Learning to use VirtualBox is good for everyone. Thanks to this service, you get virtual computers that you can run on your devices without having to buy new hardware. At its core, it is free virtualization software.
VirtualBox was created to solve many problems. Thanks to this functionality, you get the opportunity to create virtual computers "out of thin air". They don't take up space on your desk, but they work just like a real PC. They can be created and deleted with a few clicks.
What is VirtualBox? It is a free open source cross-platform application to build, manage and run virtual machines(VM) - computers whose hardware components are emulated by the host computer or the device on which the program is running. VirtualBox can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris.
Why is this needed?
Using virtual machines can be extremely beneficial for a number of reasons. For example, you can run it to try software that you think might be dangerous, or try a different operating system without changing the way your computer is configured.
You can also use it for security purposes. For example, you can create an online banking-only virtual machine to make sure you don't fall victim to spyware or Trojans receiving your data.
How do I install VirtualBox?
The easiest way to get latest version VirtualBox - Download it from the download page of the official website. There you can find a suitable version for your platform or? if you are using Linux, you can check the list of instructions for different Linux distributions.
For each version of Linux, you are given the option to download the option "i386" or "amd64", 32-bit and 64-bit, respectively.
How do I install VirtualBox? This process is similar to installing any other program on your platform, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you are experiencing any difficulty, you can always read the installation guide on the service website.
Using VirtualBox
How do I use VirtualBox? When you launch the application for the first time, you will be greeted by the VirtualBox Manager. Here you can create virtual machines, enable or disable them and configure access to virtual hardware available to them, as well as configure the network.
Creating a virtual machine
In order to configure the network in VirtualBox and get started, you need to create a virtual machine. This is done in the following way.
The first step to creating any virtual machine is to click the New button in the upper left corner of the VirtualBox Manager window - this is a big blue star that is very difficult to miss.
This will launch the "New Virtual Machine Wizard", which will guide us through the steps required to start.
Enter your name virtual computer... This name is completely up to you, but there are some nuances.
VirtualBox will try to figure out what OS you plan to run in the virtual machine based on what name you enter. If the name is referred to as "XP", it is assumed that you will be installing Windows XP and configuring it accordingly. However, you can think of and random name... Then you will have the option to manually select your OS type from the drop-down lists below. When you have done this, click "Continue" to go to next step... This example focuses on Windows for VirtualBox. Below are instructions for installing this OS as a guest and then setting up a network connection.
Choice of RAM
To install the guest OS after launching VirtualBox, you will be prompted to select the amount of RAM that you want to place on the virtual machine. The more you give her volume, the more better app will work, but keep in mind that the memory allocated for the virtual machine cannot be used by the host OS (that is, the machine on which VirtualBox is installed).
So how much RAM should you allocate to a VM? It depends on a number of factors. If you only plan on using the virtual machine while it is running, you can afford to give it more RAM because you won't be asking the host to multitask. If, on the other hand, you will be using it concurrently with many other functions on the host OS, you should better calculate this value. Good general rule is to allocate half of your computer's RAM. So, if your PC has 4GB of RAM, give 2GB of VM, leaving the host with the rest. If you select this value with a gross error, you will face the fact that VirtualBox does not start.
Storage space
The next step is to create a “virtual hard disk"(VHD). This creates a file on your HDD that VirtualBox can use to act as a separate HDD... This allows you to install the operating system without worrying about your existing data being harmed.
Make sure Boot is selected Hard disk and "Create new hard disk ”, then click“ Continue ”. This will launch "Create new master virtual disk ". Click Continue again to complete the action.
You will then be asked if you want to create a "dynamically expanding" or fixed size disk. Each has its own advantages. The great thing about a dynamic disk is that it only takes up as much data as it contains. It is also much faster to create than a fixed size of any significant size.
However, you need to watch out for this, because its flexibility can also be its negative trait. So, you create a dynamic disk and assign 50 GB to it, and then put about 20 GB of data on it. Its file will show up as only holding 20GB of hard disk space, according to your host OS. Therefore, you can take this place with other data and not notice it.
The point is, if you start the virtual machine and try to add more data to the dynamic disk, you will run into problems - the virtual disk says that it still has 30 GB, but in fact it may not be there anymore.
This is also the advantage of a fixed size disk. Of course, it is inconvenient when you are trying to figure out how much space you will need, but then you no longer have to worry about it.
This example shows dynamic disks but fixed ones will work just as well. Make sure Dynamically Expanding Storage is selected, then click Continue again. Next, you will be asked to select the name, location and size of the new VHD. For most uses, you won't need to change the name or location, but you can do so by clicking on the folder icon next to the text box.
The size you must specify depends on how much material you plan to use. If you just want to use it to run multiple programs, the suggested 10GB size should be fine. Make sure the settings are correct, then click Continue and Finish.
At this point, you just need to check everything and make sure that all settings are set as you expect. Then you just need to click Finish and the virtual machine will be created so you can install Windows.
Booting guest OS into VirtualBox
How to use the service further? Now it's time to start the virtual machine for the first time. Make sure the new virtual PC you just created is selected in the VirtualBox Manager window, then click the Start button at the top of the window. When the service starts, you will be greeted with the First Run Wizard, which will help you prepare for installing Windows XP. Click Continue. Then the question will open what do you want to use as installation media- a CD or image on your hard drive (usually as an .iso file). Once you've chosen your option, click Continue, then Finish.
If you were unable to open the virtual VirtualBox machine after above settings you probably misallocated RAM or HDD space. If restarting does not solve the problem, repeat the previous steps again.
Since nothing is installed on the VHD, Windows Setup will automatically load. It will take a while to load all the required OS files, but eventually you will see a screen that displays a list existing sections and unallocated space on the computer.
After that, you have to configure XP, so press Enter. This will ask you how you want to format the drive. You need to select the option "Format the partition with file system NTFS (Quick) ". Make sure you select the "Fast" option, or you will be waiting for a very long time!
Windows Setup will then format the VHD and then start copying files to disk. Your participation in this process is not required. After copying the files is complete, Windows Setup will automatically restart your computer to proceed to the next step.
When the PC restarts, it will try to power on from the CD using the Press any key to boot from CD ... window. Ignore this! If you do, you will repeat the previous step again for no reason.
You can prevent this system issue by clicking right click mouse on the CD icon at the bottom of the virtual machine window and click Remove Disk from Virtual Disk. Once this window is closed, you will see the familiar screen. Windows boot XP before it switches to the second stage of the installation.
Once the "Windows XP Setup Wizard" is displayed, click "Next" to start it. First, you will be prompted to set regional and language options which are mainly related to clicking "Configure ..." (to select a country) and then "Details" if you need to change the keyboard layout.
After everything is selected, click "Next" again. After that, you will need to enter the computer name and administrator password. Better to choose a name that makes some sense, instead of a random string of automatically generated characters. How complex you want to make the administrator password depends on how important the security of the virtual machine is.
After clicking "Next" you will see the date and time settings that you do not need to change. When you press this button again, the window will disappear for a while, Windows will apply all the settings and continue with the installation. Now you can use in VirtualBox guest additions.
After a minute or two, another window will appear, this time for the network settings. It is more convenient to choose the first option (a network that does not have a domain). To do this, you need to enter a name working group- defaults to Rward, and all defaults. However, you may need to select "Direct3D Support" when asked to define components.
How to work with the network?
Networking in VirtualBox is extremely efficient, but setting it up can be a little tricky. To understand this, you need to consider different ways VirtualBox networking settings with multiple pointers on what configurations to use and when.
Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.1 allows you to configure up to 8 virtual network adapters(controllers network interface) for each guest virtual device(although there are only 4 in the GUI).
Main modes:
- Broadcast network addresses(NAT).
- Bridge networks.
- Internal network.
- Host-only network.
- NAT with port forwarding.
Oracle VirtualBox offers them as based on the guest OS type you specify when you create the virtual machine, and you rarely need to modify them. But the choice of network mode depends on how you want to use the device (client or server) and whether you want other computers on your network to see it. So, you should look at each VirtualBox networking mode in a little more detail.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
This is the default mode for new virtual machines and works great in most situations where the guest OS is a "client" type (that is, most network connections are outbound). This is how it works.
When the guest OS boots up, it usually uses DHCP to obtain an IP address. Oracle VirtualBox will send this DHCP request and inform the operating system of the assigned IP address and gateway address for routing outbound connections. In this mode, each virtual machine is assigned the same IP address (10.0.2.15) because they each think they are on their own isolated network. And when they send their traffic through the gateway (10.0.2.2), VirtualBox rewrites the packets so that they appear as if they came from the host and not from the "guest" (running inside the host).
This means that the guest OS will work even if the host moves from network to network (like a laptop moving between locations), from wireless to wired connections.
However, how does the other computer initiate a connection to it? For example, you need a connection to a web server running on a guest computer. This is not possible (usually) using NAT mode as there is no route to the guest OS. Thus, for running virtual machine servers, you need a different network mode and a different VirtualBox network setting.
NAT connection (network characteristics):
- Guest OSs are on their own private network.
- VirtualBox acts as a DHCP server.
- VirtualBox NAT mechanism translates addresses.
- Target servers display traffic originating from the VirtualBox host.
- No configuration required for host or guest OS.
- Works great when "guests" are clients but not servers.
Bridge networks
Bridged Networking is used when you want your virtual machine to be a full-fledged network element, that is, equal to your host device. In this mode, the virtual network adapter is "connected" to the physical one on your host.
This is because each virtual machine has access to physical network just like your host. He can access any service on the network - external services DHCP, name lookup services and routing data, and so on.
The downside to this mode is that if you run a lot of virtual machines, you can quickly run out of IP addresses or your network administrator will be flooded with requests for them. Second, if your host has multiple physical network adapters (such as wireless and wired), you must reconfigure the bridge if it reconnects on the network.
What if you want to run servers in a virtual machine but don't want to involve a network administrator? Maybe one of the following two modes is right for you, or you need a combination additional parameters, for example NAT vNIC + 1 Host-only vNIC.
Bridged network characteristics:
- VirtualBox bridges are for the host network;
- good for any guest OS (both client and server);
- use IP addresses;
- may include guest configuration;
- best suited for production environments.
Internal network
When you configure one or more virtual machines to run on an internal network, VirtualBox ensures that all traffic on that network remains inside the host and is only available to a device on that virtual network.
The internal network is a completely isolated system. It is well suited for testing. In it, using a virtual machine, you can create complex internal networks that provide their own services(For example, Active Directory, DHCP, etc.). Note that even the host is not a member of it.
This mode allows the virtual machine to run even when the host is not connected to the network (for example, on a plane). However, with this type of connection and network configuration, VirtualBox does not provide such "convenient" services as DHCP, so your device must be statically configured or provide a DHCP / Name service.
Installation of several internal networks is allowed. You can configure virtual machines so that multiple network adapters can reside in internal and other network modes, and thus provide routes if necessary. But all this looks complicated and inaccessible to the layman.
What if you want the internal network to host a VirtualBox host by providing the guest OS with IP addresses? To do this, you may need to configure the host-only network.
Internal network characteristics:
- guest operating systems can see other "guests" on the same internal network;
- the host cannot see the internal configuration;
- network configuration is required;
- even if the host is not a member of the connection, internal network can be used in conjunction with bridging;
- well suited for multiplayer network.
Host-only network
Works in much the same way as an Internal Networking connection, in which you specify which network the guest server is on. All virtual machines on this network will see each other and the host. However, others external devices cannot see "guests" on this network, hence the name "host only".
It is very similar to an internal network, but the host can now provide DHCP services. To set up such a connection, go to VirtualBox Manager and select the default settings.
Network characteristics:
- VirtualBox creates a private internal network for the guest OS and the host sees the new NIC software.
- VirtualBox provides a DHCP server.
- Guest operating systems cannot access the external network.
NAT with port forwarding
Now you can imagine that you have learned enough modes to handle each case, but there are exceptions. What if the development environment is, for example, on a laptop and you have one or more virtual machines that need other computers to connect? And you are constantly forced to use different client networks.
In this scenario, NAT will not work because the outside machines must be bridged. It is possible a good option, but you may need IP addresses. In addition, software is not always able to cope with changing networks.
If you use an internal network, it may turn out that your virtual machines needs to be visible on the network. What to do in such cases?
Configure the virtual machine to use a NAT network, add port forwarding rules, and external computers connect to "host". The port number and connections will be forwarded by VirtualBox to the guest OS number.
For example, if your virtual machine runs a web server on port 80, you can configure the above rules. This provides a mobile demo system that does not need to be reconfigured every time your laptop connects to a different LAN / Network.
Ultimately, VirtualBox has a very powerful set of options, allowing you to tweak just about any configuration you might need. To find the option you need, study the VirtualBox instructions on the official website.
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Setting up the Host-part of VirtualBox:
As a host system in in this case advocates operating system Windows 7, but quality guest windows Server 2008 R2. As in the previous article, the VirtualBox-4.1.14 platform will be considered.
In the settings of the VirtualBox application, through the "File" menu, open the "Properties", "Network" tab, and perform the following actions:
First, we set the IPv4 address and IPv4 subnet mask:
Then we enable the DHCP server (regardless of whether static or dynamic IP address Your real network adapter):
The server address must be in the range of addresses of real adapters, the IPv4 subnet mask must match the mask used by the real adapter, the upper and lower address boundaries must capture all addresses used in the system.
In the column "Connection type", in the drop-down menu, you need to select required connection.
For each network interface, it is possible to specify in which of the following modes they will function:
Not connected
In this mode, VirtualBox informs the guest that there is a network adapter, but it is not connected - as if the Ethernet cable were not connected to the card. Thus, it is possible to simulate "pulling" the cable from the virtual network card and disconnection, which can be useful for informing the guest OS about the absence network connection, but the ability to customize it.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
NAT - the simplest way provide the guest OS with Internet access, in this mode, simply redirecting (transactions) packets
If you need to browse the Web, download files, and use by e-mail in the guest system, then this default network configuration will suit you and you can skip reading this section.
Network bridge
This mode is needed for more advanced networking capabilities, such as simulating networks and running servers in a guest system. When enabled, VirtualBox connects to one of the installed network cards and works directly with network packages without using network stack Host OS.
Internal network
This mode can be used to create a virtual network that is accessible from the virtual machine, but not for applications running on the host or other external network devices.
Virtual host adapter
This mode can be used to create networks from a host and multiple virtual machines, without using the host's physical network interface. A virtual network interface (like a loopback interface) is created on the host to provide connections between the host system and virtual machines.
Universal driver
Rarely used modes share the same generic network interface, allows the user to choose a driver that can be included in VirtualBox or come with an extension pack.
V the given time there are two subtypes available:
UDP tunnel
Can be used for simple and transparent direct connection of virtual machines running on different hosts, through the existing network infrastructure.
VDE (Virtual Distributed Ethernet) network
Allows the use of Virtual Distributed Ethernet switch on a Linux or FreeBSD host. V this moment, to use it, you need to build VirtualBox from source codes, since it is not included in the Oracle distribution.
Since for normal Windows functioning Server needs a static ip, we can choose "network bridge" or "virtual host adapter".
Consider a "network bridge":
After we have selected the type of connection: Network Bridge, in the "name" column we can select the required connection.
Since my Internet is being distributed through the miniport adapter virtual Wi-Fi, I chose it.
We select: Internet Protocol version 4 (ТСР / IPv4) and click properties:
Here we set the IP-address, mask and gateway.
Since my real adapter has an IP address assigned to 192.168.137.1, I assign this address by the gateway and assign an IP address to 192.168.137.2.
Next OK, close.
In order to make sure that the Internet connection is really active, open the window again command line and execute ping command for node
Objective: Create a virtual machine, allocate resources, connect disks and prepare for operating system installation
We have installed a virtual machine on Windows 7. Now we will prepare our machine for installing Windows XP SP3. Let's connect virtual hard disk, allocate RAM, video memory, create an optical disc drive.
So, let's start Oracle VM VirualBox.
We see a welcome window with a hint for further actions.
Press the button "Create"
In the window that appears, indicate the following:
Name: WinXP SP3 (since we will be installing Windows XP SP 3)
A type : Microsoft Windows
Version : Windows XP
We press "Next"
Now let's allocate the amount of RAM for the machine to work. Attention!!! This important parameter affecting the operation of the virtual machine, as well as the operation of the entire PC. If you allocate little memory, then it is possible that the system will not start on the virtual machine, it will fail. Also, it should be borne in mind that when the machine starts up, the system reserves the entire amount of allocated memory, i.e. if you have 4GB of RAM installed on your PC, 2GB is allocated to the virtual machine, then when you start the latter, 2GB will be occupied immediately, and only 2GB remains for the main system.
To work with Windows XP SP3, 1GB is enough for us, maximum 1.5GB (you shouldn't play games on it :)). Using the slider, indicate 1024MB (or enter from the keyboard into the highlighted window. Click "Next"
At this stage, we are asked to create a virtual hard disk i.e. full-featured HDD on which the OS will be installed. Do not be afraid! Nothing will change in the main system, just a file with the size we specified will appear. Because we do not have previously created disks, then we leave the switch in the "Create a new virtual hard disk" position and click "Create".
The next window offers us a choice of the type of hard disk to create. Because We plan to work in the future only in VM VirtualBox, then we leave the default type "VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)". We press "Next"
At this stage, we will indicate that our virtual hard disk will have a fixed size, which means that a file of the size we specified will be created. If we indicate "dynamic", then in this case we will set the limits of the minimum and maximum size... The file will "bloat as you work with the virtual machine." I recommend to specify fixed size in order to avoid problems in the future.
And the final stage, we select the disk and the directory to save the file of our virtual hard disk, indicate the size. For WinXP SP3 10GB is enough, you can specify more. We press "Create"... After a while, the virtual disk will be created.
If everything went well, then the result should look like the screenshot. That's all for now.
In the next articles, we will continue configuring the virtual machine and then move on to installing Windows XP.
Today I will share my experience installations, settings and configuring VirtualBox on Windows. Also, I'll tell you why I chose exactly VirtualBox virtualization platform why do I need this at all, etc. To save your time, I suggest you watch a video on the topic:
Why VirtualBox?
Before I tell you about the reasons why I chose exactly VirtualBox, I would like to touch on the topic of virtualization and emulation in general. What is emulation?
Emulation Is the ability of a program or device to mimic the operation of another program or other device.
Who uses emulators and what for?
Software emulators are primarily designed to deploy multiple operating systems on a single computer without affecting the underlying operating system. Emulators or virtualization systems are available to a wide range of people: from ordinary users to administrators and programmers.
Emulators for users- this is, first of all, the ability to run applications for other operating systems without rebooting the main one, testing new software and various experiments with settings.
Emulators for administrators Is a testing ground! Now administration training has become much easier, anyone can create virtual networks from dozens of guest operating systems, customize them, gaining practical skills.
Emulators for programmers- these are those assistants, without which it is already difficult to do. They speed up the debugging and testing of programs literally at times. And if we talk about developers network applications or low-level programming, there is simply no price for emulators!
Emulators for hackers- well, everything is clear, checking exploits, testing viruses, debugging and studying other people's programs ...
Therefore, the importance of emulation can hardly be overestimated. The only question is which emulator to choose?
The choice of a virtual machine depends on a number of reasons, which are determined by the user himself. I proceeded from the following requirements for a virtual machine:
- Should work on the platform Windows
- Must support all common operating systems in guest mode
Not all virtual machines meet these two, I would say, stringent requirements. I considered VirtualPC(did not fit because only Windows guest systems are supported) and VMWare(didn’t fit because it’s paid software, the price of which is very high, and I don’t want to use hacked versions).
VirtualBox features
- Cross-platform
- Modularity
- Live migration
- USB 2.0 support when host machine devices are made available to guest OS (proprietary version only)
- Support for 64-bit guest systems (starting from version 2.0), even on 32-bit host systems (starting from version 2.1, this requires processor virtualization technology support)
- SMP support on the guest side (starting from version 3.0, this requires processor virtualization support)
- Built-in RDP server and support for client USB devices over RDP protocol (proprietary version only)
- Experimental hardware 3D acceleration support (OpenGL, DirectX 8/9 (using wine code) (32-bit Windows XP and Vista only)), for DOS / Windows 3.x / 95/98 / ME guest hardware 3D support acceleration is not provided
- Support for VMDK (VMware) and VHD ( Microsoft Virtual PC), including snapshots (since version 2.1)
- ISCSI support (proprietary only)
- Audio virtualization support (selectable AC97 or SoundBlaster 16 emulation)
- Support different types networking(NAT, Host Networking via Bridged, Internal)
- Support for a chain of saved virtual machine states (snapshots), which can be rolled back from any state of the guest system
- Shared Folders support for simple exchange files between host and guest systems (for guest Windows systems 2000 and newer, Linux and Solaris)
- Support for desktop integration (seamless mode) of host and guest OS
- There is a choice of interface language (Russian-language interface is also supported)
The list is impressive, besides, recently version 3.2.12 was released, it was fixed a large number of errors, they can be found on the VirtualBox developer site.
Hope buying Sun company Oracle will not affect the development of this great project, otherwise they like to monetize everything.
Installing VirtualBox
The host system is Windows Vista Ultimate SP2... The process of installing VirtualBox itself is quite trivial, everything is clear and without comments.
Next, you need to follow the instructions of the installer. At one of the stages, when installing network adapters, the current connection to local network may be interrupted. After installation, you can start adding the guest OS. After installing VirtualBox, I advise you to change some settings of the program, in particular, specify the default paths for files of new virtual OS, etc. This can be done in a window called by the command File -> Settings.
Setting up VirtualBox
Creating a new guest OS
To create your first virtual OS, click the "Create" button. Start the New Virtual Machine Wizard. Following his instructions, you will need to select the family of the future virtual operating system and its version, and also enter its name.
512MB is enough for most OSes, but I have allocated 1GB.
Next, you will need to create a new hard drive, this is quite simple procedure, you just need to follow the instructions of the wizard for creating new hard drives... As a result, you should get something like this:
The final stage of creating a guest OS in VirtualBox
Setting up guest OS hardware in VirtualBox
You can define the hardware part of the created guest system in its "Properties". To do this, having selected the desired guest OS, we call the command Properties command panel. After that, the properties window appears. The settings sections will be indicated on the left in this window, and their settings will be in the center of the window. All settings are intuitive and have prompts.
Tab General - Advanced
- Folder for pictures- path to the folder where the guest OS disk images will be stored. The picture requires a lot disk space, so here it is better to point to the disk, where there is enough space for this
- Shared clipboard- setting the use of the clipboard between the host system and the guest OS
- Mini toolbar- console for managing the virtual machine
Tab System - Motherboard
- Boot order- determines the boot order of the guest OS. I advise you to change this order after installation and put the hard disk in the first place (unless, of course, booting from other media is not so important for you)
- Turn off IO APIC- an extended interrupt controller used in processors from Intel... Fully supported by the OS Windows.
- Enable EFI — EFI defines "boot services" which include text and graphical console support on different devices, buses, blocks and file services, and runtime services such as date, time, and non-volatile memory. Used by a number of OS to boot.
Tab System - Processor
- Processor (s)- adjust the number of processors used by the virtual machine. "Please note that this option will only be available if hardware virtualization is supported. AMD-V or VT-x tab System - Acceleration as well as the included option OI APIC in the tab System - Motherboard.
- Enable PAE / NX- the mode of operation of the built-in memory control unit for x86-compatible processors, which uses 64-bit elements of page tables (of which only 36 bits are used for addressing), with which the processor can address 64 GB physical memory(instead of the 4 GB addressable when using 32-bit tables).
Tab System - Acceleration
- Enable VTx / AMD-V- using hardware virtualization of the main processor (your processor must support these modes or they need to be enabled in BIOS)
- Enable Nested Paging — Nested paging provides translation of the physical memory addresses of the guest OS to the physical memory addresses of the main OS
Tab Carriers
- In this tab, you can configure the use of external media and CD / DVDs. Note that you can use virtual disks when installing the guest OS. It is very comfortable. You can add them through Manager virtual media in which you can store a large number of different images and switch between them during a session in the guest system. You can call this manager as follows:
Manager virtual disks in VirtualBox
Tab Net
- Network settings will be discussed in a separate article; V Windows XP there are drivers only for Pcnet-Fast III (Am79C973), so you need to choose it.
Tab COM ports
- On this tab, you can configure the use of COM ports. Now they are rarely used, so hardly anyone will need to configure them.
Tab USB
- Here you need to add to the list those USB-controllers to be used by virtual systems. Be careful when starting the virtual system specified USB-devices stop working in the main (by at least I had it)
Tab Shared folders
- Shared folders are for sharing files between the host and guest OS
Configuring Installed Windows XP Guest OS in VirtualBox
We need to install drivers for all the virtual hardware components of our virtual PC. This can be done by installing the add-ons:
Add-ons installation wizard will start if you have enabled support 3D, then you need to indicate this by checking the box. Answer all system warnings in the affirmative. After installing the add-ons in the virtual OS, the Internet should work.
Display Integration Mode
Very useful mode, allows you to manage the virtual system directly in the main one, without switching to the virtual machine window. Truly incredible functionality! Try it and you will understand everything. To switch to this mode, use the keyboard shortcuts HOST + L, where "HOST" is the host key (by default, the right "Ctrl").
Used concepts and definitions
Virtual machine(VM, from the English virtual machine) - software and / or hardware system that emulates Hardware some platform and executing programs for this platform ( target- target or guest platform) on another platform ( host- host platform, host platform)
Emulation(eng. emulation) - reproduction by software or hardware or their combination of the work of other programs or devices.
Hypervisor(or Virtual Machine Monitor) - in computers, a program or hardware scheme that provides or allows the simultaneous, parallel execution of several or even many operating systems on the same host computer. The hypervisor also provides OS isolation from each other, protection and security, resource sharing between different running OSes, and resource management.
Guest OS- the operating system installed on the virtual machine.
Host system- the operating system in which the virtual machine is running.
Sources of information
- VirtualBox.org - Official page VirtualBox virtual machine
- Category: Virtualization at ru.wikipedia.org
- Installing and configuring the Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization platform - article by Viktor Krasnukhin on OSzone.net
What is a Virtual Machine and why is it needed?
Virtual machine - software environment which creates another " real computer"(With a different operating system). An operating system is installed on a virtual machine, just like on a real computer (any OS can be installed - Win, Linux, etc. suitable for the bitness of the machine), the virtual machine also has a BIOS, hard disks ( HDD drives virtual i.e. the whole disk looks like one file on the physical HDD), RAM, can be emulated peripherals... Several virtual machines can be created on one computer at the same time, the number depends on the physical resources of a real PC.
Why do I need a virtual machine? Where to apply it?
- To protect information and limit the capabilities of processes i.e. you can run an infected file and only the virtual machine will be damaged, the main OS will be safe and sound;
- To study the software and configure it;
- To emulate various architectures (for example, a game console emulator);
- For modeling information systems with client-server architecture on one PC (creating computer network using multiple virtual machines);
- To simplify cluster management - virtual machines can simply migrate from one physical machine to another during work;
- To test your applications on various OS (for example, testing on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, etc.)
- If you or someone from the PC users are "spellbound" i.e. when you go online, you will definitely catch "Trojan" or "Blocker" , then you can also use a virtual machine as an option :)
Some aspects of application are described here, the list goes on and on. Enough chatter, let's get down to business ...
Step 1. Preparation
There are a lot of programs that create virtual machines. I opted for Oracle VM VirtualBox. To realize my goals, this car completely suits me and the main advantage is that it free . Installation distribution programs, you can take the distribution kit from the official website on the example of which this and subsequent lessons were created. After you have downloaded the distribution kit, proceed to step 2.
Step 2. Launching the distribution Virtualbox
Run the downloaded installation file VirtualBox-4.x.x-Win.exe and click Next>
In the next window, we leave everything as default. If you want to install VirtualBox to a different folder, then click the “ Browse ”And specify your directory, but it is recommended to leave the default. We press Next>
The next window offers a choice of where to create shortcuts to launch VirtualBox.
- “Create a shortcut on the desktop” - create a shortcut on the desktop
- “Create a shortcut in the Quick Launch Bar” - create a shortcut in the Quick Launch Bar
Enable or disable the creation of shortcuts and click Next>
The next scary window warns us that installing Oracle VM VirtualBox will reset all network connections... Reason, the virtual installation will be performed network equipment to connect our machine to the network. Agree by clicking "Yes"
And one more window in which they ask for confirmation of the charter. We press "Install"
We are waiting for the end of the installation. At installing VirtualBox windows should appear on Windows 7 « Windows Security» ... Click on everyone "Install" ... So that the messages are not "tortured", you can tick the " Always trust software Oracle ... »
And at the end of the installation, a message about the successful completion of the installation will be displayed. The checkbox "Start Oracle VM Virtualbox v.4.2.10 after installation" means that when the installation is complete, the application will be launched.
We press "Finish"
This completes the installation of Oracle VM VirtualBox. Setting up and preparing for OS installation will be described in the following articles.
