Parallels Power Panel User's Manual
Parallels® Power Panel
User's Guide
Copyright © 1999-2011 Parallels Holdings, Ltd. and its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Parallels Holdings, Ltd.
c/o Parallels International GMbH.
Parallels International GmbH
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Contents
Introduction ...............................................................................................................6
About Parallels Power Panel ............................................................................................. 7
About This Guide .............................................................................................................. 8
Organization of This Guide ......................................................................................................8
Documentation Conventions ................................................................................................... 9
Getting Help....................................................................................................................10
Feedback........................................................................................................................11
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel........................................................... 12
Logging in....................................................................................................................... 13
Parallels Power Panel Interface Overview ........................................................................14
Customizing Parallels Power Panel Interface ......................................................................... 17
Using Parallels Power Panel Desktop .............................................................................. 18
Customizing Parallels Power Panel Desktop.......................................................................... 19
Virtual Environment Operations .............................................................................20
Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Virtual Environment....................................................21
Virtual Environment Statuses........................................................................................... 22
Managing Virtual Environment Files and Folders ..............................................................24
Creating Folder...................................................................................................................... 25
Creating Text File................................................................................................................... 25
Editing Text File ..................................................................................................................... 25
Uploading File to Virtual Environment..................................................................................... 26
Copying Files and Folders Inside Virtual Environment ............................................................ 26
Moving Files and Folders Inside Virtual Environment.............................................................. 26
Editing File or Folder Properties ............................................................................................. 27
Working With Containers................................................................................................. 27
Changing Container Root/Administrator Password................................................................ 27
Reinstalling Container............................................................................................................ 28
Repairing Container............................................................................................................... 30
Backing Up and Restoring Container..................................................................................... 31
Updating Container Software ................................................................................................ 35
Resources Overview..............................................................................................................36
Contents
Managing Container Applications .......................................................................................... 37
Working With Virtual Machines ........................................................................................ 41
Changing Virtual Machine Administrative password............................................................... 41
Reinstalling Virtual Machine ................................................................................................... 42
Resources Overview..............................................................................................................42
Managing Container Services and Processes .......................................................43
Managing Container Services.......................................................................................... 44
Managing Services in Linux ................................................................................................... 45
Managing Services in Windows ............................................................................................. 48
Managing Container Processes....................................................................................... 50
Managing Container Firewall ...........................................................................................52
Selecting Mode ..................................................................................................................... 53
Configuring Firewall in Normal Mode ..................................................................................... 54
Adding Access Rule in Normal Mode .................................................................................... 55
Building Input Chain .............................................................................................................. 56
Building Output Chain ...........................................................................................................58
Building Forward Chain ......................................................................................................... 59
Adding Rule in Advanced Mode ............................................................................................ 60
Editing Rule in Advanced Mode............................................................................................. 60
Control Panels for Containers.......................................................................................... 61
Managing Plesk Control Panel............................................................................................... 61
Logging in to Confixx Control Panel....................................................................................... 64
Using SSH to Connect to Container ...................................................................................... 65
Using Remote Desktop Connection to Access Container...................................................... 67
Managing Virtual Machine Services and Processes ..............................................68
Viewing System Processes .............................................................................................68
Control Panels for Virtual Machines ................................................................................. 69
Using VNC to Connect to Virtual Machine ............................................................................. 70
Using Remote Desktop ......................................................................................................... 71
SSH Connection to Virtual Machine....................................................................................... 72
4
Contents
Monitoring Operations and Viewing Logs ..............................................................74
Viewing History of Container Status Changes.................................................................. 75
Viewing Alerts Log ..........................................................................................................76
Viewing Traffic Log.......................................................................................................... 77
Viewing Task Details .......................................................................................................78
Viewing Error Details .......................................................................................................79
Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................80
Services Inaccessibility.................................................................................................... 81
Elusive Problems............................................................................................................. 82
Login Problems............................................................................................................... 83
File Problems .................................................................................................................. 83
Index ........................................................................................................................84
5
C HAPTER 1
Introduction
Parallels Power Panel is a flexible and easy-to-use administration tool designed for managing
a single Container or a virtual machine via a web browser.
In This Chapter
About Parallels Power Panel......................................................................................7
About This Guide ......................................................................................................8
Getting Help..............................................................................................................10
Feedback..................................................................................................................11
Introduction
Introduction
About Parallels Power Panel
The Parallels Power Panel functionality provides you with the ability to manage your virtual
environment - Containers and virtual machines, which are functionally identical to isolated
standalone servers, with their own IP addresses, processes, files, their own users databases,
configuration files, applications, etc. - with the help of any standard Web browser on any
platform. Parallels Power Panel allows you to manage virtual environment residing on physical
server running the Windows 2003 Server and Linux operating systems, or bare metal physical
server with Parallels Server Bare Metal installed. Main principles of the Parallels Power Panel
operation for the operating systems are very similar. However, there are some features
peculiar to only Windows 2003 Server or Linux. In case of differences between the two
versions, the steps written specifically for the Windows version are marked with the
and the steps for the Linux version - with the
A list of supported browsers is given below:
• Internet Explorer 8.x and 9.x for Windows
icon.
icon
• Mozilla Firefox 8.x for all platforms
• Safari 5.x for Mac OS
Although other browsers will most likely work, only those listed above have been extensively
tested for compatibility with Parallels Virtual Automation.
Currently, you are able to manage your virtual environments in the following ways:
• Start, stop, or restart the virtual environment;
Mount and unmount the Container in the repair mode;
•
Reinstall the Container;
•
• Back up and restore the Container;
• Change the virtual environment root/Administrator password;
• Start, stop, or restart certain services inside the virtual environment;
• View the list of virtual environment processes and send them signals;
• View the current resources consumption and resources overusage alerts;
• View logs and monitors for the virtual environment;
• Customize the Parallels Power Panel interface;
• Connect to the Container by means of various control panels; (p. 61)
• Connect to the virtual machine by means of various control panels (p. 69);
• etc.
7
Introduction
Note: Hereinafter, the root/Administrator denotation is used to identify the main user in the Linux
and Windows operating systems, respectively.
About This Guide
This guide is aimed at a wide range of users who are new to Parallels Power Panel or just
want to make sure they are doing everything right.
The present document is just as easy to use, as the product itself. However, we also provide
complete information about the structure and peculiarities of the guide in the following topics.
Organization of This Guide
The Parallels Power Panel User's Guide consists of the following sections
• The Introduction chapter (p. 6) provides basic information about the product and this
guide.
• The Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel chapter (p. 12) provides information
on logging in to Power Panel and organizing your work.
• The Virtual Environment Operations chapter (p. 20) provides information on managing
virtual environments, such as creating, cloning, configuring, starting/stopping, reinstalling,
repairing, backing up, etc.
• The Managing Container Services and Processes chapter (p. 43) provides information
on managing Container services, firewall system and control panels.
• The Managing virtual Machine Services and Processes chapter (p. 68) provides
information on managing virtual machine services and control panels.
• The Monitoring operations and Viewing logs chapter (p. 74) provides information on
virtual environment resource consumption.
• The Troubleshooting chapter (p. 80) lists most common problems you might encounter
during Parallels Virtual Automation operations and the ways to solve them.
8
Documentation Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation
conventions used in it.
The table below presents the existing formatting conventions:
Formatting Conventions Type of information Example
Introduction
Special Bold
Italics
Monospace
Preformatted
Monospace Bold
Key+Key Key combinations for which the
Items you must select, such as
menu options, command buttons
or items in a list.
Titles of chapters, sections and
subsections.
Used to emphasize the
importance of a point, to
introduce a term or to designate a
command line placeholder, which
is to be replaced with a real name
or value.
The names of commands, files
and directories.
On-screen computer output in
your command line sessions;
source code in XML, C++, or
other programming languages.
What you type as contrasted with
on-screen computer output.
user should press and hold down
one key and then press another.
Go to the Resources tab.
Read the Basic Administration chapter.
These are the so-called EZ templates.
To destroy a Container, type vzctl
destroy ctid.
Use vzctl start to start a Container.
Saves parameters for Container
101
# rpm -V virtuozzo-release
Ctrl+P, Alt+F4
Besides the formatting conventions, you should also know about the document organization
convention applied to Parallels documents: chapters in all guides are divided into sections,
which, in turn, are subdivided into subsections. For example, About This Guide is a section,
and Documentation Conventions is a subsection.
9
Introduction
Getting Help
Parallels Virtual Automation offers several options for accessing necessary information:
Parallels Virtual Automation documentation
• Parallels Virtual Automation Administrator's Guide. This document contains
extensive information about the product, its usage and troubleshooting. To access the
PDF version of the document, go to the Support link in the left pane and then click
the Downloads pane. You can download any document of the Parallels Virtual
Automation documentation bundle from the Parallels website.
• Parallels Virtual Automation Installation Guides for Linux/Bare Metal and
Windows. These documents contain extensive information on system requirements
for physical computers and instructions how to install Parallels Virtual Automation
components on them.
• Getting Started With Parallels Virtual Automation. This document contains the
basic information how to install, launch and manage Parallels Virtual Automation.
• Parallels Power Panel User's Guide. This document contains extensive information
about the Power Panel application.
• Parallels Virtual Automation 4.6 Agent XML API Reference. This document is a
complete reference on all Parallels Virtual Automation configuration files and physical
server command-line utilities.
• Parallels Virtual Automation Agent Programmer's Guide. This is a task-oriented
guide that provides information on all Parallels Virtual Automation configuration files
and physical server command-line utilities.
The documentation is available for download from the Parallels official website
http://www.parallels.com/products/pva46/resources/.
Context-sensitive help
You can open a help page for the current screen by clicking the Help link in the right upper
corner.
Parallels Website
Parallels website http://www.parallels.com/products/pva/resources/. Explore the Support
web page that includes product help files and the FAQ section.
Parallels Knowledge Base
10
Introduction
Parallels Knowledge Base http://kb.parallels.com. This online resource comprises valuable
articles about using the Parallels Virtual Automation, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and
Parallels Server Bare Metal products.
Feedback
If you spot a typo in this guide, or if you have thought of a way to make this guide better, we
would love to hear from you!
The ideal place for your comments and suggestions is the Parallels documentation feedback
page (http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/).
11
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
The chapter provides the information on how to log in to Power Panel and explains what
interface elements you may face and how to use them in the most effective way.
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Logging in
To log in to your virtual environment, use the IPv4 or IPv6 address (or hostname) and TCP
port of your virtual environment proper. Your provider should inform you of the IP address (or
hostname) and TCP port to enter in the address line of your browser and of the credentials
(user name and password) to use to log in to the virtual environment.
There are two possible ways to log in to your virtual environment:
1 Enter virtual environment administrator credentials: the user name (root for a Linux-
based virtual environment and Administrator for a virtual environment run on
Windows) and the password your provider has given you.
2 Enter admin as the user name and the password of the Plesk admin user. This is
possible only if the Plesk control panel is installed inside your virtual environment and your
provider has entitled you to do so.
Your provider may supply you with the credentials of the Plesk admin user for you to use
the benefits of the Plesk control panel in your virtual environment management. If you have
logged in to your virtual environment using the virtual environment IP address and the TCP
port of Plesk (by default, it is 8443), and the Plesk control panel is not installed in your virtual
environment, you will be asked to install it after you have logged in to the virtual environment.
To do this, follow any of the links on the Plesk main menu in the left part of the displayed
window. You will be warned with a message saying that Plesk is not installed in your virtual
environment and offering you to install it. To complete the installation, you should follow the
instructions on the screen. After you have successfully installed the Plesk control panel in
your virtual environment, you can proceed with the normal course of work.
In either case, once you have connected to the virtual environment, you are recommended
to:
1 Change your root/Administrator password at once by following the Change password
link in the left pane of the Parallels Power Panel page.
2 Provide a valid email address on the Parallels Power Panel configuration page to be able
to log in to Parallels Power Panel if you forget your password. In case, you are unable to
reach your virtual environment due to password-related problems, you can follow the
Forgot your password? link on the login page, which requests you to enter your user
name and the email address provided on the Parallels Power Panel configuration page.
On filling in these fields you will receive a URL at the email address entered informing you
how to change your password.
Also, be aware that when you log in to the Container for the first time in Parallels Power
Panel, the process of updating Container's packages is being executed in order to prepopulate list of applications installed on the Container and to check possible available
updates. This process should not be interrupted. Once the process is successfully
completed, the Container will be accessible in Power Panel without any delays.
13
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Parallels Power Panel Interface Overview
The Parallels Power Panel interface has been designed for the virtual environment
administrator to quickly perform all possible tasks through an intuitive navigation system.
All Parallels Power Panel pages have a menu on the left, a toolbar and a status bar on top,
and the content part in the middle. If Parallels Power Panel is integrated in the Plesk control
panel, the Parallels Power Panel menu will be replaced with the Plesk menu. The Parallels
Power Panel menu looks like this:
14
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Bear in mind, that depending on whether you manage a Container or a virtual machine via the
Power Panel application, the section names may differ.
It provides links to Parallels Power Panel pages where you can perform various tasks. The
description of the corresponding page is displayed at the bottom of the menu. All links are
gathered into four groups: Container/Virtual Machine Management, Container/Virtual
Machine Services, Logs, and Other, the names of the first three groups being links
themselves. When performing a particular task, you may first click the name of the group to
open the corresponding dashboard and then choose a task, or you may select the task at
once on the menu under the corresponding group.
The links on the menu do the following:
Link Description
Container or Virtual Machine
Management
Change Password Opens the page for changing the virtual environment root/administrator
File Manager Opens the File Manager page where you can view a list of files and
Maintenance
Resources Opens the page where you can learn the current consumption of the
Applications (p. 37) Container-related. Opens the page that lists the installed applications and
Packages (p. 39) Container-related. Opens the page that lists software packages for this
Control Panels (p. 62) Container-related. Opens the page that allows you to download and install
Container or Virtual Machine
Services
Opens the Management dashboard of a Container or a virtual machine
where you can learn more about various management tasks and perform
any of them.
password.
directories and perform all the essential file operations.
Opens the page where you can manage your Container backups,
recover the original template files of your Container if something has gone
wrong, or
command line checks and fixes.
hardware resources by your Container.
shows their statuses.
Container.
Plesk Control Panel on the Container.
Opens the Service Management dashboard, which lets you learn more
about various service management tasks and perform any of them.
start your Container in the so-called repair mode to perform
System Services Container-related. Opens a list of principal services inside your virtual
environment with the opportunity to start, stop, restart any of them and to
control their behavior on the virtual environment startup.
System Processes
Firewall
The Plesk control panel
Opens a list of processes running inside your virtual environment with the
opportunity to send various signals to any of them.
Opens your firewall current settings.
This link is displayed only if the Plesk application template is installed in the
virtual environment being managed. It opens the Plesk control panel login
window.
15
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Confixx control panel
VNC Console (p. 70) Opens a VNC console for connecting to your virtual machine.
Remote Desktop
SSH Connection
Logs Opens the Logs dashboard where you can learn more about various logs
Status Changes Opens a list of status changes your virtual environment has recently
Resource Alerts Opens a list of alerts of your virtual environment overusing any hardware
Tasks Log Opens a list of actions you have recently performed in Parallels Power Panel
Traffic Log Opens the page where you can view your traffic statistics for a specified
Help Opens this help system.
Preferences Opens the page where you can customize the Parallels Power Panel
This link is displayed only if the Confixx application template is installed in
the Container being managed. It opens the Confixx control panel login
window.
Opens a Remote Desktop session for connecting to your virtual environment
via RDP.
Opens a ssh terminal window for connecting to your virtual environment via
SSH.
available for your virtual environment and view any of them.
undergone.
resources or coming close to the usage limits imposed on it.
with the current virtual environment.
period in the past.
interface.
Sign out Following this link logs you out of Parallels Power Panel.
The toolbar is to be found on every Parallels Power Panel screen to allow you to easily
perform the operations most frequently required in the course of virtual environment
management with the help of the Start, Stop, Restart, Backup and New buttons.
16
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
C HAPTER 2
Customizing Parallels Power Panel Interface
Clicking the Preferences link on the Parallels Power Panel left menu opens the Parallels
Power Panel interface configuration page where you can set a number of parameters related
to the Parallels Power Panel interface. The options provided on the Configure page are the
following:
Option Description
Interface Language As Parallels Power Panel is localized into a number of languages, this drop-down
menu lets you choose the default interface language for Parallels Power Panel.
This setting affects the language of both your current Parallels Power Panel
session, and all future sessions if User Default is chosen as the interface language
on the Parallels Power Panel login screen.
Local Time Zone This setting affects the date and time information found on such Parallels Power
Panel pages as Status Changes, Resource Alerts, Actions Log. Choose the
time zone you wish to apply when viewing different kinds of logs.
GUI Elements Style This setting is effective for different types of GUI elements found on different
screens. You may choose a visual mode for them, a textual mode, or a
combination of both.
Interface Skin Here you may choose a suitable interface skin for your Parallels Power Panel
interface. The skin affects such elements as the Parallels Power Panel general
layout (framed or non-framed), icons and images, and the color palette. Parallels
Power Panel does not generate Windows skins, like Vista or XP.
Status Bar Refresh This setting affects the refreshing period of the status bar located at the top of any
Parallels Power Panel page (see Parallels Power Panel Interface Overview (p. 14)).
If you select the Smart Update option, the status bar will be refreshed only when
you follow Parallels Power Panel links, but not more than once per 60 seconds. If
this option is disabled, it means that the chosen interface skin does not use
frames; therefore, it is impossible to reload only part of the page.
Contact Email This field should be filled in with a correct email address to enable the functionality
of restoring the password, should the current user forget it. This email address
pertains to the current user only; other Parallels Power Panel users of the given
Container may fill in this field with other addresses. The link for restoring the
password is located on the Parallels Power Panel login page.
After you decide on the suitable configuration and click the Submit button, the settings will
be remembered for the current browser only. If you change the browser or move to another
computer for working with Parallels Power Panel, the default settings will be used until you
perform a new customization.
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Using Parallels Power Panel Desktop
The Desktop allows you to have the most frequently used options at hand, available and
organized in such an individual way that can considerably save your time reaching them. The
Desktop screen displays every time you log in or on clicking on the Virtuozzo logotype. The
Desktop is a remarkably customizable environment the ultimate appearance of which can be
configured on the Customize Desktop page (p. 19).
The Desktop page allows you to exercise the overall control on the virtual environment
activity, state, and configuration.
Virtual Environment Summary
In this section, you can view:
• The current status of the virtual environment.
• The hostname of the physical server where the virtual environment is hosted
• The OS template the virtual environment is based on
• The IP address and the ID number of the virtual environment
Download
Here you can download the Parallels Power Panel documentation from the Parallels web site.
Memo
Here you can leave important information or some memos relevant for you. Just click the Edit
Memo link to type it down and then click the Save Changes link.
Actions
This section contains some useful links, such as the Change Password, Manage System
Processes, Manage Files and some others. Click the Customize Desktop (p. 19) link to
edit the list of links..
If you do not need some of the sections, you can fold them by clicking the triangle element in
the right upper corner of every section.
18
Getting Started With Parallels Power Panel
Customizing Parallels Power Panel Desktop
If you clicked the Customize Desktop icon on the Parallels Power Panel toolbar to adapt its
preferences to your current needs, on the Customize Desktop you can use the following
options.
To start with, you can set up your Desktop appearance by placing its items either in two
columns or in any of them in the Desktop Layout subsection: select the item and click the
<< button to move it to the left column or the >> button to move it to the right column. To
further adjust the distribution of the items, use the Up and Down buttons.
Further on, you can write, or edit, anything worth memorizing in the Memo Contents field - if
you want this to be seen on your Desktop, select the Show 'Memo' Section checkbox.
To place to the Desktop an action, select this action in the Available table on the left of the
following section and move it to the Selected table with the >> button. The << button takes
the action selected in the Selected table back to the Available table. You can regulate the
actions position on the Desktop with the Up and Down buttons.
Select the Show 'Actions' Section checkbox to make the actions from the Selected table
appear on your Desktop.
If you select the Show 'Virtual Environment Summary' Section checkbox, the Desktop will
be displaying the summary information on the Container.
Finally, you can decide whether you need to have download links to the Parallels Power Panel
documentation on your Desktop with the help of the Show 'Download' Section checkbox.
19
Virtual Environment Operations
C HAPTER 3
Virtual Environment Operations
The common Container or virtual machine operations are accessible in Parallels Power Panel
from the Container/virtual machine Management accordingly.
The following Container operations are available either by following the links under the
Container Management group on the menu or through the links on the Container
Management dashboard itself:
• Changing the Container root/administrator password (the Change Password link);
• Working with Container files and directories (the File Manager link);
• Viewing the current resources consumption (the Resources link);
• Backing up and restoring the Container (the Maintenance link);
Reinstalling the original template files into the Container (the Maintenance link);
•
Mounting and unmounting the Container in the repair mode (the Maintenance link);
•
• Viewing the resource consumption (the Resources link);
• Viewing installed software packages ( the Software Packages link);
• Accessing the Container via various control panels (the Control Panels link);
The following virtual machine operations are available either by following the links under the
Virtual Machine Management group on the menu or through the links on the Container
Management dashboard itself:
• Working with virtual machine files and directories (the File Manager link);
• Backing up and restoring the virtual machine (the Maintenance link);
• Changing the Container root/administrator password (the Change Password link);
• Viewing the resource consumption (the Resources link)
In This Chapter
Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Virtual Environment ............................................. 21
Virtual Environment Statuses .................................................................................... 22
Managing Virtual Environment Files and Folders ....................................................... 24
Working With Containers .......................................................................................... 27
Working With Virtual Machines.................................................................................. 41
Virtual Environment Operations
Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Virtual Environment
A virtual environment may be started up, restarted, suspended and shut down like an
ordinary computer. Depending on the virtual environment state, only those operations are
accessible that comply with its current state. For example, a running virtual environment
cannot be started for obvious reasons, and so on. The following virtual environment states
can be characterized as stable:
Status Description
Running The virtual environment is running; therefore, it may only be started or stopped.
Down The virtual environment is stopped; therefore, it may only be started.
Repairing
The virtual environment is being repaired. You cannot perform any action on the virtual
environment until you click the Finish Repair button on the Start Container in Repair
Mode page (p. 30).
Besides these states, during virtual environment operations a virtual environment may be in
one of the transitional states: mounting, starting, stopping, etc. When in a transitional state,
you cannot perform any action on the virtual environment until the operation is finished. The
description of all possible virtual environment statuses is provided in the Physical Server,
Container and Virtual Machine Statuses section.
Click the Start, Stop, Suspend, or Restart button to perform the corresponding action. On
clicking one of these buttons, this action is logged.
If you are managing a virtual environment residing on the physical server with the Linux
operating system installed and wish to stop your virtual environment, bear in mind that there
is a two-minute timeout for the virtual environment shutdown scripts to be executed. If the
virtual environment is not stopped in two minutes, the system forcibly kills all the processes in
the virtual environment. The virtual environment will be stopped in any case, even if it is
seriously damaged. To avoid waiting for two minutes if you are operating a virtual
environment that is known to be corrupt, you may use the Power Off link. It is situated in the
Tasks section of the Container dashboard.
21
Virtual Environment Operations
Virtual Environment Statuses
At any point of time, any virtual environment is characterized by a status (or state). A virtual
environment may have five stable statuses and a number of transitional statuses. If the virtual
environment is in one of the stable states, it means that it is likely to continue in this state until
its administrator performs a task that would change its status. If the virtual environment is in
one of the transitional states, it means that it is currently passing from one stable state to
another. During a transition stage, no operation can be performed on the virtual environment
until the transition is finished.
The stable statuses are:
Status Description Possible Actions
down
mounted
running
The virtual environment is stopped and its private area is
unmounted.
The virtual environment private area is initialized and
ready to work, but the virtual environment is not running.
The virtual environment private area is mounted and the
virtual environment is running.
Starting/ repairing/
reinstalling
Starting
Stopping/ restarting/
repairing
suspended
repairing
The virtual environment is stopped and its private area is
unmounted. The difference between the suspended
status and the down status is that the current state of a
suspended virtual environment is written to the
/vz/private/CT_ID/dump/Dump file on the
Hardware Node, and can be quickly restored from
there.
The virtual environment is mounted in the repair mode. Exiting the repair mode.
The transition statuses are:
Status Description
creating
mounting
starting
stopping
restarting
unmounting
destroying
starting-repair
The virtual environment is being created.
The virtual environment is being mounted.
The virtual environment is starting.
The virtual environment is stopping.
The virtual environment is being restarted.
The virtual environment is being unmounted.
The virtual environment is being deleted.
The virtual environment is entering the repair
mode.
Resuming. Restarting,
repairing and reinstalling are
not recommended because
these actions are most likely
to alter the saved state of
the virtual environment.
stopping-repair
22
The virtual environment is quitting the repair
mode.
Virtual Environment Operations
setting
migrating
moving
cloning
updating
backing-up
restoring
reinstalling
suspending
resuming
The virtual environment parameters are being
set.
The virtual environment is being migrated.
The virtual environment is being moved.
The virtual environment is being cloned.
The virtual environment is being updated.
The virtual environment is being backed up.
The virtual environment is being restored from
the backup.
The virtual environment is being reinstalled.
The virtual environment is being suspended.
The virtual environment is being resumed from
the suspended state.
23
Virtual Environment Operations
Managing Virtual Environment Files and Folders
For a running virtual environment, you can navigate inside the virtual environment directory
structure, list the virtual environment files and directories and perform all essential file
operations on the File Manager page. (
are presented with a list of drives inside the Container. Click a drive (e.g. C:) to see its
contents.) The main information on the directory/drive contents is presented in the form of a
table.
Column Name Description
Type The type of the object: a folder or a file.
Name The name of the directory or file.
Size The size of the file.
Modified The date and time of the last modification of the directory or file.
Container. Right after opening this screen, you
Permissions
User
Group
Actions Hyperlinks for performing certain operations with the directory or file (see below).
Note: If the Container is being repaired (p. 30), the file manager root directory (/) corresponds
to the /repair directory of the temporary Container, in other words, it represents the root
directory of the problem Container, not that of the newly-created one.
The first symbol in this column indicates if this is a directory (the letter d) or not (the
minus sign). The following three symbols designate the permissions that the owner of
the directory/file has on it, then go another three symbols for the permissions of the
users belonging to the group assigned to the directory/file, and the final set of three
symbols denotes the permissions of all the rest. The symbols in each of the set
express consecutively the following permissions: read, write, and execute. The
presence of a letter (correspondingly, r, w, or x) indicates that the permission is given,
and the minus sign - that it is absent.
The owner of the file/directory.
The users' group that has certain permissions on the file/folder. These permissions are
presented by the 5th thru 7th symbols in the Permissions column.
Apart from viewing a list of files and directories with their essential properties, you are able to
perform the following operations:
• Create a new folder in the current directory (p. 25);
• Create a new text file in the current directory (p. 25);
• Edit existing text files (p. 25);
• Upload a file from your local computer to the current virtual environment directory (p. 26);
24
Virtual Environment Operations
• Download a file from the current virtual environment directory to your local computer (by
clicking the diskette icon in the Actions column);
• Copy any number of files or folders to another directory inside the virtual environment (p.
26);
• Move any number of files or folders to another directory inside the virtual environment (p.
26);
• Edit the properties of any folder or file (p. 27);
• Remove any number of files or folders by selecting them and following the Remove link.
To perform a certain operation (e.g. copying) on a number of directories or files, tick the
corresponding check boxes. The uppermost check box allows you to select all the directories
and files at once.
Creating Folder
On the Create Folder screen, you can add a new folder and specify its name in the Folder
Name field. Upon finishing the operation, click Create to save the changes. The new folder
will be created in the current directory (designated above the field).
You can access the Create Folder screen from the File Manager section by clicking the
Create Folder button.
Creating Text File
The Create File page allows you to create simple text files directly inside the virtual
environment, without uploading them from your local computer.
In the Specify File section, you should enter the name of the file to be created in the current
directory (this directory is indicated under the page heading) to the Name field and,
optionally, type the text of the file in the Content field. Click Create when you are finished to
create the new file.
Editing Text File
Parallels Virtual Automation allows you to edit any text file inside your virtual environment
directly through the Parallels Virtual Automation interface. The Edit File page can be
accessed by clicking on the right icon in the Actions column for the corresponding text file
on the File Manager page.
This page presents the contents of the file in an editable field. Make your modifications and
click Submit to write a new version of the file.
25
Virtual Environment Operations
Uploading File to Virtual Environment
The current version of Parallels Virtual Automation allows you to upload external files to the
virtual environment, up to ten files at a time. The Upload File page is displayed after clicking
the Upload File link on the File Manager page.
Click the Browse button, navigate to the local file you wish to upload and double-click it. The
path to the file will be displayed in the corresponding Specify File field. Another way of
indicating the file is to enter this path manually.
When you click Upload, the files that you have specified will be uploaded to the current
directory inside the virtual environment. For your reference, this directory is indicated above
the Specify File group.
Copying Files and Folders Inside Virtual Environment
The Copy File(s) page, where you can perform the copy operation, gets displayed after you
have selected one or more files and/or folders by ticking the corresponding check boxes on
the File Manager page and clicking Copy.
On the Copy File(s) page, click Select and, in the pop-up window, navigate to the folder
where you want to copy the files and/or folders, check the radio button to the left of it, and
press Select. The path to the target folder will be displayed in the Destination Path field.
Click Copy to begin the copy process.
Moving Files and Folders Inside Virtual Environment
The Move File(s) page, where you can perform the move operation, gets displayed after you
have selected one or more files and/or folders by ticking the corresponding check boxes on
the File Manager page and clicked Move.
On the Move File(s) page, click Select and, in the pop-up window, navigate to the folder
where you want to move the files and/or folders, check the radio button to the left of it, and
press Select. The path to the target folder will be displayed in the Destination Path field.
Click Move to begin the move process.
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