Cuyamaca College Virtualization Project

WhatIsvirtualization?

Virtualizationisthe act of creating a virtual (rather than physical) version of something. This can include virtual computer hardware platforms, operating systems, storage devices, or networking devices. The below video provides a succinct 4.5 minute explanation of virtualization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPkEqOoQSu4 (Links to an external site.)

Minimize Video

Why does virtualization matter to Information Systems Design?

Virtualization has many benefits, including security, ease of management, and efficiency. There are notable cost and energy savings, as well, since the total number of devices needed are less than single-server : single-function architectures.

Information systems design specifically can benefit from it, as information systems are frequently designed or intended to be deployed across an array of operating systems and hardware. This creates a need for a diverse set of systems to test on, to ensure that the systems/programs function as intended on their intended platforms. Additionally, it may be needed to test performance under different hardware resource allotments (e.g. 8gb of RAM vs 16gb of RAM). You could test the functionality of 10 different operating systems each with 10 different resource amounts, all from a single machine. Mobile app developers can virtualize the previous five years of Android and iOS devices to test out functionality and stability across their target market.

Required:

VirtualBox from Oracle for your OS may be downloaded at:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (Links to an external site.)

Under “VirtualBox 6.x.x platform packages” select whichever option applies to your device – Windows, OS X, Linux, Solaris, etc.

VMWare and Parallels may also be used, if you happen to have a license. Bootcamp does not count, as that’s dual-booting as opposed to virtualization.

Any operating system to virtualize. Fedora is a free/open-source option, sponsored by RedHat (acquired by IBM for ~34 billion), and is based on RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) which is the leading enterprise Linux distribution. It may be downloaded at:

https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/ (Links to an external site.)

Any OS will satisfy this assignment (no LiveCDs please). Students with an interest in Cyber Security may want to consider downloading Kali Linux

https://www.kali.org/downloads/ (Links to an external site.)

(torrent software required) to play around with some of the tools and become familiar with that platform.

About 20gb of free space. VirtualBox is only 300MB or so, but the virtual machines you create can need from 10 GB (Fedora) to 20 GB (Windows 10) of disk space.

Download and use Oracle’s Virtualbox or a similar virtual machine manager to create a virtual machine (VM) of a different operating system than your host machine.VirtualBox runs on Windows and OSX devices. If you do not have access to one of these devices, work with a teammate or classmate to complete this assignment. If that is not feasible, email the instructor to work out an alternative.

Virtualbox is a very common virtualization tool for small-scale virtualization. Googling “How to install [Operation system] on Virtualbox (OSX / Windows)” will return a wealth of guides/videos for your exact install composition.

If you get stuck, try looking up a guide to see if you’re able to figure it out prior to emailing for assistance. Learning how to troubleshoot and learn independently is an important skill too.

Assignment:

To submit this assignment, create a word doc and include the desired proofs listed below, follow the several provided steps and answer multiple questions about them, and then upload it into Canvas.

A cover page is not necessary, but be sure that the file name of the submission reflects your name, and the assignment it is for.

Screen Shots:

• Screen shot of your VM’s resource configurations (memory, processor, storage) from within Virtual Box (the application, not the VM you created). VM name must include your initials as proof-of-work. (e.g. Fedora MIS 406 JDD)If you already have a VM you’ve created for a different class, create a different OS VM just to further increase your experience breadth.
• Screen shot of your host machine that shows your virtual machine successfully running.The screenshot is FROM the host machine showing the the virtual machine running inside of the virtualization software you’re employing

Steps & Questions:

Once your VM is turned on and functioning:

1. From VirtualBox, click Machine>Take Snapshot and provide a name/description and click “OK”The snapshot name and a short description can help you identify why a snapshot was made, when, and why. Including this information is a common recommended practice, as it makes managing multiple snapshots easier

1. On the desktop of your VM, create a file, folder, or any other artifact that is visible on the desktopIf you’re doing a purely CLI based VM, create a textfile in a directory you’re able to access

1. Power off / Shut down your VM
2. In VirtualBox in your “Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager” select your VM in the left column, and click the icon with three squares and three rectangles.
3. Click Snapshots
4. Select the Snapshot you took in step c) and click “Restore”
5. Power your VM on
6. Look for the file created in step b)

Answer the following questions in your doc that you submit

• Express what the effect was of taking a snapshot before a change, and restoring to a snapshot after a change was made. Your answer should explain why the file created in step b) is gone, and what the effect of restoring to a snapshot from before you created the file was (3-6 sentences expected)

• How might a software developer use this functionality when developing or testing a new system? (3-6 sentences expected)

How might a system admin use this functionality in the course of their job when applying a new update, firmware, or feature deployment to a virtualized server or environment? (2-4 sentences expected)