Installing Oracle Virtualbox

In a previous post, I gave some Career Advice for the New Oracle DBA. We talked about building an environment where you can test. This is the second part of that series and it will be more of a hands on guide where we will step through installing Oracle Virtualbox.

Virtualization for testing

I am going to focus on desktop virtualization, specifically those running on Microsoft Windows. Desktop virtualization is simple to get running and requires less maintenance so that you can concentrate on learning how to use a database. I have used Microsoft’s Hyper-V and VMWare’s Workstation in the past and they are great virtualization platforms. I switched to Oracle’s Virtualbox because, at the time,  creating shared disks for Oracle RAC was easier.

When you are testing and learning, one of the biggest concerns is “what if I do something wrong and I can’t fix it”? Well, sometimes breaking a system and having to work it out is the best education. You can learn a lot about the system and gain valuable knowledge when you are in this situation. But, it can also be very frustrating. If you are stuck and can’t get the database running, there is a risk that you spend too much time searching Oracle documentation or the internet for a solution or giving up all together.

All of the virtualization platforms give you the ability to take a “snapshot” of your machine that can be used as a fail-safe point. If you run into an issue and can’t repair it, or if you do something that you like and want to repeat it, you can easily “roll” the virtual machine back to the snapshot and try again.

Before we begin, I do have a warning. During the installation of the network interface, your network connectivity on your desktop or laptop will be briefly interrupted. If you are performing a remote task that is sensitive to network interruptions, you may want to wait to do the install.

Let’s get started

You will need a Windows machine with administrator access, with at least 8 gb of memory and 200 gb of free disk space.

The first step is to go to the Virtualbox website and download the latest version. Just click the big Download button.

This will take you to the download page, you can see the links for the Windows host download. There are two files that you will want to download: The Virtualbox installation and the extension pack. Download the Extension Pack first, it will go to your default download folder for your browser. Now, download the Virtualbox installation file.

After it downloads, you can go to the download folder and double click the program to begin the installation.

The installation is basic; you are taking the defaults throughout the installation. I will still include the screenshots for reference.

Click Next at the welcome screen

Allow the defaults and click Next

You can uncheck the creation of the shortcuts, but it is recommended that you keep the file associations

This is the step that can interrupt your network connectivity. Again, if you are running something that is sensitive to network connectivity outages, please wait to complete this step.  Once you are ready, click Yes to continue.

When everything is ready, click Install to begin the installation.

Windows will ask you to confirm that you want to let the application make changes to your machine. If you are ready, click Yes

Virtualbox has to install device drivers for the network. When prompted to install the driver, click Install.

After a few minutes, you have Virtualbox installed on your machine. But you still have a few steps to complete. Leave the checkbox to start Virtualbox checked and click Finish.

When Virtualbox starts, click File and Preferences.

Select Extensions on the left. You will see that there are no extensions installed. Click the first icon to the right to select the extensions file that was already downloaded.

This opens the download folder and you can see the extension pack. Select it and click Open.

The programs asks you to verify that you want to install the pack, click Install.

You are shown the license agreement. Read and accept it (if you agree with the terms)

Again, Windows asks if it is ok to let the application make changes to the host machine. Click Yes to accept.

The extension pack in now installed and you are ready to use Virtualbox!

A very simple install that opens up a lot of testing and learning opportunities for you!

The next post in the series will go over how to create your first virtual machine!