An interesting presentation about our script system for automating virtual machine and computer installations was made today at the 3rd Simula Grand Knowledge Festival. The slides can be found here.
Abstract: For a computer scientist and researcher, the installation of computers and/or virtual machines (VM) is a common task. But unlike the typical home or office user, computer scientists have highly specific requirements and preferences for their system configurations and setups, e.g. «I need a server VM, security-hardened network settings, with SimulaMet networking tools, …», or «I need a development VM with full, customised GUI (SimulaMet backgrounds, switchable keyboard layout, …), pre-configured browser (ad-blocker, privacy-enhanced settings, etc.), LaTeX editor and tools, …». Also, the installation should be documented and reproducible! This task becomes even more challenging when having to support multiple operating systems (e.g. Linux and FreeBSD) with different distributions (e.g. Ubuntu or Fedora Linux) and versions. Clearly, this calls for automation!
This talk introduces our open-source automation framework: the Virtual Machine Image Builder and System Installation Scripts [1] and System-Tools [2]. Built on nearly 15 years of experience in various Simula projects like NorNet, these tools leverage Packer and Git to transform system installation into a versioned, automated workflow. By using Git, it is possible to keep track of all changes and customisations, and easily reproduce the same setups again later. The first part of the talk includes an overview over the existing templates (e.g. minimal system, basic non-GUI server, configuration with customised GUI, full development machine), and how to run and debug the installations. In the second part, it will be practically demonstrated how to extend the setup to create demo VMs for an own project, including branding of the system with project-specific boot splash, desktop and screen-locker backgrounds, as well as login banners.
[1] Virtual Machine Image Builder and System Installation Scripts: https://www.nntb.no/~dreibh/vmimage-builder-scripts/
[2] System-Tools: https://www.nntb.no/~dreibh/system-tools/
Presentation reference: Dreibholz, Thomas: «Automated System Installation of Virtual Machines and Computers» (PDF, 12493 KiB, 34 pages, 🇬🇧), Presentation at the 3rd Simula Grand Knowledge Festival, Simula Research Laboratory, Oslo/Norway, June 4, 2026.
