Create Virtual Machine using VirtualBox

If you have no idea about Virtualization please check this post before proceeding.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a software that is used to create virtual machines on your Base machine.
Just like VMware, VirtualBox also provides you with same features. So what is the Difference?
VirtualBox is FREE. You don’t have to buy license to use Oracle VirtualBox, unlike VMware.
Many industries where people work on Linux, usually use VirtualBox over VMware because they don;t have to pay for it.
So lets check how to Create Virtual Machine using VirtualBox.

1. This is the main windows of Oracle VM Virtual Box.
   On the left are the Virtual Machines that you have installed, on the right is the summary of the machine, its configuration.
   
   

   Main Windows of VirtualBox

    

2. Click on new.
   Enter the name and select the distribution. Click next.
   
   

   Click on New. Enter the name of VM

    

3. Assign memory/RAM.
   Please assign memory in the green range only. Anything over that will make you machine slow, and if you open multiple applications, chances are your system will hang or won’t respond.
   

   Assign memory

4. Select hard-disk.
   Select ‘create a virtual hard drive now’ and click on create.
   If you already have ane existing vdi, select third option ‘use an existing virtual hard drive file’.
   Browse and give the location..
   
   

   Create a new Hard-disk

    

5. Select hard-disk type.
   You can either use vdi or vmdk.
   These are two standard extensions for Virtual Hard disks. Oracle VM Virtual box supports both ‘vdi’ and ‘vmdk’ files, where as VMware only supports ‘vmdk’ files.
   
   

   Select Hard-disk type.

    

6. Select dynamically allocated.
   In this option, as you start filling up your virtual hard disk, its space will increase on your machine. Suppose today your virtual hard disk has only OS installed and it is of 1GB, so your local drive will only use 1GB.
   Say you download few movies in Virtual hard disk and its size increases to 5GB, then 5GB of your local drive will be used.
   It changes dynamically.
   If you select ‘fixed size’. It will allocate the specified size to the hard-disk. If you give 10GB, 10GB of your local drive will be given to your Virtual Hard disk. Even if you don’t fill it, its size will be 10GB. And you can’t put anything once 10GB is full.
   
   

   Select ‘dynamically allocated’

    

7. Enter the hard-disk size.
   Click on create. Now you’ll see your VM. Click on settings.
   

   Enter the size of hard-disk

    

8. Change network settings.
   Select the VM and click on settings (beside New). Navigate to ‘Network’ and change the network adapter to bridged.
   

   Go to settings.

    

   

   Make Network connection ‘Bridged’

    

9. Boot from CD
   Now try to start the VM, you’ll get a small box asking for Boot medium. If you don’t give any ISO file, it will show
   ‘FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted.’
   This is because the hard disk has no Operating System.
   So we need to give a bootable CD or ISO , to install an Operating System in the VM. You can do this is 2 ways.
   Start and it will ask you for a start-up disk, select your ISO there.
   

   Select ISO

   Or
   Go to Settings, navigate to Storag, Select ‘Controller : IDE’ and click on browse. Give path of ISO file.
   

   

   Settings –> Storage –> Cd

    

10. Install the Operating system.
    
    

    Install Virtual Machine