VirtualBox: An Alternative to VMware Workstation Pro

 

The idea of virtualization started during the mainframe days in the late 1960s and early 1970s. IBM was the first to apply virtual machines in the commercial environment. Different companies then followed and introduced their own version. In 1999, a company called VMware began selling their virtualization software called VMware Workstation. And in 2010, Oracle Corporation took over development of VirtualBox after purchasing Sun Microsystems. In today’s modern IT industry, both VMware and Oracle are market leaders in virtualization.


What is Virtualization?

Virtualization uses a software to create a virtualization layer over an actual hardware to abstract the host machine and its operating system from the guest machines. This layer allows a single computer’s resources (processors, memory, storage and more) to be distributed into multiple virtual instances of a computer system. These virtual instances are commonly called virtual machines (VMs). These virtual machines can run different operating systems or applications and can interact independently while just having a portion of the resources of a single host machine.

There are many reasons why virtualization is being utilized by companies and organizations. Some of the key benefits of virtualization includes resource optimization, easier management, maximizing uptime, minimal downtime, easy migration, and faster provisioning. With today’s enterprise level computer resources, without virtualization, server resources would be underused. By virtualizing the server resources, we can create multiple virtual machines which allows us to fully utilize the physical server’s computing capacity.


Hypervisors

The virtualization or abstraction layer on top of the host machine where you execute VMs is created with a hypervisor. A hypervisor is a program that creates and runs virtual machines. It is also sometimes called a virtual machine monitor (VMM). The hypervisor pools all the physical hardware resources and virtually shares its resources between existing guests or to new virtual machines. Hypervisors are split into two types: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 or bare metal hypervisor is installed directly on the host’s hardware which takes the place of a host operating system. This type of hypervisor is commonly seen in enterprise data center or virtual server scenarios. The type 2 or hosted hypervisor is installed on top of an existing operating system. The most common examples of type 2 hypervisors are VirtualBox and VMware.


What is VirtualBox?

VirtualBox is Oracle’s x86 and AMD64/Intel64 cross-platform virtualization software that can run multiple virtual machines on Mac OS, Windows, Linux, or Oracle Solaris systems. It is an open-source software and freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. It is a high-performance product with a lot of features that is suitable for enterprise as well as home use. Currently it supports multiple guest operating systems which includes Windows, DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2, and OpenBSD. VirtualBox is a community effort wherein everyone is encouraged to contribute. It is constantly being developed with frequent releases and Oracle guarantees that the product achieves professional quality criteria.   

These are the minimum requirements in order to run VirtualBox on your machine:

  • AN x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor.
  • Memory. Depending on the guest operating system but at least 512 MB of RAM plus the memory needed to run the host operating system. Always check the minimum RAM requirements of the guest operating system you intend to run since it will refuse to install if provided with less.
  • Hard Disk Space. An install of VirtualBox will only need about 30 MB of hard disk space. The virtual machines own hard disk storage will depend on the type of guest operating system.
  • Operating System. A supported host and guest operating system.  


VirtualBox Features

Portability

VirtualBox can run on both 32-bit and 64-bit host operating systems. It is very portable since it is functionally identical on different host OS. It also uses the same file and image formats on all of the host platforms. This means a virtual machine created on Windows can also be ran under Linux.

Importing and exporting virtual machines is also available in VirtualBox using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). OVF from different virtualization software can also be imported into VirtualBox. This functionality is even extended into exporting and importing VMs into the cloud for users of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Guest Additions

VirtualBox comes with Guest Additions to improve guest operating systems performance and integration and communication with the host machine. Guest additions are provided as an image file and can be found in the installation directory of VirtualBox. This image file is usually installed into a virtual machine after the guest OS is installed. Once installed, it provides a lot of features which includes mouse pointer integration, shared folders, better video support, seamless windows, shared clipboard, time synchronization and automated logins.

Hardware Support

VirtualBox offers different hardware support, one of them is guest multiprocessing which allows VirtualBox to provide up to 32 virtual CPUs to each VM regardless of how many CPU cores the host have. VirtualBox also provides USB device support which means that you can easily connect USB devices to virtual machines without installing drivers on the host. The other hardware support includes full ACPI support, multiscreen resolutions, built-in iSCSI support and PXE network boot.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a saved state of a virtual machine at a specific point in time. Snapshots are usually used for backup and recovery. With VirtualBox you can save multiple snapshots of your virtual machine as long as there is enough disk space on the host machine.  

Remote Machine Display

VirtualBox comes with an extension interface called VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE) which allows high-performance remote access. VirtualBox is able to remotely display virtual machines, which means users are able to run a virtual machine in one host computer and then have it displayed on a second computer. Aside from having support to Windows’ Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), it also comes with a full client USB support and an extensible RDP authentication.


What is VMware Workstation Pro?

VMware Workstation Pro is VMware’s 64-bit hosted hypervisor that has a lot of virtualization features for desktops. This can run multiple virtual machines on most 64-bit Windows or Linux host operating systems with x86 hardware and intel64/AMD64 processors. In addition, it can also run multiple containers or Kubernetes clusters. Currently, Workstation pro supports multiple 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems which includes Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and various other Linux Distros.   

These are the minimum requirements in order to run VMware Workstation Pro on your machine:

  • AN x86-based hardware. Any 64-bit processor released in 2011 or later. A 1.3GHz or faster core speed.
  • Memory. Total memory needed by the host machine includes the memory to run the host operating system, the guest operating system, and the applications in both the host and guest machines. The recommended memory size is 4GB and above while the required minimum memory is 2GB.
  • Hard Disk Space. The basic install of VMware Workstation Pro requires 1.5GB of free disk space. In addition, it is recommended to provide at least 1GB free disk space for each guest machine in order to run the guest operating system and the application software.
  • Operating System. A supported host and guest operating system.  


VMware Workstation Pro Features

Broadest Support of Guest Operating Systems

VMware Workstation Pro supports hundreds of either 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. It can also run applications on mobile operating systems like Android-X86.

VMware Tools

VMware Workstation Pro comes with VMware Tools which is installed after the guest operating system is completely installed. VMware Tools are utilities that improves a virtual machine’s performance and provides many features. Some of these features include faster graphic performance, the unity feature, shared folders, improved mouse performance, and scripting to automate guest operating system operations.

Hardware Support

VMware Workstation Pro allows you to create virtual machines with up to 16 virtual processors, and 64GB of memory. It also has SCSI device support which means you can use SCSI devices on virtual machines without having to install drivers in the host machine. Other hardware support includes support for IDE drive, USB port, networking, and sound.

DirectX 11

VMware Workstation Pro provides accelerated graphics and gaming support. With the DirectX 11, you are able to allocate 8GB of VRAM to guest VMs which will improve gaming experience and performance of 3D apps.

Containers and Kubernetes

VMware Workstation Pro now comes with a unique command-line utility called vctl. Using vctl allows you to manage and run OCI container images. It also provides support for KIND which is used to run local Kubernetes clusters.


VirtualBox vs VMware Workstation Pro

The following video will provide a detailed comparison of VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Pro.

 



Installing VirtualBox

You now know the different features of VirtualBox and how it compares to VMware Workstation Pro. Next thing to do is to try out and install VirtualBox. The process of installing VirtualBox in supported operating systems is mostly similar. Here are the steps to install VirtualBox in Windows:

1. Download the latest version of VirtualBox for Windows in the official site virtualbox.org

2. Select Windows hosts among the available packages. A file will then be downloaded. 



3. Run the file you just downloaded and select Yes.
4. A VirtualBox Setup Wizard will appear and at the bottom click on next.
5. On the custom setup, you can leave it at default values and select next. 
6. Click Yes when prompted with the “Warning: Network Interfaces”. This will temporarily disconnect you from the network and it will create a virtual network adapter in the Network Connections. 
7. Click on install to begin the installation. 
8. Click finish to start Oracle VM VirtualBox. 

Here is also a video that goes through the process of installing VirtualBox in Windows:



Conclusion

Both VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Pro have some features that the other virtualization software may not have. VMware Workstation Pro has an advantage in terms of performance and 3D graphics. However, the difference between the two is not that noticeable and VirtualBox does have a lot of features that are comparable to VMware Workstation Pro. One of the advantages of VirtualBox is that it is open source and free to use. So, if you want to do virtualization without needing to buy a license and still get features close to VMware Workstation Pro, VirtualBox would be a great alternative. 




Resources

Virtualization Essentials

Virtualization

Using VMware Workstation Pro

Oracle VM VirtualBox

VMware vs VirtualBox: Comprehensive Comparison


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