Vagrant

Before we start with our Vagrant tutorial we will learn few concepts of Virtualization and Oracle Virtual Box.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a technology that provides a way to separate physical hardware and software by emulating hardware using software. It enables a computing environment to run multiple different and independent systems at the same time.

For example, instead of having one physical server running one operating system, with server virtualization, you would have one physical server running multiple operating system simultaneously:

With virtualization technology, you can create pools of logical resources consisting of memory, CPUs, storage, disks and so on, and offer those resources to virtual machines.

What is Hypervisor?

A hypervisor is a piece of software that enables a user to create and runs one or more virtual machines simultaneously. A hypervisor is also known as the virtual machine monitor (VMM).

One of the key functions that hypervisor provides is isolation, meaning that a guest cannot affect the operation of the host or any other guest, even if it crashes.

Hypervisors can be of two types: Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 –  also known as native or bare metal hypervisor, this type of hypervisor runs directly on top of the physical hardware. Each virtual operating system runs atop the hypervisor. Examples of bare metal hypervisors are the Oracle VM server, Vmware ESX/ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Type 2 – also known as a hosted hypervisor. This type of hypervisor is installed as a software application on an existing host operating system (OS). Example of the hosted hypervisor are Oracle VirtualBox, Microsoft Virtual PC, Vmware Server and Workstation.

Benefits of Virtualization

There are many reasons why you should use virtualization in your environment. Here are the most important ones:

·         Server consolidation – virtualization can help you reduce capital investitions. In traditional environments it is common to dedicate each server to a single application. This leaves most computers vastly underused. Virtualization enables you to consolidate all the workloads on one server, which reduces the number of physical machines.

·         Virtual labs – you can run a virtual machine to try out application that you think might be unsafe.

·         Security purposes – you can create a virtual machine running Windows just for online shoping, so you can be sure there are no spyware or trojans that will capture your passwords.

·         Faster server provisioning – with Oracle VirtualBox, you can quickly clone an image, master template, or existing virtual machine to get a server up and running within a few minutes.

·         Cost saving – not only your company will save money on the physical server hardware, power and cooling of the servers that were consolidated, you will also save on the time it used to take to administer physical servers.

What is Oracle Virtual Box ?

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free, open source, cross-platform application for creating, managing and running virtual machines (VMs). Virtual machines are computers whose hardware components are emulated by the host computer.

Oracle VirtualBox enables you to set up one or more virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine, and use them simultaneously, along with the actual machine. Each virtual machine can execute its own operating system, including versions of Microsoft Windows, Linux, BSD, and MS-DOS. You can install and run as many virtual machines as you like – the only practical limits are disk space and memory.

To start with our tutorial please install Oracle VirtualBox from https://www.oracle.com/in/virtualization/virtualbox/ .

Virtual Box terminology

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). This is the OS of the physical computer on which Oracle VM VirtualBox was installed. There are versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Oracle Solaris hosts.

Most of the time, this manual discusses all Oracle VM VirtualBox versions together. There may be platform-specific differences which we will point out where appropriate.

·         Guest operating system (guest OS). This is the OS that is running inside the virtual machine. Theoretically, Oracle VM VirtualBox can run any x86 OS. such as DOS, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, and 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 OSes. So while your favorite OSmay run as a guest, we officially support and optimize for a select few, which include the most common OSes.

·         Virtual machine (VM). This is the special environment that Oracle VM VirtualBox creates for your guest OS while it is running. In other words, you run your guest OS 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 Oracle VM VirtualBox you use, it can be displayed in full screen mode or remotely on another computer.

In a more abstract way, internally, Oracle VM VirtualBox thinks of a VM as a set of parameters that determine its behavior. They include hardware settings, such as: how much memory the VM should have, what hard disks Oracle VM VirtualBox should virtualize through which container files, what CDs are mounted. They also include state information, such as: whether the VM is currently running, saved, if the VM has snapshots. These settings are mirrored in the VirtualBox Manager window, as well as the VBoxManage command.

·         Guest Additions. This refers to special software packages which are shipped with Oracle VM VirtualBox but designed to be installed inside a VM to improve performance of the guest OS and to add extra features.

                                                                                                                                                  
               
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