Oracle

Using Oracle VM VirtualBox Templates

by Yuli Vasiliev

Using Oracle VM VirtualBox Templates

By Yuli Vasiliev

Are you seeking for a quick way to evaluate Oracle software? If so, why don’t you try Oracle VM VirtualBox templates providing a good way to familiarize yourself with new software stacks running within a virtual machine? Oracle VM VirtualBox templates represent pre-installed and pre-configured software images, which you can import into Oracle VM VirtualBox. Apart from eliminating the installation and configuration costs, using those templates allows you to utilize your computer resources much more efficiently, providing the ability to have several virtual machines running simultaneously on a single physical server, while each in an isolated environment.

Before you can start using Oracle VM VirtualBox templates, you need to have Oracle VirtualBox installed on your computer. You can download the distribution for your operating system from the Download VirtualBox page at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Currently, you can run it on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris.

Once you have Oracle VirtualBox installed in your system, you can import Oracle VM VirtualBox templates into it, which are available for download from the Pre-Built Developer VMs (for Oracle VM VirtualBox) page. It is important to note that the templates you can download from this page are for testing purposes only and, therefore, are not supposed to be used in production environments, nevertheless containing a fully configured, ready-to-use software stack.

The list of software components you can test with Oracle VM VirtualBox templates includes operating systems, Oracle Fusion Middleware, databases, development environments, virtualization and management applications. For example, the Oracle Solaris 11.2 Admin VM template contains a default desktop installation of Oracle Solaris 11.2. As mentioned, the entire list of templates available for download you can find on the Pre-Built Developer VMs (for Oracle VM VirtualBox) page. By following the link Downloads and Instructions on the right of a template’s name, you can get to the detailed instructions on downloading and importing the VirtualBox image of your interest. Here, you can also find the requirements your system must meet so that you can install and use the template.

The installation package for a template is available in the form of an OVA file that you can import into your VirtualBox with the Appliance Import Wizard, which can be launched with the File > Import Appliance menu. After completion of the import process, you should see the VM’s icon in the left pane of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window.

Before the first launch of the VM, you might want to view and change, if necessary, its settings. For that, select the VM’s icon in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager and click the Setting button on the panel at the top of the window. The settings dialog has a number of tabs. The screenshot below illustrates how you might set up the number of virtual CPUs in the VM:

After setting up the settings for the VM, you can launch it by double-clicking its icon. As a result, you will be able to evaluate the template’s software running within a virtual machine. The screenshot bellow illustrates Oracle Solaris operating system to be run within a VM rather than on the bare metal.

About the Author

Yuli Vasiliev is a software developer, freelance author, and consultant currently specializing in open source development, Java technologies, business intelligence (BI), databases, and service-oriented architecture (SOA). He is the author of Oracle Business Intelligence: The Condensed Guide to Analysis and Reporting (Packt, 2010) and PHP Oracle Web Development (Packt, 2007) as well as a series of other books on the Oracle technology.