install WeBWorK from a ".ova" virtual machine image

R

RichardLane

Bit poster
I would like to install WeBWorK using the the ".ova" image file which is discussed at, and linked from,
http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installing_from_WW2.7_Ubuntu12.04_Vanilla_Virtual_Machine_Image

My immediate interest involves Parallels 9 (9.0.24229.991745) on a Retina MacBookPro running OS X 10.8.5, but I will want to have a similar setup on a MacMini running OS X 10.9.3.

I have seen vague references to using prl_convert (which I located with path /Applications/Parallel Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/). In a terminal window,
/Applications/Parallel Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/prl_convert --help
does summarize Usage, but the function(s) of this program remains unclear.

In any event, since
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format
describes an open standard,
a) I would like to learn whether Parallels can use that.
b) If not now, then when?
c) If not that particular open standard, then which open standards?
 
Thanks for the link to "Installing from WW2.7 Ubuntu12.04 Vanilla LiveDVD" in your first line. (I forgot about citing that since I've been using various LiveDVDs since Parallels 3.)


There are several reasons why I would like to evaluate a virtual machine from the ".ova" image.

a) investigate whether the LiveDVD's reliance on remastersys is superfluous in this VM context

b) I would like to explore extending the "vanilla" installation and then publishing that for others to use (WeBWorK is an open-source system for providing online homework in math, statistics, physics, and other sciences).
1) install Moodle, then activate one of two bridges between WeBWorK and Moodle

2) install Rserve (http://rforge.net/Rserve/) and the RserveClient (https://github.com/djun-kim/Statistics--RserveClient) so that R can be used as a tool by authors of WeBWorK problems. (If WeBWorK does checking of student answers, then security issues involving passing student strings to a remote server do not arise. Use of a Sage cell-server does involve such security concerns.)

For whatever it's worth: I'm considering Parallels only for use in a proof-of-concept exploration on my laptop or personal desktop. A production server would be setup in a VM maintained by my dept's IT staff.
 
I suggested Parallels, long ago, to support the open virtualisation format, unfortunately, they didn't implement it (yet?), so the more people ask for it the better. In the mean time, Parallels supports importing VirtualBox and VMWare VMs, if you are looking for a format that can be opened/imported into the various VM platforms I would have to suggest VirtualBox, as VirtualBox is free.

VirtualBox and VMware support OVF (.ova), albeit VMware fusion might require the download of VMware's ovftool for conversion, but at least they have that tool. It's only sane to have a common standard that you can archive VMs into and open them in 10 years or so (because only an open format can offer better longevity assurance), or in your case to distribute. People end up using the VMware format, and maybe if parallels supported OVF (import and export!) than there would be no reason for that.

I wish Parallels as a company would understand that the lock-in into their format they are trying to push is also a lock-out, which results in no one distributing VMs in Parallels format.
 
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