The lesson addresses these topics:
- What is Virtualization?
- VirtualBox
- Ubuntu
Advanced Organizer
During the lesson, look for answers to the following questions
- What is virtualization, and what are its benefits?
- What does a hypervisor do?
- How is proprietary licensing a challenge with virtualization?
- What is VirtualBox?
- Which guest operating systems will work with VirtualBox?
- What does the african term “ubuntu” mean?
- What is an LTS release, and why might a tech manager care?
- How might a school leverage Ubuntu for older hardware?
- What determines if a computer can boot Ubuntu from a flash drive?
- Does Ubuntu work with social networking services, like Facebook and Twitter?
Walk-through
1. Watch A Simple Explanation of Virtualization (Youtube, 4:33)
Virtualization allows us to run one or more “virtual machines” (VM, or guests) inside a physical (host) computer. A hypervisor application abstracts the physical resources (RAM, disk space, CPU time) of the host computer so they can be provided to each guest in whatever increments are desired. The guest computer can be controlled just as though it were a separate physical computer, however users have new and amazing options. VMs can be “snapshotted”, saving a single file inside the host that encompasses the entire VM in its current state. VMs can be cloned, so that multiple versions of a base installation are created.
2. Read the following sections of Wikipedia’s Virtualization:
- Hardware Virtualization
- Snapshotting
- Challenges
- Desktop Virtualization
For our activity in this lesson, we will be using the F/OSS VirtualBox to practice hardware virtualization. We will run a Linux virtual machine inside whatever host operating system you choose.
Linux is singularly adept with virtualization. In fact, with the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), the Linux kernel itself can be the hypervisor for hardware virtualization. Additionally, the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer through a terminal server – one form of Desktop Virtualization. LTSP is baked into the Edubuntu distribution and is easy to set up.
3. Read Virtualbox (Wikipedia) sections:
- History
- Licensing
- Device Virtualization
VirtualBox allows us to run VM’s on nearly any computer. The core package is F/OSS released under GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). A separate “VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox extension pack” under a proprietary Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL), which permits use of the software for personal use, “any use in an academic institution”, or evaluation, free of charge. Recall from 8 Paths of OSS for Schools that Linux as a VM and Linux hosting a Windows VM were two strategies for providing F/OSS in schools. VirtualBox can provide a simple, powerful virtualization solution for both strategies.
4. Read Ubuntu OS (Wikipedia), sections:
- Introduction
- Features
- History and development process
- System Requirements
- Installation
- Releases
- Variants
- Installed Base
- Publicized large-scale deployments
- Vendor Support
We’ll be using the Ubuntu desktop operating system to practice virtualization. I’ve selected this OS for several reasons, not the least of which is that I’m most familiar with it. Aside from familiarity, Ubuntu has grown to the one of the most popular and widely known Linux distributions, and its wider familiarity would be an asset for any school-based deployment plan. Canonical, the company behind its development, has a range of support options available and is a major player in OpenStack cloud computing – which means that skills and knowledge developed by Ubuntu power-users can be useful in infrastructure management (servers and networks). Additionally, the Edubuntu variant is clearly aimed at K-16 education, and makes creating a thin-client LTSP lab easy. Finally, the Ubuntu Philosophy is very compatible with a F/OSS environment, while remaining business-friendly. Ubuntu is expanding into tablets, phones, and TVs; while it is already popular on servers and desktops.
5. Watch Ubuntu 13.04 Features Overview (Youtube, 3:26)
This video shows some of the new features of Ubuntu’s latest release, at the same time demonstrating many of the long-standing features.
6. Browse Getting Started with Ubuntu (PDF)
This excellent resource is an open source volunteer effort to create and maintain quality documentation for Ubuntu (and its derivatives). If you’re brand-new to Ubuntu, this is a great resource. Note on the project’s about page, that there are lots of roles for volunteers if you’d like to get involved. As is typical, only one such role is “programmer” – you can contribute from a variety of other skill sets.
Activity
Ubuntu in VirtualBox
Follow the VirtualBox Lab instructions (ODF). You will be installing VirtualBox on your own computer, then importing an Ubuntu LTS Virtual Machine that includes software we will use in future lessons. You will then create your own virtual machine with Edubuntu.
Assignments
- Generalizing the VirtualBox Lab you just completed, install a new Linux distribution of your choice as a VM (select the 32-bit version to avoid complications). Suggestions include Linux Mint, Fedora, and Kubuntu, though you are welcome to try others. (Pinguy, Bodhi, or anything you wish). Spend at least 30 minutes exploring the included software. Try the file manager, the web browser, and the applications manager to see how they compare with other operating systems.
- Blog Post #8: Post about your experience: Ah-ha moments, frustrations, useful resources you located and used, your overall experience with both VirtualBox and the Linux distribution you chose.
Additional Material
- Linux Kernel-Based Virtual Machine – Main page (HTML)
- The Ubuntu “family tree” – showing the many forks of Ubuntu, which is itself a fork of Debian
