CLUG TALK Virtualbox Tuesday, 29 September 2009 One of the Jonathans
Virtualization What is Virtualization?
Virtualization Different Kinds of Virtualization: Virtual machine (VM), a software implementation of a machine (computer) that executes programs like a real machine Platform virtualization, which separates an operating system from the underlying platform resources Full virtualization, sensitive instructions replaced by binary translation or trapped by hardware - all software can run in the VM, e.g. IBM's CP/CMS, VirtualBox, VMware Workstation Hardware-assisted virtualization, CPU traps sensitive instructions - runs unmodified guest OS; used e.g. by VMware Workstation, Xen, KVM Partial virtualization, for specific applications rather than the operating system Paravirtualization, a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar, but not identical, to that of the underlying hardware, thereby requiring guest operating systems to be adapted Operating system-level virtualization, a method where the operating system allows for multiple user-space instances (virtual hosting, chroot jail + resource management)
Hardware Virtualization Intel: Intel VT-x Some P4, P-D, Core 2, Atom CPUs AMD: AMD-v Opteron 2G, Athlon 64X2 Socket AM2 family CPUs
Applications Consolidating Servers Running Legacy Applications Testing Build Environments
Some Benefits Less Hardware Power Savings Redundancy Performance
Where does Vbox come from? Originally created by German software company Innotek Bought by Sun Microsystems, now part of its Sun xVM virtualization platform Sun Microsystems is now owned by Oracle
Supported Hosts Linux Mac OS X OS/2 Warp Windows XP, Vista Solaris Experimental BSD port
Supported Guests BSD Linux OS/2 Warp Windows XP, Vista, 7 Solaris Haiku Syllable ReactOS
Installation In Debian/Ubuntu: virtualbox-ose package Packages for various distributions available from virtualbox.org
Modules DKMS (Ubuntu, Mandrake) virtualbox-ose-source (Debian and others) Pre-compiled modules (Windows, Debian and others)
Non-free Virtualbox Available at no cost for personal, educational or evaluation use USB Support Built-in RDP server USB over RDP iSCSI support for virtual hard disks (see below) Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Setting up a VM Windows Installation VirtualBox Guest Add-ons Windows performance tips
Guest add-ons Pointer integration Automatic resolution to window size Seamless Mode
Networking NAT By default Bridge networking, Host-only also available
In Summary What is Virtualization and Virtualbox? Virtualbox Installation Configuring guest system Guest optimizations Direct3D installation
Questions?