Frequently Asked Questions for Windows / Linux / MacOS

What is a Bitnami OS X VM?

A Bitnami OS X VM is a virtual machine (VM) that includes everything you need to run your Bitnami-packaged application of choice on your OS X system. Once downloaded, you can launch it and immediately begin using the application.

All Bitnami OS X VMs are completely self-contained and run independently of the rest of the software or libraries installed on your system. This means that you don't have to worry about installing any other software on your system to make the new application work. OS X VMs also won't interfere with any software already installed on your system, so everything you're already running will continue to work normally.

What is the difference between an OS X native installer and an OS X VM?

An OS X native installer installs the Bitnami application stack and all its components directly on your OS X system.
An OS X VM is a virtual machine for OS X. It includes all the components of the Bitnami application stack in a Linux-based virtual machine that runs on your OS X system.

What are the system requirements for an OS X VM?

To install a Bitnami OS X VM, you will need Mac OS X 10.10.3 or later and a 2010 or later Mac with an Intel VT-x feature set that includes Extended Page Tables (EPT).

How do I start an OS X VM?

To start an OS X VM:

Launch the manager by double-clicking the OS X VM icon in the mounted disk image.
Click the "Start" button in the "General" tab of the manager. Wait for the status icon to turn green.

How do I stop an OS X VM?

To stop an OS X VM, click the "Stop" button in the "General" tab of the manager. Once the status icon turns red, close the manager window.

Can I start and stop OS X VM services individually?

Yes. When you start the OS X VM, all services will also automatically start. You can navigate to the "Services" tab of the manager at any time to stop, start, restart or check the status of individual services.

Where are the OS X VM files and logs?

The OS X VM files and logs are stored within your home directory on the OS X host, in the ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APPNAME/vm and ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APPNAME/log directories respectively.

Where are the main OS X VM configuration files?

The main OS X VM configuration files are located as follows:

Apache configuration file: /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/httpd.conf
PHP configuration file: /opt/bitnami/php/etc/php.ini
MySQL configuration file: /opt/bitnami/mysql/bitnami/my.cnf

How do I copy files to the OS X VM file system?

To copy files from the host system to the OS X VM file system, follow these steps:

Launch the manager by double-clicking the VM icon in the mounted disk image.
Mount the /opt/bitnami directory from the "Volumes" tab of the manager and click the "Explore" button to open the OS X Finder.
Navigate to the /opt/bitnami directory in the Finder. This is the directory containing the stack files. Copy files to it from the host system using the Finder in the usual way.

How do I access phpMyAdmin from the host system?

To access phpMyAdmin from the host system, follow these steps:

Launch the stack manager by double-clicking the VM icon in the mounted disk image.
Ensure that all services are running in the "Services" tab of the manager (or start them as needed).
Navigate to the "Network" tab and ensure that port forwarding (port 80 of the stack to port 8080 of the host system) over SSH is enabled.
Browse to http://localhost:8080/phpmyadmin to access phpMyAdmin. Log in with username root and the password for the Bitnami application.

How do I change the VM required memory?

To check the required memory of your VM, open a terminal and run the command below. Replace the APP_NAME placeholder with the correct directory name:

  $ cat ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APP_NAME/metadata.json | jq '.requiredMemory'

NOTE: You can install jq on your Mac by running brew update && brew install jq

To change the VM required memory, follow these steps:

Launch the stack manager by double-clicking the VM icon in the mounted disk image.
Stop the VM.
Close the stack manager.

Open a terminal and change the requiredMemory running the command below. Replace the MEMORY placeholder with the value you want to set:

$ cat ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APP_NAME/metadata.json | jq '.requiredMemory = MEMORY' | tee ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APP_NAME/metadata.json

Launch again the stack manager by double-clicking the VM icon in the mounted disk image.
Start the VM.
Open a Terminal by clicking the "Open Terminal" button you will find in the "General" tab.
Verify the allocated memory running the command below:
```
$ free -h
```

Configure DNS

If your VM cannot resolve DNS names, add the Google public DNS service to the resolv.conf DNS configuration file:

$ echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" | tee -a /etc/resolv.conf

How do I upgrade an OS X VM?

If you download a new version of a Bitnami OS X VM application and try to run it, you will see a warning message similar to that shown below:

This warning appears when you already have a previous version of that application deployed on your OS X system. It ensures that you do not accidentally overwrite your existing application and data.

To upgrade your Bitnami OS X VM application, follow these steps:

Back up all the data that you need from the existing Bitnami OS X VM deployment, including all files, databases, custom plugins, media and other assets.
Remove or rename the previous OS X VM image files by deleting the ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/APP-NAME directory, where APP-NAME is the application name. For example, the Bitnami Redmine OS X VM image files are located in the ~/.bitnami/stackman/machines/redmine directory.
Deploy the new version of the Bitnami OS X VM application.
Restore all the data backed up from the previous version in the new version.

Refer to the application page in our documentation or to the applicatin's official documentation for specific details on how to backup and restore your data.

How do I uninstall an OS X VM?

To uninstall an OS X VM, follow these steps:

Delete the OS X VM icon from the Applications folder.
Remove all OS X VM data by deleting the ~/.bitnami folder within your home directory on the OS X host.