Installation and Setup of Virtual Linux

J. Medina, R. Rojas-Cessa

Copyright (do not distribute)

Disclaimer: the authors are not associated nor supported by the brands displayed in this guideline.

1. Introduction

This is a guide to help you set up a virtual environment that consists of Linux virtual machines (VM) running on a VirtualBox manager application. The guide shows you how to install VirtualBox, and how to import and clone virtual machines into VirtualBox by using images (.ova) files. Additionally, this guide provides you with an example of a simple networking configuration that enables local communications between two Linux virtual machines and an example of how these machines can access the Internet.

2. Preliminaries

Initial Requirements

Before you begin with the configuration of your virtual environment, you MUST make sure your host computer meets the following requirements:

· Memory: >4 GB RAM

· Disk:  >30 GB Free available

VirtualBox installation

To install VirtualBox on your host computer, go to:

DownloadVirtualBoxHereLinks to an external site.

Download and install VirtualBox, according to your host operating system, as Figure 1 shows.

Figure 1: Download VirtualBox binaries from VirtualBox website.

After installing the VirtualBox manager application, load a virtual machine into VirtualBox using a Linux image file (.ova file). 

Linux Images:

Two image files are provided:

· Ubuntu2022.ovaLinks to an external site.: this is the Linux distribution we use in the lab (Recommended!!).

· Lubuntu2022.ovaLinks to an external site.: this is a lighter Linux distribution, it demands fewer system resources than Ubuntu, the desktop environment is a little different from Ubuntu but it is useful for installing 3 or more VMs.

Use the external links above to download one Linux image file, please start with Ubuntu2022.

The (Ubuntu) VM use the following credentials:

username: network

password: network

3. Setting Up a Virtual Machine

1. Open VirtualBox manager and click on the Import icon located to the right side and under the Tools tab as Figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: Import a virtual machine into VM VirtualBox Manager.

2. After you click on the Import icon, the Appliance to import menu pops up. Locate and import the Linux image file, i.e., the .ova file, into VirtualBox Manager, as Figure 3 shows. Click open then next.

3. In the Appliance setting window, go to the MAC Address Policy drop-down menu, select “Generate new MAC address for all network adapter” and click Import, as Figure 4 shows. The import process of the Linux image file that loads a virtual machine begins execution.

4. Once the import process finishes execution, a virtual machine is loaded into VirtualBox Manager. All imported virtual machines can be found on the leftmost side menu, below the Tools tab, as Figure 5 shows.

Figure 3: Import virtual appliance window.

Figure 4: Appliance setting selection.

Figure 5: Virtual machines created on VirtualBox Manager.

5. Change the name of your imported Virtual machine to ease management. To change the name of your virtual machine, right-click on it and select the setting menu, as Figure 6 shows. Under "General" select "Basic" and change the Name of your virtual machine. Then, click OK.

Figure 6: Virtual machine settings. Steps to change a virtual machine’s name.

4. Cloning a Virtual Machine

6. Right-click on your imported virtual machine and click on the clone option. The Clone Virtual Machine window pops up.

7. Name the new cloned virtual machine, then select “Generate new MAC addresses for all network adapters” from the MAC Address Policy drop-down menu and click Next, as Figure 7 shows.

Figure 7: Cloning a virtual machine.

8. Next, choose Full clone and click on the Clone button, as Figure 8 shows. The cloning process of the virtual machine begins execution.

Figure 8: Clone Virtual Machine window.

9.  After the cloning process finishes execution, the cloned virtual machine is ready and can be accessed from the leftmost side menu below the Tools tab.

5. Networking Modes

There are many available networking modes to use to attach the network adapters of a virtual machine.  The list of available networking modes can be seen by expanding the Attached to drop-down menu under the Network settings of a virtual machine, as Figure 9 shows. For your virtual environment, you will be working only with the NAT and internal network modes.

Figure 9: Different networking adapter modes.

NAT networking mode: the Network address translation (NAT) mode is used to translate a local IP address assigned to a network adapter in a virtual machine to one of your host network interface’s IP addresses. This mode is used as a private mode because your virtual machine can access the internet via your host network interface. However, external hosts cannot directly access the local network your virtual machine is attached to.

Internal Network: this mode is used to configure a private local network (LAN) that does not need external access (internet), just access (local) within the configured LAN. All network adapters attached to the same internal network are virtually connected to the same LAN.

Every virtual machine created from the provided .ova file provided is equipped with three network adapters, you can see this in the network settings of your created virtual machine, as Figure 10 shows. The three network adapters are attached as follows:

· Adapter1 is attached to NAT networking mode (external access)

· Adapter2 is attached to the internal network, Network1 (local access).

· Adapter3 is attached to the internal network, Network2 (local access).

Figure 10: Virtual machine's network adapter configuration.

Note: You can create more internal networks than the two already provided if needed.

6. Verification of Network Adapters

You can see the configuration of a virtual machine network adapter by using the diagnostic network tool ifconfig, as Figure 11 shows.

Figure 11:  Network adapters’ configuration.

As shown in Figure 11,  you can see that Adapter1 is mapped to interface enp0s3, Adapter2 to enp0s8, and adapter2 to enp0s9. Notice also that Adapter1 is assigned a local IP address 10.0.2.15/24 by VirtualBox by default, while Adapter2 and Adapter3 are not given any. It is your task to choose and assign a private network address to enable communications between network adapters attached to the same virtual LAN. You MUST choose an IP network address different from the already assigned 10.0.2.0/24 network.

Example: Adapter2a 10.0.3.1/24 and Adapter2b 10.0.3.2/24

7. Internal Network Configuration

You can use the graphical network interface (GUI) to bring up and assign an IP address to a network adapter. Alternatively, you could use the command-line interface (terminal) and ifconfig using the following command:

sudo ifconfig <replace with interface name> <IP address to be assigned> netmask <Netmask to be assigned> up

Figure 12 shows an example where Adapter 2 of both HostA and HostB are attached to the same internal network (Network1). Adapter1 of both hosts are by default attached to the NAT networking mode through the host network adapter to have external access to the internet.

Figure 12:  An example of a network setup using NAT and internal networking modes.