<p>Virtual machines (VM) are virtual computers within computers that share hardware resources of the host machine but provide strong isolation, while still permitting different operating systems to coexist concurrently.</p>
<p>VirtualBox, an open-source virtual machine application free for download and use, is one of the most well-known virtualization solutions available today. Other popular virtualization solutions are VMware and Xen.</p>
<h2>1. Installing Ubuntu</h2>
<p>Ubuntu is an increasingly popular guest operating system choice in software appliances and virtualization hosts, and even supports as the host operating system by various virtual machine applications such as VirtualBox, VMWare Xen &#038; KVM virtual machine virtualization software solutions.</p>
<p>As part of its installation process, Ubuntu will prompt you to verify the type of keyboard you&#8217;re using, if you wish for the installer to download updates during its process and provide you with a username and password combination before installing Ubuntu onto a virtual machine&#8217;s hard disk erasing all existing content from it.</p>
<p>After your Ubuntu virtual machine installation has completed, close its window and select &#8220;Power off the machine&#8221; from its menu. Eject and eject again as soon as you&#8217;re ready to use it &#8211; an effective and quick way of testing Ubuntu without needing dedicated virtual machine hardware; additional software beyond VMWare&#8217;s free VirtualBox application may also be required.</p>
<h2>2. Creating a VM</h2>
<p>When creating a virtual machine with VMware, there are a few settings to consider. First and foremost, check off &#8220;Bridged network connection&#8221; on the right-side screen &#8211; this enables each VM to share its physical network adapter with other machines on its local network.</p>
<p>Click &#8216;Browse&#8217; to select the Ubuntu ISO image file that was downloaded earlier, and once chosen it will appear in your virtual CD/DVD drive.</p>
<p>Assuming you already have an ISO file downloaded, configure the virtual machine settings by assigning it a name, selecting its disk location and specifying its maximum hard disk size, assigning CPUs and memory allocation, selecting CPU-intensive OSs from ISO files as the OS source file(s), specifying CPU allocation limits for memory allocation purposes, specifying CPU count limits before clicking &#8216;Forward&#8217; to start installing an OS from within ISO. Installation typically takes 20-30 minutes and once complete you&#8217;ll be able to login using username/password combination that you choose during setup process.</p>
<h2>3. Setting up a network interface</h2>
<p>Though there are various graphical tools for network device management, most experts prefer command line. This provides greater automation of certain functions while offering more flexibility when configuring network device configurations.</p>
<p>Virtual NIC adapters come in three forms, bridged, NAT and host-only. Bridged places your virtual machine on the same network as its host computer; making access easier from outside your home network. NAT allows for easier control by only giving access to certain networks such as IP subnets; host-only allows only for limited connectivity from certain VMs within an organization&#8217;s home network.</p>
<p>NAT involves placing your VM on the same local network, but with its own IP address. This enables your host to access it but exposes your internal network to attack by unintended parties. To use NAT effectively requires a router. A DHCP server assigns each VM an IP address based on their MAC address which may or may not be static; you have control of this setting.</p>
<h2>4. Installing software</h2>
<p>When running Ubuntu using a virtualization software appliance (e.g. VMware Workstation, Citrix Xenserver, Microsoft Windows Virtual PC or Parallels Desktop for Macintosh), its host OS should be set up with all required software and drivers. To achieve this task, navigate to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and type in &#8220;ifconfig&#8221;. This should provide information regarding network connections as well as display where /home can be found.</p>
<p>Step two is to install the libvirt and kvm packages. Once complete, enable ssh access by running this command:</p>

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