Skyproc Virtual Appliance (SVA) - skygeek/skyproc GitHub Wiki

This document explain how to setup the Skyproc Virtual Appliance, referred to as SVA in the text below.

SVA makes possible to use Skyproc locally without the need of a permanent Internet connection. Partial connection still preferable for connecting to external services (Google Maps and GeoNames) and providing additional features (see below for more details).

Installation procedure

SVA is a VMware image that contains all the software ready to use. To install and run Skyproc, follow the instructions below :

  1. Download the SVA image here: download link.
  2. Extract the SVA image zip file to your hard drive.
  3. Download VMware player here: VMware Player download page.
  4. Install VMware player by following installer instructions.
  5. Start VMware player and click on "File" menu then click on "Open a Virtual Machine".
  6. Browse to the location where you extracted the zip file, choose the file named skyproc-virtual-appliance-beta.vmx and click on "Open".
  7. Click on "Play virtual machine" button.

After a few seconds you should see the SVA login prompt on the screen and a message saying :

You can access Skyproc at http://a.b.c.d

Open a browser (chrome and safari are highly recommended) and type the address shown (a.b.c.d) in the address bar.

N.B. SVA uses a self signed certificate to encrypt data transferred by the platform. While this will ensure a secure communication for your users, browsers will complain about the impossibility to verify the server identity. This warning can be safely ignored.

Networking configuration

When you play the SVA, it's like you have plugged a new computer on your network, SVA comes with it's own operating system and needs an IP address to be accessed. By default the SVA will try to automatically configure itself and acquire an IP address from an auto configuration service (DHCP), if this operation fails, you will not be able to connect to Skyproc. The auto-configuration may fail for many reasons and troubleshooting is beyond the scope of this document. If you face problems connecting to the SVA, try this alternative setup :

  1. Stop the SVA (see below for instructions how to best the SVA properly).
  2. Click on "Edit virtual machine settings" button.
  3. Click on "Network Adapter" in the left menu.
  4. In the right part of the dialog, choose "NAT" under "Network Connection" section.
  5. Click on "Save" and then on "Play virtual machine" button.

After the SVA has booted, you should be able to connect to the shown IP address.

Stop the SVA

If you want to stop or quit to SVA you must shutdown the operating system inside the virtual machine first. If you skip this step, it's like unplugging a computer from electricity source while running, the majority of time this will have no noticeable effect, but is some rare situations it can lead to data loss or can prevent the system from restarting. To ensure that you will never miss a data write on the SVA, never stop it, if you want to quit the program or shutdown your host machine, simply suspend the SVA by Clicking on "Virtual Machine" menu -> "Power" -> "Suspend".

However if you need to stop the SVA to change the virtual machine settings, do one of the following :

  1. Log into the SVA operating system and type "sudo poweroff" command. To log into the SVA click on the SVA screen and use those credentials: username: bitnami, password: bluesky172. After the command was entered, the system will ask you again for the password.
  2. Or, Click on "Virtual Machine" menu and click on "Send Ctrl+Atl+Del". Go to "Virtual Machine" -> "Power" and wait until you see a white screen with "Bitnami" in the background then immediately click on "Power Off" and rapidly validate confirmation message to stop the virtual machine before the operating system starts.

External services and SVA tweaking

Skyproc uses some external services that requires an Internet access and some tweaking in the SVA configuration. To access the SVA admin page, open a browser and type the address of the SVA follow by /admin (a.b.c.d/admin). The login/password is skyproc/skyproc. Here is the minimum attributes you need to change for an optimal use :

  • Google Maps API Key: By default, SVA do not use a key when connecting to Google Maps service and this is fine, but it is preferable to use it's own key to prevent limits that can be applied on anonymous connections. The Google Maps API Key can be created for free with your Google/Gmail account.
  • GeoNames User : GeoNames service requires a username to be sent, SVA uses the default "demo" user, but this user is very often over loaded and will not respond. GeoNames is used as a source of weather reports (not forecasts). You must create your own GeoNames user for a correct use of the service. Go to GeoNames website and create an account, it's free.

Security note

It is highly recommended to change all the default passwords of the SVA (operating system password and admin page password), the most important one to change is the admin page password, since it is available via the open web protocol (HTTP).