Setting up a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox on a full machine

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Caliban55
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Setting up a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox on a full machine

Post by Caliban55 »

The following tutorial will describe step-by-step the installation of VirtualBox on a (full dedicated, not VDS) Windows Server to create a virtual machine with Linux as OS.

I used the following software/hardware in this tutorial:

Quad Core I7 CPU with 16GB of memory
Host OS: Windows Server 2008R2 (Windows 2003 should also work)
Guest OS: openSUSE Linux 11.3 32bit (any other Linux distribution should also work)
VirtualBox 3.2.8

Required software

You will need the following software present on your server, if you want to create a virtual machine:

1) VirtualBox. Download from: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2) A Linux distribution. I used openSUSE in this tutorial, but you can use any distribution you want. You can get openSUSE Linux from this link: http://www.opensuse.org/de/

Put both the VirtualBox software and the Linux DVD ISO on your server.

The actual installation steps:

1) Prepare the IPs

If you want to use a static IP from the list that is currently assigned in your network adapter for the virtual machine(s),

1.1) Remove the IP(s)
1.2) Restart your server

If you don't want to use an exiting static IP, request a new one from NFO.

2) Install VirtualBox

Just follow the installation wizard from VirtualBox.

3) Set up the virtual machine with openSUSE 11.3 32bit Linux Guest OS

3.1) Start VirtualBox by double clicking on the "Oracle VM VirtualBox" Desktop Icon or from the Windows Start menu. If this is the first time you started VirtualBox, the software will ask you, if you want to create a new virtual machine. Choose "Yes". You can also create a new virtual machine with the menu option "New".

3.2) Configure the virtual machine to fit your needs (as a memory size setting I used 2GB, Hard Drive size was 30GB, although you might want to change this for your environment; less Hard Drive space would also be OK, or more if you want to add more programs/applications to the virtual machine).

3.3) Start the virtual machine and point it to the downloaded openSUSE DVD.ISO image. This will install openSUSE. I won't go into details on installing openSUSE here; you could use the openSUSE website/forum for extensive information and help for this.

3.4) After installing openSUSE, test the connection to the Internet with the Web browser Firefox or a ping command. As default, VirtualBox uses NAT networking mode, so if you want to use the Linux virtual machine as a game server, we will need to change this to bridged networking.

4) Set up bridged networking for the Guest OS

4.1) Power off your virtual machine if you haven't done this yet.

4.2) VirtualBox will have created a virtual network adapter in your Windows network configuration (which is just a network bridge). Go to the virtual network adapter (under ->Control Panel ->Network and Sharing Center ->Manage Network Connections ->Network Connections) and look for a "VirtualBox Host-Only Network". Add the static IP(s) you want to use for your virtual machine(s) to this adapter.

4.3) In the Oracle VirtualBox application go to the "Settings" for your virtual machine, navigate to "Network" and change Adapter 1's settings from "NAT" to "Bridged Adapter". Look in the attached files for a screenshot (network_bridged.jpg)
network_bridged.jpg
Screenshot of how to set the "network bridged" adapter
(31.14 KiB) Downloaded 381 times
4.4) Start your virtual machine. In your openSUSE virtual machine go to "Computer" and start the "YaST" administration manager. Go to "Network Settings". Under Overview select "Edit" and change the network settings from DHCP to Static IP (enter your static IP here that you want to use for this virtual machine) and enter a valid subnet mask. Look in the attached files for a screenshot (network_Settings.jpg)
Screenshot for YaST network settings
Screenshot for YaST network settings
network_Settings.jpg (46.62 KiB) Viewed 3895 times
Under Hostname/DNS put in valid DNS server IP(s).

Under Routing put in a valid "Default IPv4 Gateway" address.

Confirm the changes by selecting OK in the lower right corner.

Restart your Linux virtual machine.

Test the Internet connectivity, and install your games that you want to run in this virtual machine.

Congratulations, you have successfully set up a Linux virtual machine :D !
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Edge100x
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Re: How-to: Setting up a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox on

Post by Edge100x »

Very nice, thank you for the post! I'll move it to the KB.

For those who might be reading this, please be reminded that this will more than likely not work on a VDS.
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