Virtualbox is a free virtualization software tool that allows you to create and run multiple operating systems on your computer. This can be very useful if you want to test out a new operating system, or if you are trying to run an application that doesn’t support your current OS.
Virtualbox is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This tutorial will show you how to set up a virtual web server in Virtualbox using Ubuntu Linux 16.04 as the base image.
Setting Up A Virtual Web Server With Virtualbox
In this tutorial, we will show you how to set up a virtual web server with Virtualbox.
VirtualBox is a free and open-source virtualization software that allows you to create and run multiple operating systems on the same computer. It is an easy-to-use tool that can help you run Windows, Linux, and BSD operating systems on your computer without rebooting.
A virtual web server is a virtual machine that provides access to the Internet. When you set up a virtual web server, it looks like there is a website running on your computer, but in reality, it runs on top of another operating system. For example, if you want to run a WordPress site on your local computer and then access it using a browser, then VirtualBox is one way to do that.
VirtualBox is a powerful tool for running multiple operating systems on a single computer. If you’re using Windows or Mac OS X, you can set up a virtual machine to run Linux, and use it as a web server. This tutorial will show you how to set up a virtual server with VirtualBox, and how to access it from the host machine.
Accessing The Virtual Server From The Host Machine
First, we need to configure the virtual server so that we can access it from the host machine. To do this, we must first install some software on your host machine:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
In this tutorial I will show you how to setup a virtual web server with Virtualbox. The target audience is people who want to learn more about setting up a web server and those interested in using virtual machines.
This tutorial assumes that you have at least basic knowledge of Unix/Linux command line tools, VirtualBox and some basic networking concepts. It also assumes that you have already installed VirtualBox on your machine.
Note: This tutorial will work for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
If you are looking for a more detailed guide about how to use VirtualBox with Ubuntu Linux, check out my previous blog post: How To Setup A Linux Server With Vagrant And VirtualBox (Part 1).
The first step is to install VirtualBox and create a virtual machine. The next step is to install Ubuntu Server in the virtual machine. You can use any version of Ubuntu, but I prefer 16.04 LTS because it will be supported until 2021.
Open VirtualBox and click on New to create a new virtual machine. In the Name field, enter your server’s name (e.g. “web” or “proftpd”). In the Type field, select Linux and then Ubuntu (64-bit). Click Next to continue:
On the next screen, select Standard VM and click Next:
On the Memory page, choose how much memory you want to allocate to this VM and click Next:
On the Hard Disk page, select Create a virtual hard disk now and click Create:
On the Hard Disk Type page choose VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as your type and click Next:
On the Storage on Physical Hard Disk page select Dynamically allocated for both options (Do not edit) then click Create:
The last step is creating a virtual disk with 10GB of space for our web server files:
First, you will need to download and install VirtualBox.
Once you have VirtualBox installed, create a new virtual machine. To do this, click on the New button at the top of the VirtualBox window.
This will open a wizard that will guide you through creating your new virtual machine. Here are some tips:
Give your virtual machine a name. This will help you identify it later when you are using VirtualBox. I usually use hostname-version-OS for my virtual machines, but feel free to choose whatever works best for you.
Choose Linux as your operating system type (unless you want to run something else like Windows or OS X). Then choose Ubuntu Server as your version of Linux and click Next.
If prompted for memory size, choose how much RAM (or memory) you want to allocate to this virtual machine and click Next again. If not prompted for memory size and instead given an option to choose how much disk space this VM should use, choose at least 20GB or more; otherwise there won’t be enough room to install all the software we need later on!
Access web server on VM from host
Find the IP address of your virtual machine. You can do this by clicking on the “settings” button on the top right corner, then “Network”, and then looking at the “Attached to” field next to your virtual machine.
In your browser, go to http://<IP Address>:8082 (for example: http://192.168.1.11:8082). This should open up the login screen for your Apache2 web server.
How to create a virtual server
First, open up VirtualBox and click on the “New” button in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+N). A wizard will appear which will guide you through creating a new virtual machine:
Next, select “Linux” as your operating system type and enter whatever name you want for your virtual machine (it doesn’t matter much). Click Continue when ready:
Next, select how much RAM you want to allocate to this machine (I recommend at least 512MB). Then click Continue when ready:
Select how many hard disks will be used by this machine (I recommend at least one disk), then click Continue
Access Web Server on VM from Host
If you want to access your web server from the host operating system, you can use VirtualBox’s NAT feature. With NAT enabled, VirtualBox will modify outgoing packets and change their source address to that of the host operating system. This way all network traffic sent by the VM will appear to come from your computer.
1. Open VirtualBox and go to File > Preferences > Network
2. Select “Enable Network Adapter” and click on “Adapter 1” (or whichever adapter is used by your VM). Then select “Network Address Translation” from the dropdown menu next to it, and choose “Host Only” under “Attached To:”
3. If you want to access the web server from outside your local network (i.e., if you want people to be able to access your website using an external IP address), check “Enable Host-Only Networks” as well
You can access your web server on the VM from your host machine using SSH or other remote access methods.
Below is a simple guide on how to create a virtual server in VirtualBox.
You can also access your Linux server directly from the host OS using SSH or other remote access methods.
Note: This guide assumes that you have already installed VirtualBox and have some familiarity with it.
How to access a web server on vm from host
Step 1: Open the hypervisor’s console window and launch the virtual machine.
Step 2: Use a web browser to connect to the IP address of the virtual machine.
This page provides instructions for installing Apache on Linux.
This page provides instructions for installing Apache on Linux.
This is the Apache HTTP server, the most widely used web server on the Internet. This guide will help you get started with Apache quickly and easily. If you’re not familiar with how to use a command line terminal or install software on your system, please read our Installation Guide first.
If you are planning to run multiple websites using virtual hostnames, check out our Virtual Hosts Guide.