VirtualBox 3.1: Beginner's Guide: Deploy and manage a cost-effective virtual environment using VirtualBox

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VirtualBox 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Chapter 2. Creating Your First Virtual Machine: Ubuntu Linux

The first time I used VirtualBox was to write a book about using the Apache Roller blog server in Linux, and because I needed to use my beloved MS Word software for the writing part, I had to struggle between a Windows XP and a Linux PC. When I installed VirtualBox on my Windows XP machine and tried a copy of Ubuntu Linux in a virtual machine, I was amazed! I could even use my Windows screen capture software to capture all the Linux screenshots for my book!

That's why I decided to use Ubuntu Linux for this chapter's exercises. In my humble opinion, it's the most friendly and fascinating Linux distribution for beginners.

In this chapter you shall:

Create your first virtual machine in VirtualBox, using Ubuntu Linux
Learn about your virtual machine's basic configuration
Download and install Ubuntu Linux on your virtual machine
Learn how to start and stop your virtual machine

So let's get on with it...

Key benefits

Get up and running with VirtualBox to start working with your own virtual machines

Effectively administer and use virtual machines in a home/office environment

Analyze virtual machines with the most commonly used software tools

Create your first virtual machine with VirtualBox on Windows/Linux with step-by-step instructions and screenshots

Description

The furore around virtualization is taking the technology world by storm and is a must for efficient utilization of network server capacity, storage administration, energy, and capital. VirtualBox is free and this brings down your upfront costs for an agile data center. VirtualBox will transform your IT infrastructure into a lean Data Center on a Windows XP/7 or Ubuntu Linux platform. Although VirtualBox has grown by leaps and bounds, there is not enough documentation to guide you through its features and implementation.This hands-on guide gives you a thorough introduction to this award-winning virtualization product. It will help you to implement the right virtual environment for you. Additionally, this book will help you set up an environment that will work for your system. You will learn to architect and deploy your first virtual machine without being overwhelmed by technical details.This practical book unveils the robust capabilities and easy-to-use graphical interface of VirtualBox to help you to effectively administer and use virtual machines in a home/office environment. You begin by creating your first virtual machine on a Windows/Linux guest operating system and installing guest additions. The book then goes on to discuss the various formats that VirtualBox supports and how it interacts with other formats. The comprehensive instructions will help you to work with all the networking modes offered by VirtualBox. Virtual appliances will be explained in detail‚Äîhow they help to reduce installation time for virtual machines and run them from VirtualBox.By the end of this book you will be able to run your own headless VirtualBox server, to create, manage, and run virtual machines in that server from a remote PC.

What you will learn

Download and install VirtualBox in a Windows/Linux environment

Create your virtual machine on VirtualBox, using Ubuntu Linux Desktop/Windows XP as the "guest" operating system

Share folders and pass information between the host and the guest operating systems

Explore the Hardware 3D Acceleration feature available in Windows and Linux guests

Revert the state of a virtual machine using snapshots

Architect a virtual machine using fixed and dynamically expanding hard drive images and choose the appropriate hard disk controller

Clone hard disks using the Virtual Media Manager

Connect a virtual machine to the Internet and a local network using the default NAT mode

Illustrations for using WordPress, Drupal, and File Server virtual appliances

Set up a headless server and create, manage, and run virtual machines in that server from a remote PC

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Greg Duncan Jul 04, 2010

OverviewThe book takes you from download to being productive with Sun's/Oracle's VirtualBox. Each chapter builds on the previous and not only walks you through each topic area step by step but also takes a step back and talks about "what just happened." (i.e. it's not a ton of simple screenshots and "click, click, click" instructions but also works to "teach you to fish")LikesOne of the things I liked about the book is used a number of techniques to engage the reader and to help get a chapter's point across. For example, an ongoing story/scenario was used to relate a chapter to something that might have, or will, happen to you "in the real world." This made the reading more engaging, applicable and much less dry. It also took you beyond what you might read online (via wiki's, VirtualBox doc's, etc).That was one of my questions when first getting the book. What will this teach me that I couldn't just look up online? How is the price of the book versus the tons of free online information?The problem is that the "tons of online information" is really "crud loads of data." It's up to the reader to turn it into "information" and then wisdom. This book jumpstarts your drive to VirtualBox wisdom, helping you better "know what you don't know."It's a Beginner's Guide, so you'll not walk away a VirtualBox Zen Master, but you WILL be on the path towards becoming one... (especially if you were like me and hadn't ever installed or used VirtualBox)ImprovementsWhat did I think could be improved? Well I live in a mostly Microsoft world... So I wish there had been a little more coverage there. For example, Microsoft makes a number of it's trial products available as VM's. I would have liked to see some guidance/help/information on taking an existing Virtual PC 2007/Windows Virtual PC/Hyper-V VHD and converting it VirtualBox. Also I'd have liked to see why VirtualBox is better than the Windows Virtual PC that I already have. Something simple, a side-by-side chart would do. Just something to help me get over the concern of having two VM systems in place on the same machine (Windows 7 Virtual PC and VirtualBox).What did I learn?So did I actually apply anything I read in the book? You bet! Just yesterday, I used this book to help me resolve an issue my son and I were having with a legacy game what wouldn't run well on Win7 x64 (nor in Windows Virtual PC). After reading this book and finally having my eyes opened to the capabilities of VirtualBox, it seemed well worth the effort to try to resolve this long standing issue.So I downloaded the latest version of VirtualBox and was able to very quickly, because I already had exposure to, and a basic understanding of from my reading, get a VM created, storage added, settings configured, tweaked and VM shared. In the end I was able to be a Tech Hero to my son because I was finally able to get the game he's wanted to play for months now working on his notebook. All because of this book (and VirtualBox)... I'll call that a win!Final ThoughtsIn the end, one thing to remember is the subtitle "Beginner's Guide"... It's not Level 400 material, but then again it's not supposed to be! It's a guide to take the VirtualBox uninitiated and get you working and productive with it with no fuss, muss or tears.Would I recommend a friend or coworker buy this book if they wanted to learn about VirtualBox (even if they lived in a mostly Microsoft world)? Oh yeah, no question about it. Matter of fact I AM going to be recommending it to a number of coworkers whom I know are VirtualBox users... ;)

Amazon Verified review

A. Hidayat Dec 25, 2010

If you ever wonder what VirtualBox is or want to use VirtualBox as your virtualization solution, this book is recommended for you!The book starts with a clear introduction and continues with hands-on, detailed step-by-step instructions on how to setup virtual machine running both Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7. The instructions are descriptive, easy to follow, and supported by a rich set of screen captures.It continues with two important aspects of virtualization: data handling and networking. Both guides come with exemplary examples which you would typically encounter in the real world. While the next chapters on appliance and remote management are probably not something what a VirtualBox beginner would need very soon, they are very handy and provide nice stepping stones towards becoming an expert.A very nice book!

C. E. Jun 21, 2010

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it is very detail oriented. It truly is a beginners guide. I'm positive I could give this book to my father and he'd be able to install, configure and run VirtualBox on Windows or Linux. It outlines, in step-by-step detail, everything you'd like to know about VirtualBox. Even though I consider myself a Virtualbox veteran, I followed along with some of the tutorials and was impressed that no detail was left out.One of the things that really stands out about this title is that it includes a huge number of screenshots. The number of screenshots in the book provide any beginner with the visual roadmap they need to complete the task at hand. It covers installing VirtualBox on both a Windows and Ubuntu host, as well as installing and configuring the reverse as guests. If you've never installed VirtualBox before, you'll have an installation up and running in just a few minutes.Beyond installation and configuration, this book goes into detail regarding the command line options (I learned quite a bit from this chapter!) as well. VirtualBox provides a full set of command line tools for starting, stopping, configuring, cloning and creating virtual machines. This makes it a perfectly reasonable candidate for a headless server virtualization solution!This book covers guest additions, disk and image creation and management, all networking options and how they differ, using and creating virtual appliances, using snapshots and even remote management. It really is a good resource for getting started with Virtualization. I'm glad to have a copy of this book in my collection.The sections that were the most useful for me were the networking and command line chapters. I was not familiar with any of the command line tools, and the networking was a little blurry for me. Before getting a copy of this book I was unfamiliar with virtualized networking beyond NAT and Bridged. This book went into enough networking detail that I'm very comfortable with each of the networking options and in what situations each might apply. This will really boost my efficiency and productivity with VirtualBox.For anyone wanting to learn more about virtualization or doing research into cost-effective virtual environment solutions, I would highly recommend VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner's Guide.

maguay Jul 05, 2010

If you're just getting started with desktop virtualization and would like a step-by-step guide to get started, this book may be a great resource for you. It helps you learn by doing, with instructions and screenshots showing you how to do everything from creating your first virtual machine to reverting to a snapshot to remove unwanted changes. More advanced users may already know most of what this book covers, so again, the title is correct; this book is aimed at beginners. That said, if you've been using virtualization but would like to dig a little deeper, look around the "Look Inside" copy above to see if it covers stuff you'd like to learn.Please note: I read the PDF ebook version of this book available directly from the publisher, but the contents are the same as this version. Unfortunately, there's not a Kindle version avilable, but you can always get this PDF version if you'd rather read the book on your computer or eReader device (and save a little money).For more info, check out my full review at [...].

VirtualBox 3.1: Beginner's Guide: Deploy and manage a cost-effective virtual environment using VirtualBox

What do you get with Print?

VirtualBox 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Chapter 2. Creating Your First Virtual Machine: Ubuntu Linux

Getting started

Downloading the Ubuntu Linux Live CD

Time for action – downloading the Ubuntu Desktop Live CD

Note

Creating your Ubuntu Linux VM

Time for action – creating a virtual machine

Configuring basic settings for your Ubuntu Linux VM

Time for action – basic configuration for your VM

Installing Ubuntu Linux on your VM

Time for action – installing Ubuntu Desktop on your VM

Tip

Running your Ubuntu Linux VM

Time for action – running Ubuntu Linux

Time for action – web browsing in your Ubuntu VM

Note

What just happened?

Time for action – using OpenOffice.org

Time for action – shutting down your VM

Summary

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