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VM Essentials

Virtual Machines Overview​

Virtual Machines are a special tool to aid users in manipulating their files/data in an OS-specific environment. Essentially, this tool provides the user to run very uniquely operating systems and corresponding applications based on their individual needs.

Administrators can build virtual machine configurations based on individual user/department needs, and users can run these virtual machines using their encrypted drives.

The following information describes how to use and manage virtual machines. It is imperative to understand the components of a virtual machine to have a seamless understanding of how they operate.

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During the research, users are in their virtual machines for a consistent amount of time.

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The VM configuration is the information needed to start the VM.

Start a Virtual Machine​

To start a Virtual Machine navigate to the tab in the section.

  • Select the virtual machine configuration you want to start.
  • Click the Start VM button located in the top center.
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You will be prompted to type your password then you will notice the Virtual Machine connecting to the drive automatically.

Start a Virtual Machine

Connect to a Virtual Machine​

To connect to a Virtual Machine navigate to the tab in the section.

  • Select the virtual machine you want to connect to.
  • Click the Connect button located in the top center.
Connect to a Virtual Machine

Resource usage statistics​

To view the resource usage statistic navigate to the tab in the section.

  • Select the virtual machine you want view the resource usage statistics for.
  • View how much of the resources have been used on the left side of the VM panel.
  • . Core Usage: maximum number of cores for the VM.
  • . Memory Usage: maximum available memory (GB) and percentage used (%).
  • . Home Drive Usage: maximum home drive space usage.
  • . Network In: Ingress of the network traffic.
  • . Network Out: Egress of the network traffic.
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The difference between memory usage and home drive usage is that memory works as an operation center while the persistent data is saved on the hard disk.

Example:
Imagine your hard disk is like a library with a large number of books. You need a place to put those books and read them; therefore the memory serves you as the library desk, where you can access your files much faster, but you still have to pick them from the library. Most operations happen on your desk (your memory). In addition, whenever you leave the library everything goes away from your desk back to the shelves of your library (your hard disk).

Hard drive: persistent storage.
Memory usage: ephemeral storage.

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You must power up and connect your Virtual Machine to view the resource usage statistics.

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If you use all your available VM resources, you will not be able to start the VM.

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If you operate over your allowed memory usage, you will crash your VM.

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If you experience a resource limitation problem, you should ask your admin about the VM resource allocation.

virtual-machines-usage-resources

Virtual Machine Management Section​

To access virtual machine management section navigate to the tab in the section.

  • Select the virtual machine you want to view the management for.
  • Scroll down underneath the statistics and view the following management tools in the VM panel.
virtual-machines-management

  • . User Management: Describes the members and managers of the VM and their permissions in the VM.

  • . User Profiles: A user can organize other users based on permission criteria using custom VM profiles.

  • . Group Management: A user can manage the groups within their virtual machine such as Everybody in the VM, Managers of the VM and Nobody if the VM belongs solely to its owner.

  • . Access Directory Management: A user can manage file directories in the VM.

  • . Drive Management: A user can view the drives associated with the virtual machine and attach more drives.

  • . Controller Logs: The log dump of the controller of the VM.

VM Menu

Your VM Profile​

Your VM profile is based on your virtual machine.

This includes basic information such as your role, permissions, your access directories, and groups.

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Nothing can be changed here, only viewed.

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Profile changes and roles are managed by admins.

virtual-machine-profile

User Management​

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This tool may not be visible to some users.

That is because they do not have permission to manage users within the VM. It is with this tool that users can be added and removed from the virtual machine. A user's permissions within the virtual machine can also be edited here as follows:

  • . Users: View other users.
  • . Files: View/edit files.
  • . VM to Vault transfer: Transfer files ti tiCrypt Vault from VM.
  • . Vault to VM transfer: Upload files to VM and create directories.
  • . Terminals: Open terminals through tiCrypt.
  • . Remote application access: Allows VM application access from user desktop.
  • . Access Directories: View acess directories.
  • . Groups: View groups.
  • . System Statistics: View real-time system utilization.
VM User Management

User Profiles (in Virtual machines)​

User profiles in virtual machines are a management tool to help you manage multiple accounts with specific custom permissions. Instead of manually setting permissions for a large number of users, you can set up a user profile and apply it to a group of VM users simultaneously.

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Changes in a VM User profile will change all user's permissions who are identified with the specified profile within the VM.

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As a user, you may be given a User profile in the main system by your admin. That is fundamentally different from a VM user profile.

VM User Profiles

Group Management​

Groups can be added or removed from the virtual machine in this section.

The group must be created first and then users can be added to it. The users must be shared on the VM to be added to the group.

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Groups are used to restrict access to directories.

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If a group has access to a specific directory, then only that group can see that directory.

VM Group Management

Access Directory​

Access directories are folders within a virtual machine.

These folders may be restricted so that only members of a group who were given access may view them.

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When creating an access directory, a group must be assigned.

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An access directory can be only applied to an inbox. For more information on inboxes check How to Create and Use an Inbox.

VM Access Directories

Drive management​

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This tool is only visible to the person who launches the VM.

If you created a VM then you have ownership over it; hence you can remove and add drives on the fly as well as manage the drives that are already mounted.

For each drive the following information is displayed:

  • Name of the Drive
  • Project tagged by the drive
  • Drive type
  • Drive owner name
  • Drive format
  • Size of the drive
  • Usage Stats
  • Mounting path
  • Drive Actions
VM Drive Attach

Controller​

Displays all of the logs or reports of the behavior of the virtual machine.

Each log has a number, a timestamp with date & time and a description of the event.

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Logs can also be searched for or downloaded if specifically allowed by the admin.

VM Controller Logs