Oracle VirtualBox Reviews & Insights

I use Oracle VM VirtualBox to create virtual servers to use in a lab environment. We currently have several labs that require me to make changes for connectivity requirements. This way I can emulate the servers using virtual servers. Then I can make the changes and test how those changes affect the servers in the lab.

Oracle VirtualBox is open source allowing the user to be able to freely use the software without having to pay a lot into using it. There are also a lot of community forums that users can get help and insight from without having to pay out a lot for support.

Our main operation system is windows but as we develop software which runs on linux based servers, we use Oracle VM VirtualBox to develop and test software. This way we can rebuild a system which is comparable to our live servers. Besides developing and testing software, we also test new versions of libraries etc. within the VM first before we update our servers - this way we avoid having problems with dependencies between libraries.

It is very easy to set up a virtual machine with Oracle VM VirtualBox because it is very intuitive. It also works an every operation system and allows taking snapshots and cloning VMs which is pretty helpful to e.g. save stable states and return to a functioning version in case something wents wrong. Also it has some features like drag&drop which enables you to copy and paste from your main operating system into your vm and vice versa. Oracle VM VirtualBox is very well suited when multiple kinds of interworking software (e.g. some microservices, a webservice) are developed and tested like on our production servers. Sometimes container based software is more useful than Oracle VM VirtualBox, e.g. when only one specific software needs to be tested in a fresh environment.

It's a very useful and simple to use tool. We use instead of Vmware Workstation or Vmware Player, and it's very reliable, multiplatform, and cheaper than Vmware. The community behind it is great and thanks to Oracle, the support is very responsive.

In the beginning, we used Oracle VM VirtualBox for personal business on our laptop, then we started to try to share VM (running on a centralized workstation) and it worked very well. We can use snapshots for tests and developing machines and templates for fast provisioning.

I personally use VirtualBox to test applications. With VirtualBox, I can test the application without even installing it on my actual machine, and doing this protects my device from any damages. For example, if I accidentally select the wrong settings for the application I am testing, the changes only affect my Virtual Machine and this is a great advantage for me. I also use different operating systems for work and for personal purposes thus I use VirtualBox to install another operating system (like Linux) without removing the one I already use (Windows).

It is best suited when you want to have different operating systems on your laptop or desktop. You can easily switch between operating systems without the need to uninstall one. In another scenario, if you expect some application to damage your device, it would be best to run the application on the VM such that the damage can only be done to the virtual machine. It is less appropriate when time synchronization is very important. At times the VMs run their own times differently from the host time and this may cause some losses if what you doing is critical. Another important thing to take note of is the licensing of the application you want to run your VM. Some licenses do not allow the applications to be run on virtual servers so it is not appropriate to use the VM at this time.

Oracle's VirtualBox is a good tool if you don't want to invest in a whole testing infrastructure (server racks and so on) for a small to medium environment where you don't need to have everything up and running every time you need to test the smallest things. The fact that you can easily switch between VMs (one at a time or even with more than one on online state) is a big plus.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is used to house VM's to test different applications on Virtual machines in order to validate functionality without the worry of compromising a real system and having to start over. We also use these VM's to obfuscate access to our production environments by first accessing a VM then connecting to a VPN from that virtual machine.

Being able to build VM's to test different applications on Virtual machines in order to validate functionality without the worry of compromising a real system and having to start over is one of the greatest strengths of using an application like VirtualBox, and it does this well. The many options to create a VM of differing operating systems and functionality [make it] very simple and easy to do with this application.

VirtualBox is the tool we use to generate virtual machines in development environments. Either as much as to run Windows or Linux from Mac OS, or Windows from Linux. We have the need to have computers with the possibility of running these operating systems since the programs that we use for the industry are not all multiplatform.

VirtualBox is an excellent option when it comes to virtualizing an operating system in an easy and safe way. Add controls on how much hardware of the host machine is going to be dedicated to the virtual one, configure which ports are accessible from each one, etc. However, like any virtual machine, if you need to use many of the hardware resources for the virtual machine, it is recommended to use a native installation of the virtual machine, since the performance of both (host and virtual) can be affected considerably.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is being used across the development department, mostly to run training environments. This helps us prepare preconfigured VMs with all the tools our engineers need to complete their training at different levels throughout their careers. Providing these training environments was always a challenge before, and after trying cloud options to provide online instances of the training environment, we decided to create these VMs and give offline options on a as-needed basis for our employees and avoid costs from having a growing cloud server capacity.

The most common scenarios for me where Oracle VM VirtualBox is well suited are when you want to create reusable resources and shared them on VMs for many users as a standalone solution and when you want to try things between different operating systems, you can opt for a VM to test things out without affecting the host system.

We used Oracle VM VirtualBox as a quick and simple way to virtualize and consolidate multiple compute servers onto a single server. It is an easier way to provide a proof of concept for virtualization than using a bare metal hypervisor with an admin machine. Once the concept successfully shows the benefits of virtualization and the advantages of consolidating to a lower server footprint, it is easier to sell virtualization. In addition, snapshots, software defined networking, and ability to access/share host resources make it easier to roll back/deploy changes to development, test, and QA environments. On top of all that, it is free to use.

Ideal for use wherever a multi-OS guest environment is required, for system demos, or for development on different environments without having dedicated host systems for each environment. Best uses are for Dev/Test/QA.

Not necessarily the best option for production system as it is riding on another host. I prefer to have bare-metal hypervisor for reliability and less chance of corruption of host platform.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is being used on an as-needed basis by one department only. It is being used when software is being developed on multi-platforms. Also it has capability of sharing file systems between the hosts, which allows the users to write the code and easily complile on multiple platforms.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is well suited for enterprise-level virtualization and really helps develop the software on multiplatforms.