Virtual appliance instructions

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Archivematica is distributed as a virtual appliance which integrates a number of software tools into one common virtual machine environment.

This allows it to be run on almost any workstation or server hardware without compromising the host machine's operating system or application software. At the same time, the virtual appliance is able to interact with any number of networked and/or external storage devices to allow for the flexible implementation of an archival storage and backup strategy.

• See the software page for a full list of the tools used in each system release.
• See the documentation page for instructions on how to use the virtual appliance to accomplish the system requirements

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instructions for launching the Archivematica virtual appliance

1. Download Archivematica virtual appliance image.

• Extract Archivematica-0.3.2.tar.gz by right-clicking the tar.gz file and choosing "extract here". This should result the following being created within an archivematica folder:
  • Archivematica-0.3.2.ovf
  • disk0.vmdk

2. Download and Install Sun VirtualBox

• http://www.sun.com/software/products/virtualbox/index.jsp

3. Create Archivematica virtual machine

• Open VirtualBox
• Click File > Import Appliance
• Click Choose
• Select Archivematica-0.3.2.ovf
• Click Open
• Click Next
• Click Import
• Read and agree to the Software License Agreement
• The virtual box will open with Archivematica 0.3.2 listed on the left-hand side. Select Archivematica 0.3.2 and click Start (the green arrow in the menu)
• The image should launch, showing you a Linux Ubuntu desktop and the digital preservation applications which are currently part of Archivematica 0.3.2.
  • You may have to login using the user name demo and the password demo.
  • If your mouse pointer does not appear to be working in the virtual machine, click the letter f while holding down the right-hand control button. Do the same thing to switch back to using your mouse pointer outside the virtual box.

3.1 Importing Files into the Archivimatica Virtual Machine (optional)

• See Create a shared folder for instructions on how to set up a shared folder to allow you to move test files back and forth between the host machine OS and the virtual machine.

4. Location of test files

• Test files are located in home/demo/ingest.

5. Generating checksums

• Select the files for which you would like to generate the checksums. Please note that as of the current version of Archivematica you cannot select folders, only files.
• Right click, then select Scripts > makeMD5.
• Save the report in the same folder.
• Copy all the files, including the MD5 report, to another folder (eg. archivalstorage)
• Right-click the report, then select Scripts > checkMD5
• The report should tell you that all files are OK. If you didn't move over all the files or if there was a problem which changed one or more of the files, the report will tell you that the checksum for those files failed.

6. Using DROID

• DROID provides a gui interface for selecting objects for processing. Navigate to home/demo/ingest/ and select the entire folder, or open the folder to select individual files.
• DROID allows you to select an "include subfolders" option.
• When the files are processed, go to File > Save List to save an xml report of the results.

7. Using NLNZ Metadata Extraction Tool

• Creating a simple object will result in one xml report for each object; creating a complex object will create a single report for all objects.
• When you create a new object in NLNZ, you will be asked to select the directory: enter /home/demo/ingest/.
• The xml reports are set to output to usr/local/OAIS/metadata-extractor/harvested/nlnz_dd/.

8. Using JHOVE

• To include calculation of checksums in the validation process, go to Edit > Preferences and click Calculate checksums.
• To process a directory of records, click File > Open URL and enter the directory: /home/demo/ingest/.
• To save an xml report, in the RepInfo window click on File > Save as; under Choose output handler select xml; then create a file name with the .xml extension added (otherwise JHOVE will save the report as plain text).

9. Using Qubit

• Qubit is an open-source software toolkit that allows institutions such as archives, libraries, museums, and art galleries to manage and host web-based collections of information resources.
  • It is currently being implemented in the archival community as ICA-AtoM (International Council on Archives Access to Memory).
    • Please refer to the ICA-AtoM user manual for instructions on how to use a typical Qubit application.
• Qubit is being evaluated for use in the archivematica Data Management and Access components.
• Please note that the VM version of Qubit is a development version, not a stable release.
• Log in to Qubit using the user name demo@example.com and the password demo.

10. Using Xena

• Click Add Directory to normalize a body of records.
• Select home/demo/ingest. Note that Xena will normalize the contents of the folder and any subfolders.
• The default directory for Xena output is /home/demo/xena-output.
• The Xena log will save automatically as /home/demo/xena-output/xena-log.
• To view a normalized file, double-click on a file in the normalization results screen. For office documents, you will then need to select the option to view in OpenOffice.org.
  • If OpenOffice.org appears not to be working or takes a long time to open, go to Tools > Plugin Preferences >, and for "Sleep time allowed for OpenOffice to start (seconds)" select 3.

11. Using Bagit

• Select a group of files or a folder.
• Right-click, then select Scripts > Bagit.
• Edit the name of the bag if desired.
• The bag will automatically be saved to home/demo/mybags.