Create WeBWorK Virtual Machine (.OVA) File

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Instructions for creating a WeBWorK Virtual Machine (.OVA) Image

Note that the resulting .ova image can be used to create a virtual machine

Build the server on VMWare Workstation Player

  1. 12 GBk disk (single file)
  2. 1 GB memory
  3. 1 cpu

The above resources are very minimal and (except for disk space) correspond to a AWS t2-micro level machine which is free.


  1. Download the ubuntu live CD (server version)
  1. Install following the standard directions with the following options
  1. Don't partition disks separately
  2. User name: wwadmin
  3. login: wwadmin
  4. password: wwadmin
  5. Computer name: wwserver


Workstation Player

When you see REBOOT, reboot and login (wwadmin/wwadmin)

Do not accept any updates (save disk space)

Check if tools are installed 

vmware-toolbox-cmd -v

(they should be) and if so, remove them 

sudo  apt remove open-vm-tools
sudo apt autoremove


After system boots check that openssh-server is installed run 

sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN

to check if it is listening on port 22 If not install openssh-server 

sudo apt install openssh-server

Find the ip address of your guest The Guest IP is the IP address your guest WeBWorK server is using. You can find it (after you login) by entering the command 

$ ip address show

and looking at the output, something like 

   link/ether 00:0c:29:4f:2c:1d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.204.128/24 brd 192.168.204.255 scope global dynamic ens33

Login from Terminal program

At this point you can login to your server from your host machine using SSH (non secure telnet and FTP are not allowed but secure SSH and SFTP are) using your favourite terminal emulator program. E.g. set your terminal to connect to 192.168.204.128


You can do all of the remaining installation from a terminal emulator on your host. The advantage of doing this is that you can copy commands from these instructions (with copy from the Edit menu or ^C) and paste them into a terminal window (with paste from the Edit menu list or <Shift> <Ctrl> <V> or <Shift> <Insert> depending on your application).

Follow the standard instructions

site.conf and localoverrides.conf

  1. use the ip address (e.g. 192.168.201.128) everywhere. Do not use localhost
  2. set password for webworkWrite (wwadmin)

set up MyTestCourse

  1. add practice users and jsmith/jsmith to myTestCourse
  2. add the standard sets to myTestCourse

Implement all options A-E except C (run WW through SSL)

Clean up the system

  • rm apache's error.log's in /var/log/apache2/
  • rm apache's access.log's in /var/log/apache2/
  • rm webwork's timing.log's in /opt/webwork/webwork2/logs/
  • Remove unneeded backup's in /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/
  • Remove contents of /var/www/html/wwtmp/

wwadmin@wwserver:~$ du -sh /var/cache/apt/archives/ du: cannot read directory '/var/cache/apt/archives/partial': Permission denied 71M /var/cache/apt/archives/ wwadmin@wwserver:~$ sudo apt clean [sudo] password for wwadmin: wwadmin@wwserver:~$ du -sh /var/cache/apt/archives/ du: cannot read directory '/var/cache/apt/archives/partial': Permission denied 44K /var/cache/apt/archives/ 


sudo apt autoremove --purge

Remove openssh-server

sudo apt remove openssh-sftp-server
sudo apt autoremove

Reset CPU's amd Memory

Set the memory to 1 GB and processors to 1


Export to an .ova file

Workstation Player

Find the path to your VM.

Open a command prompt as administrator 

cd D:\Programs\OVFTool\

Enter 

ovftool “C:\the path to your VM\your VMname.vmx”  c:\new directory\name.ova
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