Controlling Multiple Virtual Machines in Computer Classrooms

Abstract

A management of computer classroom is undoubtedly a difficult task for the administrator which has to prepare virtual operating systems for education. It is quite common that lectors need to edit the particular machine during the semester, and that is the case where the main problems can appear. The process of changes deployment is not just very time-consuming but during it a virtual machine inconsistency can appear. The main part of this paper focuses on system process diagrams and its pseudocode. At first, the machine is created on the remote server by lector or administrator. After a proper approval, the machine is able to be deployed. The lector then specifies the details about date, time and destinations of the virtual machine deployment. Once these details are approved, the virtual machine will be automatically deployed at the specified time. The automatic deployment includes also an initial configuration of the virtual machine at remote desktop and its post-install configuration (hostname, MAC address, etc.). Once all steps are completed, the process will be marked as succeed. We present an automatized solution which provides a possibility how to easily manage computer classroom with virtual operating systems. The proposed solution should deliver a greater flexibility, more reliability and faster deployment in comparison with the current solution used in our computer classroom. The proposal is also able to manipulate with already deployed machines for easy changes (e.g. software updates). The main advantage is the improvement of classroom management process automation.

Keywords

• computer classroom
• VirtualBox
• workstation management
• virtual machine
• workstation virtualization
• virtualization