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Server Factory Parallels Utils

Server Factory Parallels Utils toolkit can be used as a part of Server Factory projects or completely independently. The main goal of this toolkit is to provide the following:

  • A mechanism for compression and synchronization of Parallels images (matrices of systems used for development and testing)
  • A mechanism for retrieving all published Parallels images and further use on multiple computers (working stations, servers etc).

Quick start video tutorial

Parallels Utils Video tutorial

Requirements

To be able to use Parallels Utils the following dependencies must be installed:

  • Parallels for your version of macOS
  • Python 3

Following settings files have to be created:

  • image_location.settings defines location on your file system where Parallels images will be stored
  • image_provider.settings defines base URL for published Parallels images
  • image_sync.sh defines script for Parallels images publishing (upload)

See examples of each of these files in Examples directory.

How to use

The following scripts can be used for work with Parallels images (and virtual machines):

  • publish_images.sh used to publish your Parallels images to remote endpoint
  • run.sh used to run your Parallels images (virtual machines)

Publishing images

image_location.settings defines location of your images. The directory that is pointed here should have two subdirectories:

  • 'Compressed', used to contain .tar.gz versions of Parallels images
  • 'Uncompressed', used to contain Parallels images (.pvm)

When you install a new system, copy its .pvm file into the 'Uncompressed' directory. Keep separate directories containing working images (virtual machines) and 'matrices'. All contained inside the directory defined in image_location.settings are matrices. So, for example, your image_location.settings can point to: /Volumes/Your_Drive/Parallels/Images directory, while all working images (ones that are executed and used in regular work) can be located in: /Volumes/Your_Drive/Parallels/Using. Paths that you will use are absolutely up to you.

Once publish_images.sh is executed all Parallels images located under the 'Uncompressed' directory will be compressed into .tar.gz files and moved to the 'Compressed' directory. Then, all compressed Parallels images (.tar.gz) will be uploaded to the remote endpoint by triggering image_sync.sh script.

Thanks to this you will be able to publish all your Parallels images matrices to the cloud and have them ready for any future use on any of your working computers.

Retrieving and using published images

To run Parallels image (virtual machine) it is required to execute run.sh script. The script accepts one argument, an absolute path to the .pvm file of your image (virtual machine). The absolute path must point to the working version of the image (not the matrix).

If the absolute path and file exist Parallels image will be executed and the virtual machine started. If path (and) file(s) do not exist all directories will be created. Then, the following will happen:

  • If an 'Uncompressed' version of the image is available, it will be copied to our absolute path and Parallels image will be executed and the virtual machine started

  • If 'Uncompressed' image is not available, but 'Compressed' one exists, .tar.gz file be uncompressed into 'Uncompressed' directory and everything from the previous point performed

  • If there is no 'Uncompressed' or 'Compressed' version of the image, the .tar.gz file will be downloaded from the remote endpoint with the base URL defined in image_provider.settings. After the file is downloaded all from the previous point will be performed.

What's new?

To see what is new in a current version please see the changelog.