 based BlueOnyx 5211R.

Select the 5211R ISO from the pulldown.

Give it 8GB of RAM at least.

Tick "VNC enabled", check what VNC port it offers. If it defaults to 
5900, set it to something else. Like 5915 (using the last two numbers of 
the VPSID, but it doesn't really matter). Be sure to set a VNC password.

Assign enough disk space. Use at least 50GB for 5211R.

Hit save. Give it a few minutes. When the save seems to be done, go to 
"Virtual Servers", find the created VM in the VPS-List and click on the 
pen icon of that VPS.

Choose "VNC Access" from the menu on the left. That *should* open a page 
where you get access to noVNC directly configured to allow you access to 
the VM. All you need to do is to enter the VNC password you had configured.

However: For noVNC to work "the stars need to align the right way". It's 
sad, but that's how it is.

If VNC doesn't work for you there, check the following:

- Restart the service "webvnc":

systemctl restart webvnc

See if that solves the issue.

- Check if the service "firewalld" is running:

systemctl status firewalld

It *should* be running. VMs need it to be running, but CTs don't. If you 
have a really old 6109R install, chances are that Firewalld is not 
enabled by default.

If you have those two issues sorted, but it's still not working?

In that case send me the login details, let me know what VPSID and IP 
you want to use for the VM and I'll get you sorted out.

And no: VMs on 6109R don't (usually) use DHCP. Instead the IP is 
configured statically. It has to be configured twice actually: Via 
"prlctl" or the GUI you assign one or more IPs to it. And inside the VM 
in the OS itself you need to configure that IP as well, using the Node's 
IP as a gateway. It won't let you use any other IP than the one(s) 
assigned to the VM on the node itself. For the netmask use the same that 
you use on the node as well, although it may be smaller. It should at 
least cover the IP(s) you're using *and* the gateway itself.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber