Run VirtualBox on a webserver as a cloud OS

Want to run VirtualBox on a webserver for training or need to run VirtualBox remotely on a webserver?  Need VirtualOSs in the cloud?

Download PHPVirtualBox.  Unzip the files into a folder in your webserver.  Give permissions for web users.  In IIS, right click the folder and give Network Services and the Users permission.  You will also have to give your temp folder permissions.   Rename the config.php-examp to config.php.

If you are running php on your webserver, you can enable the soap.dll in the php.ini file by removing the ; .   Stop and Restart the webserver.

Make sure VirtualBox is installed and an operating system is installed.  Open VirtualBox.

Open notepad and copy and paste the following into a blank workspace.   Save the notepad file as virtualboxweb.bat on your desktop.

cd\
cd\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\
VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null
vboxwebsrv.exe >null
pause

Run the batch file.

On a client computer, navigate to http://yourwebaddress/yourfolder/index.htm

Login using admin as the username and password.   Click on file.  Change the login password.    Click on file, log out and now re-log back in to test the password.

You can now run an OS in the cloud.  PHPVirtualBox is an excellent program – information from their website follows-

An open source, AJAX implementation of the VirtualBox user interface written in PHP. As a modern web interface, it allows you to access and control remote VirtualBox instances. Much of its verbage and some of its code is based on the (inactive) vboxweb project. phpVirtualBox was designed to allow users to administer VirtualBox in a headless environment – mirroring the VirtualBox GUI through its web interface.

-phpVirtualBox:

• is designed to be a web interface replacement of the VirtualBox GUI program
• is not designed to run in a “hosting” environment where the concept of VM ownership is required – when you are logged in to phpVirtualBox, you have full control over all VMs in the VirtualBox installation
• aims to perform all VirtualBox administration actions through vboxwebsrv (a SOAP server distributed with VirtualBox)
• does not directly interact with any files on the VirtualBox host
• does not have automatic VM start / stop functionality on system boot / shutdown – this functionality is not provided by the VirtualBox API

 

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