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I am a computer science student and know how to use terminal commands etc. in the Linux OS.

I am currently trying to learn how to use Linux Server and in order to save me having to install two OSs on my PC, I would like to run Linux server on a virtual machine. I have opted to use Oracle VM for this.

The PC I am using is as follows:

Windows 7 64 bit intel i5 4460 8 GB RAM

I have enabled the use of VM in my BIOS.

My question is as follows:

Can I safely use Oracle VM to run Linux Server in order to explore the OS's features? If not, then what would be a good system to learn Linux server (keep in mind that buying a new PC for this is not an option until i know i can make it work).

I want to play around with things like DHCP, and am trying to get around the problems that arise with NAT and hosting network applications from a home server. So in light of this I am looking to implement a server to host this application which will provide lightweight functionality to my parents' home business.

I am asking this question because I don't know where oracle VM stores it's virtual disk on my physical disk (so I don't know what I may be overwriting) and also because I don't know if installing this OS via a VM will mess with my PC's boot sectors (I have been there before and wish to avoid this).

Thanks in advance for your help :)

3 Answers 3

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VMs isolate the guest OS from the host OS.
You can safely do whatever you want in the VM and do not need to fear that you may somehow overwrite data on the host OS or change the hosts boot sectors.

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Sure you can.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is storing its virtual machine disks on plain files on your host OS so there is no risk to mess with your existing data.

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You are good to go. A VM isolates the guest OS in memory.

Basically the VM "thinks" it is a stand alone.

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