The VirtualBox GUI and command line tool makes it easier to work with virtual machines and appliances. Find out how to get and use this open source virtualization tool.
VirtualBox has been enabling open source enthusiasts, IT admins, and tech writers to host various operating systems on a host machine for years. Anyone that wants to test out new platforms, develop, or manage virtual machine (VM) servers can turn to this free, open source tool to strengthen their skills or expand their company’s services.
This smart person’s guide is a quick way to get up to speed on VirtualBox. We’ll update this resource periodically when news and updates about VirtualBox are released.
SEE: All of TechRepublic’s smart person’s guides
SEE: Virtualization policy (Tech Pro Research)
VirtualBox is a GUI and command line tool that makes it possible to deploy servers, desktops, and embedded operating systems as VMs. A single VirtualBox host can deploy as many guest VMs as the host hardware can handle.
VirtualBox consists of hosts and guests. The host houses the VirtualBox software that can then deploy the guests. A guest is any supported operating system running as a VM. A VirtualBox host can be run on Linux, Windows, or macOS, whereas a VirtualBox guest can consist of any Linux distribution, Solaris, macOS, BSD, IBM OS/2, or Windows. In order to run macOS or Windows as a VM, you must have a licensed copy of the operating system in question.
The host can run as many guests as the hardware will support, while still leaving enough resources for the host to operate. Each individual guest can be started, stopped, and paused from either the GUI or the command line and can function on a network as if it were running on its own hardware.
VirtualBox can be run from either a user-friendly GUI or from the command line. Thanks to the command line option, VMs can be deployed on a server with or without a GUI, making the software highly flexible.
SEE: Riding the DevOps revolution (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
When using VirtualBox as the host platform, administrators can deploy hosts from ISO images or from VDI/VMDK/VHD images. If deploying guests from an ISO image, the guest operating system is installed in normal fashion–only as a VM. With VDI/VMDK/VHD images, it is possible to quickly deploy a virtual appliance without having to go through the steps of installing the operating system as the guest. A great place to find virtual appliances for VirtualBox is TurnKey Linux.
To make VirtualBox even more appealing, the VirtualBox Extension Pack is available, and it adds support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP, disk encryption, NVMe and PXE boot for Intel cards. There is also the Guest Additions, which expands the VirtualBox feature set to include mouse pointer integration, shared folders (between guest and host), improved video support, seamless windows, generic host/guest communication channels, time synchronization, shared clipboard, and automated logons.
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VMs gives administrators an easy route for testing and developing platforms. VirtualBox makes this not only easy, but affordable. Since VirtualBox is free, anyone can use this software to extend the capabilities and offerings for their business. With businesses growing more and more dependent upon Linux, it will be crucial for administrators to be capable of working with the platform; VirtualBox makes it easy to deploy Linux guests without having to use expensive hardware. With VirtualBox admins can even emulate a network to either improve their skills or test deployments.
VirtualBox makes it possible for anyone from end users to enterprise IT staff to work with virtualization. The GUI tool requires very little in the way of a learning curve, so it won’t get in the way of learning about the guest platform. Considering that container technology has risen to the forefront of IT, VirtualBox makes it incredibly easy for admins to test tools such as Docker, especially thanks to distributions, including boot2docker.
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VirtualBox affects administrators and end users, as well as people that make use of the technology brought about by VMs. Anyone who wants to test out a different operating system (such as Linux) will find VirtualBox an easy route to success.
Developers are also affected by VirtualBox, as it enables them to develop on a variety of platforms and create virtual networks to further test their software.
Businesses are on the receiving end of VirtualBox benefits. Although most people assume VMware is the only in-house virtualization solution capable of business-level VM deployment, VirtualBox is quite adept at serving on such a level.
SEE: What is DevOps? An executive guide to agile development and IT operations (ZDNet)
For commercial use, Oracle offers Enterprise licenses at $50.00 USD/per user. The Enterprise license includes better Extension Pack management. Although VirtualBox is released under the GPL, the Extension Pack is proprietary. The Extension Pack can be used, free of charge, for personal use, but it requires a license for commercial usage.
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The first iteration of VirtualBox was released on January 15, 2007, by Innotek GmbH (a software company located in Stuttgart, Germany) under a proprietary software license. Innotek did make one version of VirtualBox available free of cost for personal evaluation. In 2007, under the guidance of LiSoG (Die Linux Solution Group), Innotek released an open source edition of VirtualBox (licensed under GPL version 2).
In February 2008, Sun Microsystems acquired Innotek. In January 2010, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun and rebranded VirtualBox as Oracle VM VirtualBox.
Currently, VirtualBox is in its 5th iteration, and development of the product is steady.
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Anyone can download and install VirtualBox. Linux users will find VirtualBox in their distributions’ default repositories, so the software can be installed via the operating system’s package manager. For Windows and macOS users, you must use the official installer files: Windows or macOS. Once installed, VirtualBox is ready to deploy VMs from your downloaded Linux ISO images, from your licensed Windows or macOS install disks, or from any number of virtual appliances.
Viable host candidates include the following.
Windows
Note: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will require an upgrade to VirtualBox to the latest release.
Apple OS X
Linux
It is important to note that your host machine will need to have enough extra resources (storage and RAM) to run guest VMs as well as the host. Minimum system requirements are:
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Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.
