How to browse VM

satimis · #1 1st December 2009, 06:24 AM

Hi folks,

KVM - virtualization software
SugarCRM
host OS - Debian 5.0
VMs (guest) OS - Ubutun 9.04
Single(one) external IP

This is an experiment.

There are 4 VMs, each running SugarCRM which is a web-base CRM. Each VM has its own host name and internal IP. Desktops on local network(Intranet) can browse each VM on;

Code:

local_ip/sugarcrm

without problem.

Now my further test is how can remote-desktops connect/browse the VMs? Because there is only ONE external IP. Suggestion and pointer would be appreciated. TIA

B.R.
satimis

savage · #2 3rd December 2009, 09:04 AM

I'm not familiar with SugarCRM, but the usual way you would do this is routing different ports on the host's external IP address.

Say the host has an external IP of 74.125.45.100 and each of your VMs has an internal IP address of 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.4. You say SugarCRM is web based, so I'm assuming it's using port 80.

So using iptables (does Ubuntu use iptables?), I would route port 74.125.45.100:80 to 192.168.0.1:80, then for the 2nd VM, use port 81 on the external IP to 192.168.0.2:80 and so on.

Doing this you would then have:

As I say I'm not familiar with SugarCRM, you may encounter hostname problems or URL problems depending on how it works.

satimis · #3 3rd December 2009, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savage

I'm not familiar with SugarCRM, but the usual way you would do this is routing different ports on the host's external IP address.

Say the host has an external IP of 74.125.45.100 and each of your VMs has an internal IP address of 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.4. You say SugarCRM is web based, so I'm assuming it's using port 80.

So using iptables (does Ubuntu use iptables?), I would route port 74.125.45.100:80 to 192.168.0.1:80, then for the 2nd VM, use port 81 on the external IP to 192.168.0.2:80 and so on.

Doing this you would then have:

As I say I'm not familiar with SugarCRM, you may encounter hostname problems or URL problems depending on how it works.

Hi savage,

Thanks for your advice which is one of the solution making use of router. However the number of "Service Ports" has limit.

This is an experiment on cloud computing. In full service it may have >100 clients/subscriber. Then it needs a robust router. Making use of "Service Ports" on router is not an ideal solution.

B.R.
satimis

savage · #4 3rd December 2009, 12:00 PM

Well I just had another thought and I really have no idea how workable this is, or even if it'll work at all.

I'm at work on a phone so can't really investigate, but if it's purely web driven, in theory you could setup Apache on the host, with virtual hosts for each of the VMs and use mod_rewrite to silently redirect to the VMs.

If that sounds suitable, I'd have a look into mod_rewrite and check that it's capable of that.

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 PM CST ----------

Well I just had another thought and I really have no idea how workable this is, or even if it'll work at all.

I'm at work on a phone so can't really investigate, but if it's purely web driven, in theory you could setup Apache on the host, with virtual hosts for each of the VMs and use mod_rewrite to silently redirect to the VMs.

If that sounds suitable, I'd have a look into mod_rewrite and check that it's capable of that.

satimis · #5 3rd December 2009, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savage

........
but if it's purely web driven, in theory you could setup Apache on the host, with virtual hosts for each of the VMs and use mod_rewrite to silently redirect to the VMs.

If that sounds suitable, I'd have a look into mod_rewrite and check that it's capable of that.

Your suggestion sounds workable.

Actually what I need is to allow the clients/subscribers to call/login their own SugarCRM running as VM on the virtual machine via a single external IP. Each VM has its own static IP.

This setup looks similar to vhosting. I expect clone a VM for distributing function running Apache2. Port 80 will point at this VM. I don't expect running Apache2 on the host where KVM is running.

TIA

B.R.
satimis