Ubuntu Virtual Machine

For development purposes we recommend tha you use for this class an ubuntu virtual machine that you set up with the help of virtualbox.

Only after you have successfully used ubuntu in a virtual machine you will be allowed to use virtual machine son clouds.

A “cloud drivers license test” will be conducted to let you gain access to the cloud infrastructure. We will announce this test. Before you have not passed the test, you will not be able to use the clouds. Furthermore, you do not have to ask us for join requests before you have not passed the test. Please be patient. Only students enrolled in the class can get access to the cloud.

Creation

First you will need to install virtualbox. It is easy to install and details can be found at

After you have installed virtualbox you also need to use an image. For this class we will be using ubuntu Desktop 16.04 which you can find at:

Please note the recommended requirements that also apply to a virtual machine:

  • 2 GHz dual core processor or better
  • 2 GB system memory
  • 25 GB of free hard drive space

A video to showcase such an install is available at:

Warning

If you specify your machien too small you will not be able to install the development environment. Gregor used on his machine 8gb of RAM and 20GB diskspace.

Please let us know the smalest configuration that works for you and share this in Piaza. Only update if yours is smaller and works than a previous post. If not do not post.

Guest additions

The virtual guest additions allow you to easily do the following tasks:

  • Resize the windows of the vm
  • Copy and paste content between the Guest operating system and the host operating system windows.

This way you can use many native programs on you host and copy contents easily into for example a terminal or an editor that you run in the Vm.

A video is located at

Note

Please reboot the machine after installation and configuration.

On OSZ you can once you have enabled bidirectional copying in the Device tab with

OSX -> Vbox:
command c -> shift CONTRL v
Vbox to OSX:
shift CONTRL v -> shift CONTRL v

On Windows the key combination is naturally different. Please consult your windows manual.

Development Configuration

The documentation on how to configure the virtual machine and install many useful programs is posted at:

You simply have to execute the following commands in the terminal of the virtual machine. In order to eliminate confusion with other terminals, we use the prefix vm> $ to indicate any command that is to be started on the virtual machine. Otherwise it is clear from the context:

vm>$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloudmesh/ansible-cloudmesh-ubuntu-xenial/master/bootstrap.sh
vm>$ bash bootstrap.sh

A video showcasing this install is available:

A video showcasing the upload to gitlab from within the vm using commandline tools

Homework Virtualbox

  1. Install ubuntu desktop on your computer with guest additions.
  2. Make sure you know how to paste and copy between your host and guest operating system
  3. Install the programs defined by the development configuration