Bitacoras.com: canal "virtualization"

VirtualBox: installation instructions in two separate chapters for Windows and Linux, respectively

Ubuntuland — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:09:20 +0200

Por Ubuntuland en Ubuntuland Blogspot el 05 de julio de 2008 a las 16:09:20

Installation
As installation of VirtualBox varies depending on your host operating system, we provide installation instructions in two separate chapters for Windows and Linux, respectively.
1.1 Installing on Windows hosts
1.1.1 Prerequisites
In addition, Windows Installer 1.1 or higher must be present on your system. This should be the case if you have all recent Windows updates installed.
Note: Presently VirtualBox can only be run from user accounts with administrator rights. This will be fixed in a future release.
1.1.2 Performing the installation
The VirtualBox installation can be started
• either by double-clicking on its Microsoft Installer archive (MSI file)
• or by entering
msiexec /i VirtualBox.msi on the command line.
In either case, this will display the installation welcome dialog and allow you to choose where to install VirtualBox to and which components to install. In addition to the VirtualBox application, the following components are available:
USB support This package contains special drivers for your Windows host that VirtualBox requires to fully support USB devices inside your virtual machines.
Networking This package contains extra networking drivers for your Windows host that VirtualBox needs to support Host Interface Networking (to make your VM’s virtual network cards accessible from other machines on your physical network).
Depending on your Windows configuration, you may see warnings about “unsigned drivers” or similar. Please select “Continue” on these warnings as otherwise VirtualBox might not function correctly after installation.
The installer will create a “VirtualBox” group in the programs startup folder which allows you to launch the application and access its documentation.
With standard settings, VirtualBox will be installed for all users on the local system.
In case this is not wanted, you have to invoke the installer as follows:

msiexec /i VirtualBox.msi ALLUSERS=2
This will install VirtualBox only for the current user.
1.1.3 Uninstallation
As we use the Microsoft Installer, VirtualBox can be safely uninstalled at any time by choosing the program entry in the “Add/Remove Programs” applet in the Windows
Control Panel.
1.1.4 Unattended installation
Unattended installations can be performed using the standard MSI support.
1.2 Installing on Linux hosts
1.2.1 Prerequisites
In any case, the following packages must be installed on your Linux system:
• Qt 3.3.5 or higher;
• SDL 1.2.7 or higher (this graphics library is typically called libsdl or similar).
Note: To be precise, these packages are only required if you want to run the VirtualBox graphical user interfaces. In particular, VirtualBox, our main graphical user interface, requires both Qt and SDL; VBoxSDL, our simplified
GUI, requires only SDL. By contrast, if you only want to run the headless VRDP server that comes with VirtualBox, neither Qt nor SDL are required.

1.2.2 Support for external kernel modules
VirtualBox uses a special kernel module to perform physical memory allocation and to gain control of the processor for guest system execution. Without this kernel module, you will still be able to work with Virtual Machines in the configuration interface, but you will not be able to start any virtual machines.
To be able to install this kernel module, you will have to prepare your system for building external kernel modules. As this process can vary from system to system, we
will only describe what to do for systems we have tested
• Most Linux distributions can be set up simply by installing the right packages.
Normally, these will be the GNU compiler (GCC), GNU Make (make) and packages containing header files for your kernel. The version numbers of the header file packages must be the same as that of the kernel you are using.
– In newer Debian and Ubuntu releases, you must install the right version of the linux-headers and if it exists the linux-kbuild package. Current Ubuntu releases should have the right packages installed by default.
– In older Debian and Ubuntu releases, you must install the right version of the kernel-headers package.
– On Fedora and Redhat systems, the package is kernel-devel.
– On SUSE and OpenSUSE Linux, you must install the right versions of the kernel-source and kernel-syms packages.
• Alternatively, if you built your own kernel /usr/src/linux will point to your kernel sources, and you have not removed the files created during the build process, then your system will already be correctly set up.
In order to use VirtualBox’s USB support, the user account under which you intend to run VirtualBox must have read and write access to the USB filesystem (usbfs).

1.2.3 Performing the installation
VirtualBox is available as a Debian package (in fact, there are packages for Ubuntu 6.10 “Edgy”, Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper” and Debian 4.0 “Etch”) or as an alternative installer (.run) which should work on most Linux distributions.
1.2.3.1 Installing VirtualBox from a Debian/Ubuntu package
First, download the appropriate package for your distribution. The following examples assume that you are installing to an Ubuntu Edgy system. Use dpkg to install the Debian package:

sudo dpkg -i VirtualBox_1.4.0_Ubuntu_edgy.deb

You will be asked to accept the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License.
Unless you answer “yes” here, the installation will be aborted.
The group vboxusers will be created during installation. Note that a user who is going to run VirtualBox must be member of that group. Also note that adding an active user to that group may require a restart of the session of that user. This should
be done manually after successful installation of the package.
The installer will also search for a VirtualBox kernel module suitable for your kernel. The package includes pre-compiled modules for the most common kernel configurations. If no suitable kernel module is found, the installation script
tries to build a module itself. If the build process is not successful you will be shown a warning and the package will be left unconfigured. Please have a look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out why the compilation failed. You may have to install the appropriate Linux kernel headers
After correcting any problems, do
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
This will start a second attempt to build the module.
If a suitable kernel module was found in the package or the module was successfully built, the installation script will attempt to load that module.
Once VirtualBox has been successfully installed and configured, you can start it by selecting “VirtualBox” in your start menu or from the command line

1.2.3.2 Using the alternative installer
The alternative installer performs the following steps:
• It unpacks the application files to a target directory of choice. By default, the following directory will be used:
/opt/VirtualBox-1.4.0
• It builds the VirtualBox kernel module (vboxdrv) and installs it.
• It creates /etc/init.d/vboxdrv, an init script to start the VirtualBox kernel module.
• It creates a new system group called vboxusers.
• It creates symbolic links to VirtualBox, VBoxSDL and VBoxManage in /usr/bin.
• It creates /etc/udev/60-vboxdrv.rules, a description file for udev, if that is present, which makes the module accessible to anyone in the group vboxusers.

• It writes the installation directory to /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg.
The installer must be executed as root with either install or uninstall as the first parameter. If you do not want the installer to ask you whether you wish to accept the licence agreement (for example, for performing unattended installations), you can
add the parameter license_accepted_unconditionally. Finally, if you want to use a directory other than the default installation directory, add the desired path as an extra parameter.

sudo ./VirtualBox.run install /opt/innotek/VirtualBox

Or if you do not have the “sudo” command available, run the following as root
instead:
./VirtualBox.run install /opt/innotek/VirtualBox

If any users on your system should be able to access host USB devices from within VirtualBox guests, you should add them to the appropriate user group that your distribution uses for USB access, e.g. usb or usbusers.

1.2.3.3 Performing a manual installation
If, for any reason, you cannot use the shell script installer described previously, you can also perform a manual installation. Invoke the installer like this:

./VirtualBox.run --keep --noexec

This will unpack all the files needed for installation in the directory install under the current directory. The VirtualBox application files are contained in VirtualBox.tar.bz2 which you can unpack to any directory on your system. For
example:
sudo mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
sudo tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox
or as root:
mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox

The sources for VirtualBox’s kernel module are provided in the src directory. To build the module, change to the directory and issue make If everything builds correctly, issue the following command to install the module to
the appropriate module directory:
sudo make install

In case you do not have sudo, switch the user account to root and perform make install The VirtualBox kernel module needs a device node to operate. The above make command will tell you how to create the device node, depending on your Linux system.
The procedure is slightly different for a classical Linux setup with a /dev directory, a system with the now deprecated devfs and a modern Linux system with udev.
On certain Linux distributions, you might experience difficulties building the module. You will have to analyze the error messages from the build system to diagnose the cause of the problems. In general, make sure that the correct Linux kernel sources are used for the build process.
Note that the user who is going to run VirtualBox needs read and write permission on the VirtualBox kernel module device node /dev/vboxdrv. You can either define a vboxusers group by entering groupadd vboxusers

chgrp vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv
chmod 660 /dev/vboxdrv

or, alternatively, simply give all users access (insecure, not recommended!) chmod 666 /dev/vboxdrv
You should also add any users who will be allowed to use host USB devices in VirtualBox guests to the appropriate USB users group for your distribution. This group is often called usb or usbusers.
Next, you will have to install the system initialization script for the kernel module:

cp /opt/VirtualBox/vboxdrv.sh /etc/init.d/vboxdrv

(assuming you installed VirtualBox to the /opt/VirtualBox directory) and activate the initialization script using the right method for your distribution. You should create VirtualBox’s configuration file:

mkdir /etc/vbox
echo INSTALL_DIR=/opt/VirtualBox > /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg

and, for convenience, create the following symbolic links:

ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VirtualBox
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxSVC
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxManage

1.2.3.4 Updating and uninstalling VirtualBox
Before updating or uninstalling VirtualBox, you must terminate any virtual machines which are currently running and exit the VirtualBox or VBoxSVC applications. To update VirtualBox, simply run the installer of the updated version. To uninstall
VirtualBox, invoke the installer like this:

sudo ./VirtualBox.run uninstall
or as root
./VirtualBox.run uninstall

To manually uninstall VirtualBox, simply undo the steps in the manual installation in reverse order.

1.2.3.5 Automatic Installation of Debian packages
The Debian packages will request some user feedback when installed for the first time.
The debconf system is used to perform this task. To prevent any user interaction during installation, default values can be defined. A file vboxconf can contain the following debconf settings:

debconf virtualbox/accepted-virtualbox-puel-1-2 boolean true
debconf virtualbox/module-compilation-allowed boolean true
debconf virtualbox/delete-old-modules boolean true

With the first setting, the user accepts the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License. The second line allows compilation of the vboxdrv kernel module if no module was found for the current kernel. The third line allows the package to delete any old vboxdrv kernel modules compiled by previous installations.
These default settings can be applied with debconf-set-selections vboxconf
prior to the installation of the VirtualBox Debian package.

1.2.4 Starting VirtualBox on Linux
To start the VirtualBox graphical user interface, simply start the VirtualBox program.
To start the command line management interface for virtual machines, start VBox Manage. To start a single virtual machine from the command line, start VBoxSDL. The following chapters explain how to use these applications.
The following detailed instructions should only be of interest if you wish to execute VirtualBox without installing it first. You should start by compiling the vboxdrv kernel module (see above) and inserting it into the Linux kernel. VirtualBox consists
of a service daemon (VBoxSVC) and several application programs. The daemon is automatically started if necessary. All VirtualBox applications will communicate with the daemon through Unix local domain sockets. There can be multiple daemon instances under different user accounts and applications can only communicate with the daemon running under the user account as the application. The local domain socket resides in a subdirectory of your system’s directory for temporary files called .vbox--ipc. In case of communication problems or server startup
problems, you may try to remove this directory.
All VirtualBox applications (VirtualBox, VBoxSDL, VBoxManage and VBoxVRDP) require the VirtualBox directory to be in the library path:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"

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Etiquetas: virtualization

VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use

Ubuntuland — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:51:00 +0200

Por Ubuntuland en Ubuntuland Blogspot el 05 de julio de 2008 a las 11:51:00

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). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction.

1 Introduction
Innotek VirtualBox is a family of virtual machine products targeting desktop computers, enterprise servers and embedded systems. Due to its modular architecture,VirtualBox can be deployed in any environment where x86 systems are to be virtual-
ized on x86 systems. (With “x86”, we are referring to 32-bit CPUs from AMD and Intelas well as compatible CPUs from other vendors, plus 64-bit CPUs in 32-bit mode.)

1.1 Virtualization basics
With VirtualBox, you can run unmodified operating systems – including all of the software that is installed on them – directly on top of your existing operating system,in a special environment that is called a “virtual machine”. Your physical computer is
then usually called the “host”, while the virtual machine is often called a “guest”.
The following image shows you how VirtualBox, on a Linux host, is running Windows Vista as guest operating system in a virtual machine (displayed in a window on the host):
VirtualBox allows the guest code to run unmodified, directly on the host computer,and the guest operating system “thinks” it’s running on real machine. In the background, however, VirtualBox intercepts certain operations that the guest performs to
make sure that the guest does not interfere with other programs on the host.

The techniques and features that VirtualBox provides are useful for several scenarios:
• Operating system support. With VirtualBox, one can run software written for one operating system on another (for example, Windows software on Linux) without having to reboot to use it. You can even install in a virtual machine an old operating system such as DOS or OS/2 if your real computer’s hardware is no longer supported.
• Infrastructure consolidation. Virtualization can significantly reduce hardware and electricity costs. The full performance provided by today’s powerful hardware is only rarely really needed, and typical servers have an average load of only a fraction of their theoretical power. So, instead of running many such physical computers that are only partially used, one can pack many virtual machines onto a few powerful hosts and balance the loads between them. With VirtualBox, you can even run virtual machines as mere servers for the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP), with full client USB support. This allows for consolidating the desktop machines in an enterprise on just a few RDP servers, while the actual clients will only have to be able to display VRDP data any more.

• Testing and disaster recovery. Once installed, a virtual box and its virtual hard disk can be considered a “container” that can be arbitrarily frozen, woken up, copied, backed up, and transported between hosts. On top of that, with the use of another VirtualBox feature called “snapshots”, one can save a particular state of a virtual machine and revert back to that state, if necessary. This way, one can freely experiment with a computing environment. If something goes wrong (e.g. after installing misbehaving software or infecting the guest with a virus), one can easily switch back to a previous snapshot and avoid the need of frequent backups and restores.

When dealing with virtualization (and also for understanding the following chapters of this documentation), it helps to acquaint oneself with a bit of crucial terminology, especially the following terms:
Host operating system (host OS): the operating system of the physical computer where VirtualBox is running. Also, the host operating system determines which version of VirtualBox is required: VirtualBox for Windows, VirtualBox for Linux
or VirtualBox for Mac
Note: Even though the various VirtualBox versions are usually discussed together in this document, there may be platform-specific differences which we will point out where appropriate.

Guest operating system (guest OS): the operating system that is running inside
the virtual machine. Theoretically, VirtualBox can run any x86 operating system (DOS, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, OpenBSD), but to achieve near-native performance of the guest code on your machine, we had to go through a lot
of optimizations that are specific to certain operating systems. So while your favorite operating system may run as a guest, we officially support and optimize for a select few (which, however, include the most common ones).

Virtual machine (VM). When running, a VM is the special environment that VirtualBox creates for your guest operating system. So, in other words, you run your guest operating system “in” a VM. Normally, a VM will be shown as
a window on your computer’s desktop, but depending on which of the various frontends of VirtualBox you use, it can be displayed in full-screen mode or remotely by use of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
Sometimes we also use the term “virtual machine” in a more abstract way. Internally, VirtualBox thinks of a VM as a set of parameters that determine its operation. These settings are mirrored in the VirtualBox graphical user interface
as well as the VBoxManage command line program; see chapter 8, VBoxManage reference, page 76. They include hardware settings (how much memory the VM should have, what hard disks VirtualBox should virtualize through which
container files, what CD -ROMs are mounted etc.) as well as state information (whether the VM is currently running, saved, its snapshots etc.).
In other words, a VM is also what you can see in its settings dialog.

Guest Additions. With “Guest Additions”, we refer to special software packages that are shipped with VirtualBox. Even though they are part of VirtualBox, they are designed to be installed inside a VM to improve performance of the guest OS
and to add extra features.
1.2 Features overview
Here’s a brief outline of VirtualBox’s main features:
• Clean architecture; unprecedented modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a clean separation of client and server code. This makes it easy to control it from several
interfaces at once: for example, you can start a VM simply by clicking on a button in the VirtualBox graphical user interface and then control that machine from the command line, or even remotely.

Due to its modular architecture, VirtualBox can also expose its full functionality and configurability through a comprehensive software development kit (SDK). Based on the standard technology COM (XPCOM on Linux), this Ap-
plication Programming Interface (API) offers a comfortable way of integrating VirtualBox with other software systems. Internally, VirtualBox uses its own public API, which guarantees that every aspect of the product is accessible to external
customers as well and that all interfaces are well tested.
• Easy portability. VirtualBox runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as well as on all major Linux distributions from Red Hat, Novell and others. With VirtualBox 1.4, support for 64-bit Linux and Mac OS X hosts was
added. In addition, a special version for use on embedded µkernel systems is available separately.
• Guest Additions for Windows and Linux. The VirtualBox Guest Additions are packages which can be installed in Windows or Linux guest systems to improve their performance and to provide additional integration and communication
with the host system.

– Arbitrary screen resolutions (host-controlled). In guest systems that support it (currently Windows guests), you can change the guest resolution simply by resizing the virtual machine window in the host system.
– Arbitrary screen resolutions (guest-controlled). The VirtualBox Guest Additions can handle arbitrary screen resolutions. Even for guest operating systems for which no Additions have been written yet, VirtualBox will offer
custom VESA resolutions.
• XML configuration store. VirtualBox stores all its configuration in XML files: one XML document for global settings and a XML file per virtual machine. This allows you to transport VM definitions between the different frontends and even
across host computers.
• Great hardware support. Among others, VirtualBox supports:– Full ACPI support. The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is fully supported by VirtualBox. This eases cloning of PC images from real machines or third-party virtual machines into VirtualBox. With its unique ACPI power status support, VirtualBox can even report to ACPI-
aware guest operating systems the power status of the host. For mobile systems running on battery, the guest can thus enable energy saving and notify the user of the remaining power (e.g. in fullscreen modes).
– I/O APIC support. VirtualBox virtualizes an Input/Output Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (I/O APIC) which is found in many modern PC systems. This eases cloning of PC images from real machines or 3rd party virtual machines into VirtualBox.
– USB device support. VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines with out having to install device-specific drivers on the host. USB support is not
limited to certain device categories.
– Multiscreen resolutions. VirtualBox virtual machines support screen resolutions many times that of a physical screen, allowing them to be spread over a large number of screens attached to the host system.
– Built-in iSCSI support. This unique feature allows you to connect a virtual machine directly to an iSCSI storage server without going through the host system. The VM accesses the iSCSI target directly without the extra
overhead that is required for virtualizing hard disks in container files.
– PXE Network boot. The integrated virtual network cards of VirtualBox fully support remote booting via the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE).
• Multigeneration snapshots. VirtualBox can save successive snapshots of the state of the virtual machine. You can revert the virtual machine to the state of any of the snapshots.
• VRDP remote access. You can run any virtual machine in a special VirtualBox program that acts as a server for the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP). With this unique feature, VirtualBox provides high-performance remote
access to any virtual machine.

A custom RDP server has been built directly into the virtualization layer and offers unprecedented performance and feature richness.
On top of this special capacity, VirtualBox offers you more unique features:
– Extensible RDP authentication. VirtualBox already supports Winlogon on Windows and PAM on Linux for RDP authentication. In addition, it includes an easy-to-use SDK which allows you to create arbitrary interfaces
for other methods of authentication.
– USB over RDP. Via RDP virtual channel support, VirtualBox also allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices locally to a virtual machine which is running remotely on a VirtualBox RDP.
• Folder sharing. VirtualBox folder sharing lets you access files from the host system inside guests. Shared folders can be set up for all virtual machines, or for a single VM. Temporary shared folders may also be set up while a VM is running.

1.3 Operating system support
1.3.1 Supported host operating systems
Currently, VirtualBox is available for the following Windows 32-bit operating systems:
• Windows 2000, service pack 3 and higher
• Windows XP, all service packs
• Windows Server 2003
and for the following Linux 32-bit systems:
• Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (“sarge”) and 4.0 (“etch”)
• Fedora Core 4 to 7
• Gentoo Linux
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 and 5
• SUSE Linux 9 and 10
• Ubuntu 5.10 (“Breezy Badger”), 6.06 (“Dapper Drake”), 6.10 (“Edgy Eft”), 7.04
(“Feisty Fawn”)
Starting with VirtualBox 1.4, the following hosts are also supported:
• 64-bit Linux
• Apple Mac OS X
It should be possible to use VirtualBox on most systems based on Linux kernel 2.4 or 2.6 using either the VirtualBox installer or by doing a manual installation.

1.3.2 Supported guest operating systems
While VirtualBox is designed to provide a generic virtualization environment for x86 systems, our focus is to optimize the product’s performance for a select list of guest systems. The following table provides an overview of current support:

Operating system
Support status
Windows NT
4.0
All versions/editions and service packs are fully supported (but see remark 1 below). Guest Additions are available with a limited feature set.
Windows 2000
/ XP / Server
2003 / Vista
All versions/editions and service packs are fully supported. Guest Additions are available.
DOS / Windows
3.x / 95 / 98 /
ME
Limited testing has been performed. Use beyond legacy installation mechanisms not recommended. No
Guest Additions available.
Linux 2.4 Limited support.
Linux 2.6 All versions/editions and service packs are fully supported (but see remark 2 below). Guest Additions
are available.
FreeBSD Limited support. Guest Additions are not available yet.
OpenBSD Versions 3.7 and 3.8 are supported. Guest Additions are not available yet.
Remarks:
1. With Windows NT 4.0, there are some issues with older service packs. We recommend to install service pack 6a.
2. For Linux 2.6, we strongly recommend using version 2.6.13 or higher for better performance. However, version 2.6.18 (and some 2.6.17 versions) introduced a race condition that can cause boot crashes in VirtualBox; if you must use a kernel
>= 2.6.17, we advise to use 2.6.19 or later.

Screenshots

The screenshots below show several impressions while running VirtualBox on Linux, Windows and some soon-to-be-supported platforms:

	VirtualBox for Mac OS X, currently in beta test. One virtual machine is running in seamless mode on Leopard. Note the realtime preview of the virtual machine in the dock.
	VirtualBox for Mac OS X, currently in beta test. Two virtual machines are visible: one with Windows Vista, another with Gentoo Linux.
	Creating a new, empty VM for installing Windows Vista.
	The new VM in the VirtualBox main window. Note that an ISO file (containing the Vista setup CD) has been mounted as the VM's CD-ROM drive.
	After starting the VM, it boots off the virtual CD-ROM (the ISO file with the Vista setup), and Vista Setup starts up.
	Vista is installing into the virtual hard drive.
	Vista install complete: the log-on screen.
	Compiling VirtualBox on Ubuntu Edgy Eft in VirtualBox on Windows XP.
	Details of a snapshot performed after Vista installation. We can revert the virtual machine to this snapshot at a later time.
	Damn Small Linux 2.0 works damn well in VirtualBox!
	The Virtual Disk Manager allows you to work with VM images.
	VirtualBox in Vista inside VirtualBox on XP? Perhaps some day...
	A community-based effort is underway to port VirtualBox to OS/2 hosts. This screenshot shows a first alpha version.

Downloading VirtualBox

For downloading VirtualBox, you will be redirected to the Sun Download Center (SDLC). Make sure you choose the correct platform for your system from the drop down list.

Binaries (all platforms)

See the changelog for what has changed.

User manual

The VirtualBox User Manual is included in the VirtualBox binaries above. If, however, you would like to take a look at it without having to install the whole thing, you can download it in PDF format here:

User Manual (version 1.6.2, updated 2008-06-06)

You will need a PDF reader such as Adobe Reader to view this file. Most Linux systems will have a PDF reader installed by default.

You may also like to take a look at our frequently asked questions list.

VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE)

For a detailed explanation about the differences between VirtualBox and VirtualBox OSE, please take a look at the Editions page. The VirtualBox OSE sources are available free of charge under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License, Version 2. By downloading from the below links, you agree to these terms and conditions.

Open Source Edition (OSE) Source code

Browse the source code repository

View the last changes

Checking out from our Subversion server.
```
svn co http://virtualbox.org/svn/vbox/trunk vbox
```
After checking out, you should have a look at the build instructions.

Please note that the Open Source Edition does not include an installer or setup utilities, as it is mainly aimed at developers and Linux distributors. We do request that anyone intending to redistribute the Open Source Edition contact us first. Please also take a look at our licensing FAQ, in particular regarding the use of the name VirtualBox.

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Etiquetas: virtualization

Parallels Server para Mac disponible

willy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:49:09 +0200

Por willy en Desinformado.com en Español el 20 de junio de 2008 a las 14:49:09

Parallels ha anunciado la disponibilidad de su software Parallels Server para Mac, la primera solución de virtualización de servidor para sistemas Apple basados en Intel. Se trata de una solución de hipervisor potente y fácil de usar para la virtualización de servidores. Puede ejecutarse en cualquier hardware Apple con procesador Intel, incluyendo Xserve y Mac Pro, ejecutando OS X Leopard Server y llega al mercado después de pasar por un programa beta intensivo, donde han participado profesionales de servidor Mac, Windows y Linux. Su uso fundamental está dirigido a estandarizar la plataforma Mac e integrarla en las infraestructuras TI existentes en una organización.

Parallels Server incluye una amplia variedad de prestaciones de tipo Enterprise, entre las que destacan:

Soporte Virtual para SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) de 4 vías, que permite a los usuarios asignar hasta 4 núcleos virtuales a una máquina virtual para disfrutar de un rendimiento excepcional bajo cargas de trabajo muy pesadas. También se soportan SMP de 2 vías, lo que ofrece a los usuarios un nivel inigualable de personalización de las máquinas virtuales.

La inclusión de tecnologías de última generación como ACPI BIOS y el soporte para hasta 32GB de RAM física.

Soporte para la tecnologías Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel VT-x) para sacar el máximo partido a la aceleración asistida por hardware.

Consola de Gestión multi cliente y totalmente scriptable que permite a los usuarios gestionar servidores virtuales y físicos de forma local y remota. Las APIs de la Consola de Gestión de Parallels son totalmente abiertas y scriptables con Python, lo que permite a los administradores automatizar tareas de servidor comunes directamente desde la línea de comandos.

Un Juego de Herramientas Pre Integrado mejora y simplifica la experiencia de usuario. El juego de herramientas incluye: Parallels Tools, un juego de utilidades que hacen que trabajar con servidores virtuales sea más fácil y más productivo; Parallels Transporter, una herramienta asistida por un asistente para migraciones físicas a virtuales (P2V) y virtuales a virtuales (V2V); y Parallels Image Tool, que permite a los usuarios modificar los ajustes de su dusco duro virtual.

La habilidad para ejecutar cualquier combinación de más de 50 sistemas operativos huésped x86 (32-bit) y x64 (64-bit), incluyendo el nuevo Windows Server 2008 en máquinas virtuales seguras y de alto rendimiento.

Un potente SDK que permite a vendedores de terceros integrar soporte de Parallels Server en sus productos. El SDK es el mismo que usaron los ingenieros de Parallels para crear la Consola de Gestión de Parallels.

(Via http://www.somosmac.com)

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Etiquetas: tecnologia, apple, beta, hardware, infraestructuras ti

Vmware miembro de la Linux Foundation

fher98 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:37:20 +0200

Por fher98 en Guatewireless.org el 11 de agosto de 2008 a las 23:37:20

Con el objetivo de impulsar la adopcion de la virtualizacion y la “Cloud Computing” en el mundo del floss, el desarrollador de plataformas de virtualizacion anuncio en LinuxWorld 2008 su ingreso a la fundacion.

La Linux Foundation tiene como objetivo la adaptación del mercado y la estandarización de los componentes de hardware y software para el [...]

Etiquetas: articulos, virtualizacion, virtualization, vmware

Un error de VMware puede cerrar miles de servidores virtuales

Genis — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:29:42 +0200

Por Genis en Crónica de una vida el 19 de agosto de 2008 a las 00:29:42

Durante este mes de agosto se produjo un problema con la actualización de VMWare virtual Infrastructure 3.5 Update 2 ( build 103908). Los que actualizaron se encontraron que por un error del programa las máquinas virtuales que se cerraban no volvían a arrancar y la ejecución de Vmotion ( permite mover máquinas virtuales dinámicamente entre [...]

Etiquetas: vmware, virtualization

HowTo: Single Step VirtualBox Installation on Fedora 8

VeRTiTO — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:32:25 +0100

Por VeRTiTO en SYSAD LINUX BLOG el 03 de diciembre de 2007 a las 17:32:25

With reference on my old post here on how to install VirtualBox (virtualization software) to Fedora 7 linux distro, here's a working howto install VirtualBox on Fedora 8 distro. VirtualBox is a very...

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Etiquetas: virtualbox howto

Diario de a bordo. Fecha estelar 2008-02-16.

José María — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:59:43 +0100

Por José María en Mi e-Oasis el 16 de febrero de 2008 a las 21:59:43

SGI compra Linux Networx Assets ( http://tinyurl.com/37bhf6 ). Montalvo Systems: un nuevo actor en escena que desarrolla un chip multicore asimétrico que soporta ISA x86 ( http://tinyurl.com/2pnnqo ). Publicado Monodevelop 1.0 RC1 ( http://tinyurl.com/37wsh4 ). Phoenix’s HyperCore Virtualization Platform ( http://tinyurl.com/2h8db8 ).

Etiquetas: bitacora, asimetrico, assets, chip, hypercore

CoreXchange To Demo Configurator(SM) at North Texas Technology Day

ravenII — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:20:00 +0200

Por ravenII en VOIP IP Telephony el 06 de abril de 2008 a las 00:20:00

Apr 04, 2008-CoreXchange announces their participation in the North Texas Technology Day hosted by Presidio Networked Solutions and Unified Infrastructure Services (UIS). The event details are as follows: • Wednesday, April 9th 2008: 8:30am – 7:00pm • Unified Infrastructure Services: 4025 Midway, Carrollton, TX 75007 • Visit http://www.presidio.com/company/events.asp for more information and schedule of events "Presidio values our relationship with CoreXchange and we are pleased to be working with UIS to bring together a diverse group of technology manufactures and service providers for this event,” explained Doug Metz, Territory Manager for Presidio Networked Solutions. “Industry experts will be speaking to enterprise customers about the latest developments in advanced networking, managed security, virtualization, disaster recovery, collocation, application and WAN acceleration, VoIP, and storage area networking. We know that these are key challenges that IT organizations are faced with today and we look forward to providing insight and value for IT Management and Business Executives." Unified Infrastructure Services (UIS) will host data center tours from 10a.m. to 3 p.m. covering topics from advanced power and cooling systems to optimal raised floor designs. CoreXchange will be in the UIS Data Center to provide information on its advanced networking solutions, business continuity, disaster recovery, collocation, and managed services. “UIS is becoming a market leader by forming strong relationships with technology innovators,” said Lance A. Smith, Vice President of Operations. “As a leading provider of data center services, UIS recognizes the significant value that CoreXchange brings to our client base.” CoreXchange will also be hosting demonstrations of its new, patent-pending ConfiguratorSM accessible at www.corexchange.com. The Configurator allows users to realize advantages over traditional network services quote processes by providing instant online pricing based on customized options including backbone providers, connection size, bandwidth commitment, cap and contract length. The Configurator provides customers and resellers with the ability either to configure their own network services package or to select from pre-configured network packages. Pre-configured packages currently include the following options: • Full cabinet with 10Mb bandwidth • Full T1 with local loop (on-net central offices) • 10 Mb metro Ethernet with local loop (on-net buildings) • Free monitoring of 5 devices with a 50 Mb commitment CoreXchange connectivity services are available to customers either within the CoreXchange data center located within the Dallas Infomart carrier center or at a customer’s site via metro Ethernet. tag: metro Ethernet, CoreXchange, Configurator, high bandwidth network, UIS Data Center, managed security, virtualization, disaster recovery, collocation, application and WAN acceleration, VoIP, storage area networkingCopyright © 2005-2008 SnapVoip, Published by snapvoip.blogspot.com. Proper link backs are needed for republishing.

Etiquetas: metro ethernet, voip

Mobile Virtualization, Motorola Joins The Party

Diordna — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:36:00 +0200

Por Diordna en VOIP IP Telephony el 25 de abril de 2008 a las 01:36:00

SCHAUMBURG, Illinois. — April 21, 2008 – Motorola, Inc. through Motorola Ventures, its strategic venture capital arm, announced today it made an equity investment in VirtualLogix, a maker of virtualization software for communications devices and infrastructure equipment. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

VirtualLogix is a leader in real-time virtualization—an innovative technology that is shaping the future for communications devices and equipment. Their technology enables the mobility of applications from the desktop to devices, improves quality of service and security in an open mobile world, and will enable a new generation of dynamic individual user experiences.

“As the mobile eco-system grows increasingly complex, demand for simplified product designs that allow dynamic mobile experiences to run across multiple platforms will intensify,” said Reese Schroeder, managing director, Motorola Ventures. “Virtualization offers a solution to this complexity. Our investment in VirtualLogix will help accelerate the delivery of their technology to next-generation communications devices and infrastructure equipment.”

“As virtualization moves out from the datacenter and into everyday front-end connected devices, our connected world will require the delivery of efficient, secure and customizable user experiences,” said Peter Richards, CEO of VirtualLogix. “To meet this demand, leading electronics manufacturers are looking to leverage the VirtualLogix technology to create products with improved security, manageability and customization.”

Motorola joins VirtualLogix’s current investors Atlas Venture, Cisco Systems, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures, Intel Capital and Texas Instruments.

tag: real-time virtualization, VirtualLogix, Motorola Ventures, Atlas Venture, Cisco Systems, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures, Intel Capital, Texas Instruments

Etiquetas: virtuallogix, motorola ventures, atlas venture, cisco systems, dfj esprit

Virtualización - Ese gran desconocido

Genis — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:52:40 +0200

Por Genis en Crónica de una vida el 19 de abril de 2008 a las 22:52:40

Al menos para mi el virtualizar máquinas o sistemas operativos hasta hoy ha sido un gran desconocido. Gracias a un ebook que he encontrado en uno de los proveedores de software ( Parallels) he podido entender exactamente lo que es y los tipos que hay. Virtualizar explicado con mis palabras viene a ser en un mismo [...]

Etiquetas: virtualization