Sun's VirtualBox allows for additional operating systems to be put on a host operating system. Being a Network Administrator and IT Director, I'm constantly programming and working with operating systems and using 'dummy' setups to work with operating systems, build databases, analyze queries, and experiment with systems. VirtualBox can be used to load other operating systems and even databases for programmers or administrators. VirtualBox can also be used for production computers to save on the purchase of additional hardware. With virtualization, power savings can actually be seen because of the need for less hardware.
In this tutorial, we have set up Windows 2008 Server on VirtualBox and will be installing SQL Server 2008.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is one of the world's most powerful server software applications available. Microsoft Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 are ideal for storing large amounts of data and can be used for testing (Database Analysts) or as a production server deployed in an organization. Teamed with VirtualBox, IT personnel or anyone wanting to learn Server 2008 or Microsoft's SQL have an excellent way to do so.
When considering loading Microsoft Server 2008, the host computer should have multiple processors, plenty of RAM and adequate hard drive space. These resources are the key to stability and performance. During this test and tutorial, the test computer is a dual core AMD processor laptop with 3 GB of memory and a 250 GB hard drive running Windows Vista. The installation on this computer is for writing queries and for testing purposes prior to deploying any queries or data changes to a production computer. Installation would typically be on another Windows Server with multiple processors, adequate RAM and hard drive space. (See VirtualBox Licensing.)
With any server software, the resources (CPU, Memory and Hard drive) are critical to the direct performance of the computers. Because of a minimum processor requirement of 1 Ghz, 512 MB of RAM, one has to realize, this is the minimum requirements. Recommended requirements are higher at 2 Ghz and 2 GB of RAM. While the minimum gives good performance, the more memory and speed, the better the performance.
Continue on to page 2 of this article for more details on how to set up SQL Server 2008 in VirtualBox.