Installing an OS

[manchette]

Hi

i'm using opensuse 11.1 and virtualbox 3.0.6 , i just created a virtual machine in order to have a test area , i have several questions :

- Is default size of the hard disk (8 Gb) enough to install the opensuse OS in a confortable way ?

- how much ram shall i give to this machine for it to work fluently ? (my host pc is a Pentium 4 and has 4Gb or Ram).

- I usually run the OS from its iso image and then install it from the desktop.
After the install is done i then erase the iso image from virtual box, so that the OS boots on the virtual hard disk.

Is this the best/usual way to install an OS in vbox ?

Thanks

[Sasquatch]

Default size depends on how much you're going to install on it. On my Ubuntu Host, I currently use 3,5 GB. Plenty of space left if it would be an 8 GB partition. I do however have a separate /home partition, but that only uses 1,4 GB.

RAM, since you have 4 GB, give it 1 GB, or how much you feel comfortable with. As long as it's not more than half the total RAM, and exceeds the available RAM (giving it 1 GB would be impossible if you already use 3).

Installation is perfect, that makes sure the VM doesn't boot from the ISO again. However, you can just unmount it from the VM.

[manchette]

THanks


About the size of the hard disk : i'm using 8 Gb because it's default, i 'd like to install a regular opensuse 11.1 which i don't know how much space it really needs to be comfortable.
I guess i'll try like that to see how it reacts.
Is evolving size of the disk solving this problem (if any need of more storage space).

Is the virtualized OS supposed to react as a real one ? (but a bit slower) : for example i'd like to install a jackrabbit apache http web server to try it, i guess if it's ok on the virtual machine i can have it on my host os without problems.

[Sasquatch]

You can create a 15 GB partition and allocate only 8 GB for the root partition. If you run out of space, you can always increase it's size with (g)parted without issues. If you create a small VDI and come short of space, you have to create a new VDI and clone the install to the new VDI, as listed in the VirtualBox FAQ. You can also create an additional VDI and store, for example, /usr on it. There are howto's on the web that show you how to do that.

As for the OS reaction to real hardware, it doesn't know it's in a virtual environment, so it behaves just the same. I ran a webserver on several VMs before without issues. My school project group ran several webservers on Xen and no issues either.

[manchette]

Hi

this cloning possibility is interesting in case of more storage needed



i 'm now trying to install a server in debian lenny : http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-serve ... ispconfig2

i have a problem at #6 Configure The Network (http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-serve ... config2-p3)

when i use the example given (vi /etc/network/interfaces) : it seems my virtualized debian now do not work anymore :

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1

Using the above settings is not working : When i update apt-get it's not working . Something is certainly wrong (above in bold) : is it the ip address that's different in virtualbox ?
How can i fix this please ?

Thanks

[Sasquatch]

If you use NAT, then it won't do you much good, you need DHCP, not static for it. If you use bridged, then it will be ok, except for one minor detail: DNS. You don't have a DNS entry in the file, meaning you need to manually enter one in /etc/resolv.conf (create the file if it doesn't exist).

[manchette]

Hi,
the tutorial says i need static ip for a server, so i guess i'm supposed to use bridge in virtualbox (?)
How do i set up a "bridge" for my debian machine ?

What shall i had as for DNS ? 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. as for openDNS ? (i'm already using openDns on the host pc)

[Sasquatch]

Networking is already explained in the manual, and countless of times here on the forums. Checking the VM settings will give you some info too. It all makes perfect sense.

DNS is what you want to use. It doesn't matter if you use your router, ISP or some shady DNS service on the other side of the globe, as long as it resolves names to IP addresses.

[Bulgroz]

Hi Manchette,

I have just created an 8 GB vdi for opensuse 11.2 M7 (KDE 4.3.1), which I installed from the downloaded DVD iso file.
I allocated 2 GB for RAM + 128 MB for Video and it works very fluently (but my proc is an i7 920...)
The only problem is this ugly brown-green theme that I have had to change !
I have 5.5 GB for / (3.9 GB is occupied by the default install for a KDE desktop), 512 MB for /home (119 MB occupied) and 2 GB for swap.
"top" told me that 800 MB of RAM were in use (0 for swap) whith only two consoles but since then the total has increased to almost 1.2 GB though I only launched the application to change the them (and closed it!)...

[manchette]

hi

i understand os M7 works great

i used the bridge option but it still seems apt-get update is not working despite /etc/resolv.conf has domain/search as www.opendns.com and nameserver as said above .

[Sasquatch]

manchette, use NAT and DHCP and see how that goes. If it works, great, that's one thing down. After that, go back to bridged and try to ping a website by IP address and DNS name. Try a different DNS server (like the one of your ISP) and see how that goes. I know that OpenDNS sometimes fails to resolve some websites, it's not perfect.

[manchette]

hi

Nat worked, i then put bridge again and ping then worked , cool