Virtualization using VirtualBox

For the past couple of days I have been playing around with VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
VirtualBox

For more information please see: About VirtualBox.

VirtualBox 1.4.0 was realised on June 5, 2007 for Windows and Linux. It now contains support for 64bit Linux Hosts, as well as better networking and storage solutions, (for full details please see: Changelog.)

I have tried a earlier version of VirtualBox, but had limited success installing it. The new version installed perfectly.
I used Automatix in Ubuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn") to install it. Yet there are many other binary versions, including a beta version for OS X, (Intel Macs only). For downloads please see: VirtualBox Downloads.

So far I'm very impressed with VirtualBox. In my opinion it's the best virtualization software I have tried to date. I've found it professional, and easy to use. I feel like the programmers have really thought about how to make this a good product from a user standpoint. Also it is OpenSource, what a wonderful bonus.

There are a number of problems, (to be expected with a new piece of software). Yet each time I have gone to write a bug report; the problem has either been fixed and is available in SVN (subversion) or it's currently being fixed. That impressed me.

Unfortunately there is a problem running OpenBSD, and NetBSD as vm's (virtual machines). Yet the issue has been solved in SVN.

I'm running a FreeBSD vm and it is beautiful. I thought I might have trouble as the machine I'm running it on only has 512MB of RAM, however it's been wonderful. I wouldn't recommend any less than 512MB though. When I close VirtualBox it cleans out the RAM amazingly well.

I will write more about it, when I can install some more virtual machines to play with. I'm intrigued to see if DragonflyBSD, and Slackware will work in it.

If you would like information on installing and using VirtualBox please see:

• End-user documentation
• VirtualBox HOWTOs and tutorials
• Frequently Asked Questions for end users
• Status: Guest OSes
• Using VirtualBox to run Ubuntu and any other operating system

You can download VirtualBox here: Downloading VirtualBox.

EDIT: As pointed out by one of my readers VirtualBox is actually released under two licences (dual licensing). There are two versions:
The Open Source Edition (OSE) is released under the GNU General Public License V2 and:
The full VirtualBox package, which is free of charge for personal use or evaluation purposes is released under the Personal Use and Evaluation License.
For more information please see: VirtualBox Licensing FAQ.

VMware server on Ubuntu

I installed VMware server into Ubuntu 6.06 server today. It is really easy to install. These are the steps that I took:

Configuring Ubuntu:
First I did a server install of Ubuntu. Nothing fancy just a simple install. Then some simple configuration, first adding a root account, and su to root:
$ sudo passwd root
$ su
Then I added OpenSSH server:
# apt-get install openssh-server
# vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Next I updated the system:
# vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Commented-out: the CD, and added: The dapper universe sources
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade

Hardening System:
I added a simple firewall (see iptables howto for info on building a firewall rulset):
# vi /etc/init.d/iptables
# chmod +x /etc/init.d/iptables
Then removed some uneeded files:
# rm -f /etc/issue.net
# rm -f /etc/issue
# touch /root/.hushlogin
# touch /home/illy/.hushlogin
# touch /etc/skel/.hushlogin

Installing needed applications:
Then I installed some applications which the VMware install will require:
# apt-get install linux-kernel-headers libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd
# apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc gcc-4.0-locales make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc gcc-4.0-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1

Installing VMware Server:
First create Directory where virtual machines will be installed. I already created mine in the install on a separate partition: /vm
Download VMware Server from: http://www.vmware.com/download/server/. You will need: VMware Server for linux (Binary tar.gz). And either the VMware server client package for windows or linux, depending on which you are going to use it on. You can also go on and install the Management Interface, yet I only want the server.
Then Install VMware:
# tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
# cd vmware-server-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl
Then just follow each step. It is explained quite well.

And there you have it VMware server. I can now install the client on my desktop and connect to the server and create new virtual machines. For a full Tutorial on this process please see: How To Install VMware Server On Ubuntu 6.06 LTS.

VMware Workstation, 6.0 Beta

I have been having a look at VMware Workstation, 6.0 Beta, for about a week now. After reading: Desktop Virtualization with VMware Player and Workstation, I decided that I would give it a try. I have used VMware server many times, but not Workstation.
I have been quite impressed with it. There are many very good features. Unfortunately the FreeBSD 6-Branch doesn't preform well as a guest. Yet OpenBSD runs very well as a guest, and so do many linux, and Windows operating systems.
Figure 1. The image is of OpenBSD running as a guest OS, in VMware Workstation 6 Beta.

Features
There are many features in workstation which I really like, and are very functional. Some of the new features in this release are:

• Full support for Ubuntu 6.10 as both a guest and a host. I have tested Ubuntu 6.10 as both and it preforms very well. I was impressed.
• There is multiple Monitor support, in which you can specify how guests see the monitors.
• There is now support for the VIX API (formerly known as the Programming API), the API allows the writing of scripts and programs to automate virtual machines.
• New IDE plug-ins, to Visual Studio (Windows) or Eclipse (Windows or Linux).
• You can now run Virtual machines in the background, with Workstation closed. I really loved this feature, very handy.
• If the guest installed supports VMware tools, then there are many features involving file transfer, and peripherals. However I was mainly testing server operation.
• There is increased RAM support.
• USB 2.0 Support, this works really well! I was so happy to see there there was finally 2.0 support, well done!
• There is also support for many new guest and host operating systems, including Solaris 10 Update 3, Windows Vista, and Novel Netware 6.5 SP5, as well as many Linux OS's.

For more information on new features please see: VMware Workstation 6.0 Beta Release Notes.

Performance
I was really impressed with Workstation as a whole. It was very stable running under Ubuntu, both 6.06 and 6.10 as hosts. Most of the features that I tried worked just fine, except I could not get VNC connections to guest Operating systems to work. As I mentioned before it bothers me that FreeBSD doesn't work, but what can you do? I Love that you can create teams, I had a four computer OpenBSD cluster running inside a team, and it worked so nicely. I enjoyed playing with these features. It is a pity that the server addition doesn't have teams. I also loved being able to clone a virtual machine.

Overall Look and Feel
I always find the VMware GUI's easy to use, and simple to find my way around. The general look and feel is very comfortable. Some more complicated features are a little confusing at first but after using them you get the idea. A good knowledge of networking comes in hand with some of the more advance setups. Overall I have certainly enjoyed my experience in Workstation Beta 6.

Conclusion.
I have enjoyed working with Workstation, and I certainly think that it is worth a look if you are a developer of any sort. Or if you would like to try Virtualization on the desktop. I have to say one thing that I will certainly give VMware over some over forms of Virtualization I have tried and that is it is simple to use. Plus I really love VMware's Virtual Appliances; which are: "pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run software application packaged with the operating system inside a virtual machine." They are very useful, and I really appreciate the work which has been put into many of them.