CNT4603 - 2009 Spring
Group Assignment 2
Journals Due Tuesday, June 7, at the beginning of class.

Assignment: Virtual Installation




Your objective is to set up a virtual server using VirtualBox on your Fedora 15 machine.

Your first step is to install VirtualBox on your machine. The open source version is available from the rpmfusion repository.

If you haven't "updated" your machine, it would be a good idea to do so and then reboot — the reason why is that VirtualBox works via a kernel module which must match your current kernel, and it's highly likely that the installation will be most happy with the latest kernel. (I recommend using "yum" rather than the graphical PackageKit since I find handling unexpected issues much easier from the yum command line.)

It's also a good idea to go ahead and install gcc, make, and kernel-devel on your Fedora 15 machine (and, of course, if you like Emacs, it would be a good time to install it also.)

Once you have installed VirtualBox, I suggest bringing up the client (from the terminal, you can just type "VirtualBox") and take a look around. There's an excellent manual available from the interface.

Now you need to pull down OpenIndiana (the open source version of the now-defunct OpenSolaris project). Please pull down the server version from Open Indiana. This will likely take a while, though you may get lucky and have it run in just a few minutes.

Once you have pulled it in, use the VirtualBox interface to create and start a new machine. When it asks for a DVD/CD, make sure that you tell it that you want to use an image file, and then point it at the ISO file that you pulled down. (Note that you do not need to make a physical CD/DVD).

Log in to your new OpenIndiana server and take a look around. See what looks similar in the process table to your Fedora machine, and what looks different. Then do the same for the filesystem and for the networking setup. Finally, run "dmesg" on both machines and look at the differences. Please note in your journal some of the differences (note that a screen capture or two might make a nice bit of adornment for your journal submission.)



A journal is due for this assignment. Make sure that you document in your journal all of the steps that you went through, following the guidelines on the class home page. Please share the workload so that all team members get experience with all aspects of the work. Don't forget to assign your work percentages to yourself and your other teammates in your journal. Please turn in a printed copy of this assignment at the beginning of class on Tuesday, June 7.