Introduction
 Say, what do
you know about ... virtualization? For many developers,
"virtualization" is an intimidating term -- one might even call
it spooky (especially if one were writing a newsletter intro just
before Halloween!).
Virtualization is a fancy term for running one or more operating systems
as "guests" on your computer, sharing the same hardware as the
main ("host") operating system. Once limited to high-end
enterprise servers, the technology to support speedy virtualization is now
built into any computer that's more powerful than a cheap netbook.
In this issue, Louis -- our latest team member -- shows you how to set
up your own virtual Linux server on your computer for free, using Sun's
VirtualBox. So you can take the money you save and spend it on Halloween
candy!
Stop wasting hours trying to fix CSS code using the
old, outdated answers you find via Google. Our 101 tested and
proven CSS solutions are all you need. Grab four free
sample
chapters
Summary
Think Outside the Box with VirtualBox
Sun's VirtualBox is ideal for
testing different desktop environments (for example, browser testing), but
I've discovered it's also great for running a test server
environment. Instead of setting up Apache, PHP, and MySQL right on your
desktop machine, you can place them in a virtual Linux server. That way
there's no interference with your desktop, and you can ensure that your
development environment is as close as possible to your eventual
deployment environment.
With a virtual Linux server running inside your desktop operating
system, you can SSH into it, upload files to it, load web pages from it --
whatever you'd do with a real live server. And all the software you need is
free and simple to configure. Let's make a start!
Setting Up Shop
The first step is to download the VirtualBox
client. Pick the version appropriate for your host system.
You'll also want to grab a disk image for your Linux server. For this
tutorial, I'll be using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu server
9.04, but feel free to use whatever distribution you're more
comfortable with. Of course, you might need to adapt some of the
instructions to your particular setup.
We could also use a desktop build, but since we're only interested in
the server functionality, it's best to stick with a server build: we'll
save on memory because no graphical desktop interface is loaded.
Installing the Ubuntu Server
Start up VirtualBox and click New for a new virtual machine. Step
through the wizard, making sure to choose the 64-bit version of Ubuntu (if
that's the disk image you downloaded). I used the defaults for every other
option: RAM, disk size, disk type, and so on.
Now select your new VM and click Start. VirtualBox will ask you
how to install the OS on your virtual machine. Since we downloaded an
.iso, choose CD/DVD-ROM device from the Media Type menu and
Image File from the Media Source menu, selecting your Ubuntu
Server iso. As the system boots, you'll be presented with Ubuntu's
installer. Choose your language, and then select Install Ubuntu
Server.
Follow the on-screen instructions to install the server. Notice that
when you come to partitioning your hard disk, the virtual machine only
"sees" the disk image you created before. Feel free to use the
whole disk. Later on in the process, the installer will prompt you to
install additional software. For our purposes, we'll install the LAMP
server and OpenSSH server packages. This way we have everything we need
for a fully functional web server out of the box.
When it comes time to reboot your new server, you can "eject"
the installation CD by choosing Devices>Unmount CD/DVD-ROM from
the VirtualBox menu.
Log into your new system with the username and password you chose during
installation. It's also a good idea to upgrade your system with:
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
Accessing the Virtual Server from the Host System
Now that our server is up and running, we want to be able to access it
from our host system. We'll set it up so we can SSH to it, transfer files
to it via SFTP, and make HTTP requests to Apache.
To do all this we need to edit the xml configuration file for our
virtual machine:
-
On a Mac, the file is found at
~/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/<machine name>/<machine
name>.xml
-
On Windows, it's inside the
.VirtualBox/Machines
subdirectory in your home folder.
So for my machine, which I've called "Ubuntu Server," I'm
editing Machines/Ubuntu Server/Ubuntu Server.xml
At the top of the file you should see an
<ExternalData> tag. Inside that tag, copy in the
following tags:
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/ssh/HostPort"
value="2222"/>
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/ssh/GuestPort"
value="22"/>
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/ssh/Protocol"
value="TCP"/>
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/apache/HostPort"
value="8888"/>
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/apache/GuestPort"
value="80"/>
<ExtraDataItem
name="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/
Config/apache/Protocol"
value="TCP"/>
(Note: there should be no line breaks in the "name" attribute;
I've put them in purely for formatting here.)
These lines configure VirtualBox to forward requests to specific ports
on the host system onto other specified ports on the guest system. For
SSH, we're forwarding port 2222 of the host system to port 22 of the guest
system (where OpenSSH is listening). The same principle applies to the
Apache configuration items, with port 8888 on the host mapping to port 80
on the guest.
With that done, save the xml file and restart your virtual machine.
If the machine fails to start, it's likely to be because of a network
interface configuration problem. In the lines we added, we specified
pcnet as the network interface. To ensure that's what your
virtual machine is using, right-click on it in the main VirtualBox window
and click Settings. In the Network tab, select one of the
PCnet adapters from the Adapter Type drop-down. You should be able
to restart your virtual machine with no problems now.
Now if you open a browser on your host system and point it to
http://localhost:8888/ you should see the default Apache
"It works!" page. Great!
Similarly, to SSH into your new server, SSH to port 2222 on localhost
with the username you set during the Ubuntu server installation. (If
you're on Windows, you can use the PuTTY SSH
client to perform the same function):
ssh -l <username> -p 2222 localhost
You'll receive the usual "unknown host" security warning; type
"yes" to connect and you'll be prompted for your password. Upon
entering it, you should be logged in to your server! Feel free to look
around and make yourself at home.
While we're still logged in, let's do one more task: by default the
Apache web root in Ubuntu Server is /var/www/, which your
default user won't have write permissions for. Let's change that, so you
can upload files to your web root with SFTP. Enter this command and hit
return:
sudo chown <username> /var/www
To connect to your server with FTP, no extra configuration is necessary.
OpenSSH gives you "free" FTP via the SFTP (SSH FTP) protocol.
Most clients (FileZilla, for
example) support it; just choose SFTP as the protocol, localhost as the
server with port 2222, and your Ubuntu username and password. Choose
/var/www/ as the default directory, and you should be able to
transfer files to and from your server.
Let's test that everything is working: create a php file named
info.php containing the usual phpinfo call:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Use your FTP client to upload that file to your server's
/var/www/ folder. Now point your browser to
http://localhost:8888/info.php, and you'll see the PHP info
page. The System row at the top of the table will tell
you PHP is running on Ubuntu.
There you have it! You can test server configurations, brush up on your
sysadmin skills, and develop your web sites and applications in a full
Linux server environment running inside your usual desktop.
With
Adobe® Flex® BuilderTM 3 software, you can quickly
create engaging applications, and consistently deliver highly interactive
experiences to your clients. Flex Builder 3 is an Eclipse®
based development tool, enabling intelligent code hinting, interactive
step-through debugging, and visual design of user interface layout,
appearance, and behavior. So providing a compelling user experience
is simple, fast, and easy -- every single time. Download Flex Builder 3 to expand your
capabilities for creating rich Internet applications
(RIAs).
See you next week for another not-so-spooky issue of the Tech
Times!
Kevin Yank
techtimes@sitepoint.com
Editor, SitePoint Tech Times
|
Want
your Firefox extension to stand out from the crowd? Wish
extensions were as easy to style as web pages? In this article,
James
shows us how to give an extension that extra bit of flair by mixing
HTML
right into an XUL document.
