VirtualBox will import directly from an OVF/OVA file so you can just start up VirtualBox and select "Import Appliance..."
Browse to where you unzipped the file and select the ovf file
Select the file, you should see a screen something like this:
On the Import Virtual Appliance window that will display, choose the location of where the FirstWave NMIS OVA was downloaded to. Click Next.
You will then be prompted to review the Appliance settings. Click Finish here.
The import process may take a couple of minutes to complete, just enough time to grab a cup of coffee I'd say.If you have any trouble the VirtualBox documentation is here: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#ovf
NOTE - The virtual machine is configured to use 8GB memory and the network interface may appear as NAT. Please revise the memory to suit and change the NAT adapter to Bridged.
Important Note regarding Ext4:
If your Virtualbox host is Linux and your VMs are stored on XFS or Ext4 file systems, then it is absolutely necessary that you enable the "Host I/O Cache" for all virtual disk controllers after importing the OVF file, or you run the risk of file system corruption in your guest. On one of our test systems (Linux kernel 3.14.23, Virtualbox 4.3.14) the VM wouldn't even fully get through the first boot before the virtual disks got corrupted - but with Host I/O Cache on everything is fine.
Below is an example of how to enable Host I/O Cache using VirtualBox:
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Once powered on, use our provided credentials to login. You can find this in the Install instructions on our website.
Once imported, we recommend you change the following settings:
Network Adapter from NAT to Bridged
- If you find that the virtual machine's network adapter is set to NAT, you will need to change this to Bridged Adapter. Click on the Virtual Machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, then click Settings.
- Click on Network, then in Adapter 1 change the "Attached to" dropdown option to Bridged. Click OK after this has been changed.
Tip: Once authenticated, our appliance ships with a Message of the Day (MOTD) which will provide you with the virtual machine's IP address, used to access the NMIS Suite Graphical User Interface (GUI). You can also find this by typing "ip a" into the console of the virtual machine.
Increasing Video Memory
- While the virtual machine is shut down, click on the Virtual Machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, then click Settings.
- Click on the Display tab, then increase the "Video Memory" slider to at minimum 16 MB. Click OK after this has been changed.
Changing the Graphics Controller
- While the virtual machine is shut down, click on the Virtual Machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, then click Settings.
- Click on the Display tab, then change the Graphics Controller to VMSVGA using the dropdown menu. Click OK after this has been changed.
Notes
Changing the virtual machine console display
If you find that the Virtual Machine console screen is small, you can change this by doing the following:
- While in the VirtualBox VM (note the name here is different to VirtualBox - which is for the manager), click on View.
- Click on Scaled Mode. This will automatically change.
VirtualBox Documentation
If you have any trouble the VirtualBox documentation is here: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#ovf
Automatic time synchronization
CentOS 7 on VirtualBox
It's now highly unlikely that VirtualBox users will find themselves at the dracut emergency shell prompt when first booting our vm that runs CentOS 7.
We continue to provide this information in case needed:
When faced with this obstacle reboot the vm selecting the rescue kernel.
After it boots login as normal and try the try the following dacut command.
...
dracut -f /boot/<kernel_image> <kernel_name>
- Shutdown the virtual machine.
- Click on Settings, then System.
- Check the "Enable Hardware Clock in UTC time" checkbox and click OK.
If the command completes successfully reboot the vm normally. Be aware that future kernel updates may require this maneuver be done again.