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- Dedicated Laptop to run virtual machine software.
- Dynamic DNS Service such as Dyn (most Internet providers will not provide a static IP Address).
Virtual Machine Options for Your Desktop Computer
On your own desktop, I personally like like the paid VMWare Workstation and on the Mac I prefer VMWare Fusion over Parallels. Free options though are just as good to start,
- VMware Workstation Player - there are click compare to see the key differences with the paid version, namely Snapshot capability.
- VMWare Fusion for Mac OS- similarly it's likely missing Snapshops.
- Sun/Oracle VirtualBox - don't recall limitations but it has historically been hard to use.
Setup Virtual Machine
Setup is straight-forward, but the key thing for running servers are,
- Ensure the VM has it's own unique IP
VMWare Fusion 11.5.0 on Mac OS X
- File New
- "Install from disc or image", Continue
- "Use another dics or disc image..." and select the downloaded iso file, Continue
- "Legacy BIOS", Continue
- "Customize Settings"
- Save As: "Tin Ubuntu 64-bit Server 22.04.3", Save
You will see a Window to specify specifics in Hardware,
Click "Network Adapter" and the default will be "Share with my Mac". This is problematic because we want to treat the VM as its own distinct server. Select instead under "Bridge Networking",
- Ethernet - only if connected and the button status shows green. For servers ethernet is more reliable and ideal.
- Wi-Fi - If you do not have Ethernet
- Autodetect - I don't like to use, but if you intend to carry our laptop around then pick this.
Click "Hard Disk (SCSI)" and change size from default 20.00 GB to 120 GB (Don't worry this does not take up your disk space). Click Apply, then Show All.
Click "Processors & Memory" and depending on your computer's available Memory lower up increase accordingly. Ubuntu recommends 1024 MB (aka 1GB), but for the purposes of learning 512 MB is sufficient.
Click "Show All" to go back and I like to disable sharing of unnecessary peripherals for efficiency,
- Bluetooth
- Printer
- Camera (remove)
Dynamic DNS
DynDNS.com - provides some free DNS. Also, I believe it allows you to use dynamic DNS with real Domains provided you purchase from them.
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