SmartOS first steps

Recently I was looking at SmartOS because I read an article on the net.
At first, I didn't quite understand what it was exactly. Then I decided to install it and see what it is.

So here is some information from a beginner point of view. What I will say is maybe not 100% accurate, but I will try my best. The goal of this post is to show you how to start playing with SmartOS. What I will show is just good for testing purposes!

Here is a quick explanation for someone who is used to work with VirtualBox:

SmartOS is like if VirtualBox is transformed into a OS.

And from Wikipedia:

SmartOS is a free and open-source SVR4 hypervisor, based on the UNIX operating system that combines OpenSolaris technology with Linux's KVM virtualization.

With SmartOS you can create virtual machines really easily. It is an operating system with the very minimum. The size of the ISO is around 155Mb.

In the setup described below, we will use VirtualBox to host a virtual machine using SmartOS called SmartOS Manager.

Here is a little schema:

So "SmartOS manager" is a guest (for VirtualBox) and it is also a host to manage SmartOS VMs.

How to setup something really basic

• install VirtualBox
• download the latest ISO file for SmartOS
• open VirtualBox and create a new VM with these settings
• Name: SmartOS manager
• Type: Solaris 
• Version: Oracle Solaris 11 (64-bit)
• 2GB of ram
• VDI disk of 16GB

Don't start the VM yet. Go to the settings of this VM and click on Network. Then select:

• Attached to: Bridged Adapter
• Adapter type: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop
• Promiscuous Mode: Allow All

Now you can start the VM. It will ask you to select the installation disk. Just choose the ISO file downloaded earlier.

SmartOS will ask you some questions about your setup:

• IP address
• Default gateway
• DNS
• NTP server
• Host
• Default DNS search Domain
• Password for root account
• Data pool (where VM's will be installed), just type "y"

That's it! Now you should see that:

The system will now finish configuration and reboot. Please wait...
rebooting...

Great. Now let's see how to create a VM. By the way, in the world of SmartOS, a VM is called a zone.

Now, ssh to the VM and run the command to see all pre-configured zones:

$ imgadm avail
UUID                                  NAME     VERSION     OS       TYPE          PUB
f669428c-a939-11e2-a485-b790efc0f0c1  base     13.1.0      smartos  zone-dataset  2013-04-26
9eac5c0c-a941-11e2-a7dc-57a6b041988f  base64   13.1.0      smartos  zone-dataset  2013-04-26
...

As you can see there are a lot available. The one that we will use is (because it is the latest "base-64"):

96bcddda-beb7-11e5-af20-a3fb54c8ae29  base-64-lts  15.4.0  smartos  zone-dataset  2016-01-19

Import (download) the VM and wait a little bit:

$ imgadm import 96bcddda-beb7-11e5-af20-a3fb54c8ae29

Create a VM manifest file:

$ vi /root/web01.json
{
 "brand"              : "joyent",
 "image_uuid"         : "5c7d0d24-3475-11e5-8e67-27953a8b237e",
 "alias"              : "web01",
 "hostname"           : "web01",
 "max_physical_memory": 512,
 "quota"              : 7,
 "resolvers"          : ["8.8.8.8", "208.67.220.220"],
 "nics"               : [
                         {
                           "nic_tag": "admin",
                           "ip"     : "10.88.88.52",
                           "netmask": "255.255.255.0",
                           "gateway": "10.88.88.2"
                         }
                        ]
}

Resolvers: set the same DNS servers as you did for the SmartOS manager

IP: use an IP in the same network as the SmartOS manager

Gateway: same as the SmartOS manager

Create the VM:

$ vmadm create -f web01.json

Now you can list the existing VM;

$ vmadm list
UUID                                  TYPE  RAM      STATE             ALIAS
25ac9366-21ad-4942-a98d-f35373c3cf40  OS    512      running           web01

And to login:

$ zlogin 25ac9366-21ad-4942-a98d-f35373c3cf40

From there, you should be able to ping google:

$ ping google.com
google.com is alive

Now you can play with this VM. To install packages:

$ pkgin up
$ pkgin in vim
$ pkgin in gcc47
$ pkgin in gmake

As a sidenote, to install Java, you can download the archive from Oracle website. In my case, I used the Solaris x86 64-bit JDK.

To exit zlogin, press "~." (without double quotes).

And that's it! You have setup a basic SmartOS VM! Nothing fancy but I hope you have a better idea on how to start using SmartOS.

For more information:
https://docs.joyent.com/public-cloud/instances/infrastructure/images/smartos/managing-a-smartos-instance/installing-software
https://wiki.smartos.org/display/DOC/How+to+create+a+zone+%28+OS+virtualized+machine+%29+in+SmartOS
http://troysunix.blogspot.jp/2013/02/intro-smartos-setup-pt-3.html

How to delete a VirtualBox VM using command line

VirtualBox comes with a GUI that let you easily manage your virtual machines.
However, you may have no Desktop and have to manage your virtual machines via command line.

There is a great tools called vboxmanage that let you do anything you want. I will show you how to completely delete a virtual machine with vboxmanage.

First you should get the name of the VM you want to delete:

$ vboxmanage list vms
"MyVM" {bc0f9b2a-1c49-4771-8179-610a5bf10578}
"My second VM" {a2b9f0ea-3c48-4770-8179-610a5bf10578}
"My third VM" {9b2aae0f-6c48-4771-8179-610a5bf10578}

Identify the VM you want to delete and make sure you don't delete the wrong one, because once you execute the following command, there is no confirmation.

Here is what will do the following command:

•     all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;
•     saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the machine was in "saved" state and one for each online snapshot);
•     the machine XML file and its backups;
•     the machine log files, if any;
•     the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all the above.

Ready to run the command to delete the VM? Here is the command:

$ vboxmanage unregistervm < name or uid > --delete

For example:

$ vboxmanage unregistervm MyVM --delete
$ vboxmanage unregistervm "My second VM" --delete
$ vboxmanage unregistervm 9b2aae0f-6c48-4771-8179-610a5bf10578 --delete

Remember there is no confirmation, as soon as you press enter the VM will be deleted.

Source: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#vboxmanage-registervm

Steps to develop Android applications

So I think the way to setup everything and to be able to develop and run an app are not friendly user at all.

Just last week, I met a guy who is interested in Android. He downloaded the ADT plugin with eclipse. Everything looks good, he created a new application based on the "blank activity". Then he hit run and boom error... How to demotive new people to start coding app for Android...
I think I had a similar problem with a "fullscreen activity".


Anyway, here are the list of steps that I should remember when changing VM:

- if it's a 64-bit VM, don't forget that Android architecture is ARM 32-bits, so you should install 32-bits libraries!
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386
sudo apt-get install lib32z1

- you will need Java:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk

- Setting up a Device for Development
http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html
sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

#Samsung 
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
#Google
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
#ASUS
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0b05", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
#LG
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1104", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

sudo chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

For VirtualBox:
- install the Guest Additions
- add a shared folder so it's easy to copy from file between host and guest
- add your user to the group vboxsf to be able to access the share folder:
sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf alex
- in the VB settings of the VM, go to USB and add your device! So the VM will capture the device.
- install GIT

sudo apt-get install git

You can install Eclipse IDE with built-in ADT
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
And go to: Window-> Preferences -> Android -> DDMS -> ADB Connection Timeout (ms)
And set it to 10000 (if you leave it to 5000, you  may see some timeout)

VirtualBox is slow !

So my host OS is Windows 8 and I wanted to separate my everyday stuff from my projects (coding) stuff.
I created a virtual machine, guest OS is Linux Mint.
My PC is: intel i3570K, 8GB DDR3, 64SSD + 128SSD, Asus Z77. Not a bad one!

Problem

So when I was in Mint, it was kind of slow.

 In settings > System > Processor, I had only 1 processor and when I selected 2 processors, I could see a warning message saying something like "this is not the most efficient setup". I ignore this message and in settings > System > Accelation, I checked "Enable VT-x/AMD-v".
When I start my virtual machine, I add an error message and the machine didn't start at all.

Solution

After searching on the Web, I found out that I had to go to the bios and activate a feature.
I don't remember exactly the name of the feature (and I guess it depends of the motherboard), but it was in the CPU section, and the feature was like "activate virtualization something".

After activating it, I could select 2 CPU and now my virtual machine is not slow anymore!

And that's it!