Objective:
Installing CentOS as a VM within VirtualBox on my Windows7 machine
Q&A:
Q: What selection within VirtualBox for choosing CenotOS?
A: For CentOs choose Operating System: Linux and Version: Red Hat.
Q: How much memory to allocate? FYI: My laptop has 8GB or RAM as I forecast using it for VM’s.
A:
Q: How much hard-drive space to allocate?
A: According to a post, Next we have the hard drive, which I generally keep small, around 8gb for CentOs
Q: What about network settings within the VM?
A: One setting I recommend changing right away is the network. By default, VirtualBox uses a NAT network type. I like to use the bridge adapter network, because it will make the virtual machine act more like a computer on the network. With a bridged network the virtual machine will actually contact the router through your computer’s network card and obtain a new IP address. This makes accessing the machine services, like httpd, extremely easy.
Q: What to select for installing the O/S? I have a Win7 laptop that is 64-bit with 8GB RAM.
A: Looks like CentOS 6.2 for X86-64 is available.
Ref material:
http://www.potstuck.com/2010/05/05/how-to-setup-centos-in-virtualbox/
Specifics from CentOS: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Virtualization/VirtualBox/CentOSguest
Which version of LiveCD or LiveDVD: http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/products_id/1342
Release Notes that will be read before downloading ISO files for installation:
http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.2
What’s inside the X86-64 download:
What images are in this directory
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-netinstall.iso
This is the network install and rescue image.
This image is designed to be burned onto a CD. You then boot your computer off the CD
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-minimal.iso
The aim of this image is to install a very basic CentOS 6.2 system, with the minimum of packages needed to have a functional system.
Please burn this image onto a CD and boot your computer off it. A preselected set of packages will be installed on your system Everything else needs to be installed using yum.
Please read http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOSMinimalCD6.2 for more details about this image.
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-bin-DVD2.iso
These two dvd images contain the entire base distribution.
Please burn DVD1 onto a DVD and boot your computer off it.
A basic install will not need DVD2.
After the installation is complete, please run “yum update” in order to update your system.
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-LiveCD.iso
This is a CD live image of CentOS 6.2 designed to be burned onto a CD. You then boot your computer using that CD.
Please read http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOSLiveCD6.2 for more details about this image.
The disk can also be used to install CentOS 6.2 onto your computer.
CentOS-6.2-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso
This is a DVD live image of CentOS 6.2 designed to be burned onto a DVD. You then boot your computer using that DVD.
Please read http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOSLiveDVD6.2 for more details about this image.
The disk can also be used to install CentOS 6.2 onto your computer.
Remember that in order to be able to partition your disk you will need to run the GUI installer which in turns needs enough RAM. The same is true for the network setup step. The release notes ( http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.2 ) provide more details about these aspects.
Potential future gotchas:
-Kernel Panics — https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49007
Documentation to follow:
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Virtualization/VirtualBox/CentOSguest
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/
Installation Procedure I used: which went very smoothly
Note: It ended up installing a GUI version — I think there is a way of changing it to command line mode
RAM: 2048MB (I have a laptop with 8GB, so I figured 2GB was adequate)
Dynamically allocated virtual disk
Selected VDI for VirtualBox Disk Image (this was the default
Chose 8GB for the HDD – that was the default
Chose Linux, RedHat
Downloaded this file from the mirrors: CentOS-6.2-x86_64-LiveCD.iso
Used Bridged mode vs NAT within VB — this means that the IP is assigned by the main network’s DHCP server. This may not be ideal, but working so far.
xx