Tutorial - Create virtual machine with VirtualBox

Introduction to Virtual Machines

A virtual machine is an operating system that is installed on software, which imitates dedicated hardware. The end user has the same experience on a virtual machine as they would have on dedicated hardware. 

There are more tools to create and execute a virtual machine as: Oracle VirtualBox and VMware. 

Oracle VirtualBox overview

Oracle VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use. 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) version 2.   

It runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts.

VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. 

Create a first Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

Goal of tutorial

To create a new virtual machine in Oracle VirtualBox. The operating system (OS) where running VirtualBox is Windows 7 and the OS of new virtual machine will be Ubuntu 16.10.

Prerequisites

• Oracle VirtualBox already installed [1];
• Daemon Tools Lite already installed [2];
• Download of Ubuntu iso v16.10 [3].

Instruction Guide

Start VirtualBox and click on "New" button. A new windows will be open so add the Name, the type and the version, in this case as shows the screenshot:

Create Virtual Machine - select operating system

Click on Next. In next windows you can setting the memory size, for example, you can setting 4GB of RAM

Create Virtual Machine - select memory size

After the RAM, the next settings are about the Hard disk:

Create Virtual Machine - select hard disk type

Create Virtual Machine - select storage type

Create Virtual Machine - select file location and size

Now the VM is setted in VirtualBox:

Created Ubuntu Virtual Machine 

Before the start of VM, you must mount the OS image with Daemon Tools Lite and then click on "Start" button from VirtualBox. 

Instead you can install the OS as physical machine. After the installation the image is no longer necessary.
Your Ubuntu virtual machine is ready for use.

Internal Links

May be of interest to you:

1. Bash commands about Hardaware and Network

External Links

1. Oracle VirtualBox: www.virtualbox.org
2. Daemon Tools:  www.daemon-tools.cc
3. Download Ubuntu: www.ubuntu.com