Click New in the VirtualBox Manager window. The Create Virtual Machine wizard is shown, to guide you through the required steps for setting up a new virtual machine (VM).
The Create Virtual Machine wizard pages are described in the following sections.
Use this page to specify a name and operating system (OS) for the virtual machine and to change the storage location used for VMs.
You can also choose to disable the unattended guest operating system install feature. See also Section 1.8.2, “(Optional) Create Virtual Machine Wizard: Unattended Guest OS Install”.
The following fields are available on this wizard page:
Name. A name for the new VM. The name you enter is shown in the machine list of VirtualBox Manager and is also used for the virtual machine's files on disk.
Be sure to assign each VM an informative name that describes the OS and software running on the VM. For example, a name such as
Windows 10 with Visio.Folder. The location where VMs are stored on your computer, called the machine folder. The default folder location is shown.
Ensure that the folder location has enough free space, especially if you intend to use the snapshots feature. See also Section 10.1.1, “The Machine Folder”.
ISO Image. Select an ISO image file. The image file can be used to install an OS on the new virtual machine or it can be attached to a DVD drive on the new virtual machine.
Type and Version. These fields are used to select the OS that you want to install on the new virtual machine.
The supported OSes are grouped into types. If you want to install something very unusual that is not listed, select the Other type. Depending on your selection, Oracle VM VirtualBox will enable or disable certain VM settings that your guest OS may require. This is particularly important for 64-bit guests. See Section 3.1.2, “64-bit Guests”. It is therefore recommended to always set this field to the correct value.
If an ISO image is selected and Oracle VM VirtualBox detects the operating system for the ISO, the Type and Version fields are populated automatically and are disabled.
Skip Unattended Installation. Disables unattended guest OS installation, even if an ISO image is selected that supports unattended installation. In that case, the selected ISO image is mounted automatically on the DVD drive of the new virtual machine and user interaction is required to complete the OS installation.
The unattended installation step in the wizard is skipped.
Note
This option is disabled if you do not select an installation medium in the ISO Image field.
Click Next to go to the next wizard page.
Unattended guest OS installation enables you to install the OS on a virtual machine automatically.
Note
This page is optional. It is not displayed if you have selected the Skip Unattended Installation option on the initial wizard page.
Use this page to set up the required parameters for unattended guest OS installation and to configure automatic installation of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions. See also Section 1.8.6, “Some Examples of Unattended Installation” for some typical scenarios when using automated installation.
The following fields are available on this wizard page:
Username and Password. Enter the credentials for a default user on the guest OS.
Guest Additions. Enables automatic installation of the Guest Additions, following installation of the guest OS. Use the drop-down list to select the location of the ISO image file for the Guest Additions.
Additional Options. The following options enable you to perform extra configuration of the guest OS:
Product Key. For Windows guests only. Enter the product key required for Windows installation.
Hostname. Host name for the guest. By default, this is the same as the VM name.
Domain Name. Domain name for the guest.
Install in Background. Enable headless mode for the VM, where a graphical user interface is not shown.
Click Next to go to the next wizard page.
Use this page to configure hardware settings for the virtual machine.
The following fields are available on this wizard page:
Base Memory. Select the amount of RAM that Oracle VM VirtualBox should allocate every time the virtual machine is started. The amount of memory selected here will be taken away from your host machine and presented to the guest OS, which will report this size as the virtual machines installed RAM.
Caution
Choose this setting carefully. The memory you give to the VM will not be available to your host OS while the VM is running, so do not specify more than you can spare.
For example, if your host machine has 4 GB of RAM and you enter 2048 MB as the amount of RAM for a particular virtual machine, you will only have 2 GB left for all the other software on your host while the VM is running. If you run two VMs at the same time, even more memory will be allocated for the second VM, which may not even be able to start if that memory is not available.
On the other hand, you should specify as much as your guest OS and your applications will require to run properly. A guest OS may require at least 1 or 2 GB of memory to install and boot up. For best performance, more memory than that may be required.
Always ensure that the host OS has enough RAM remaining. If insufficient RAM remains, the system might excessively swap memory to the hard disk, which effectively brings the host system to a standstill.
As with other Create Virtual Machine wizard settings, you can change this setting later, after you have created the VM.
Processor(s). Select the number of virtual processors to assign to the VM.
It is not advised to assign more than half of the total processor threads from the host machine.
Enable EFI. Enables Extensible Firware Interface (EFI) booting for the guest OS.
Click Next to go to the next wizard page.
Use this page to specify a virtual hard disk for the virtual machine.
There are many ways in which Oracle VM VirtualBox can provide hard disk space to a VM, see Chapter 5, Virtual Storage. The most common way is to use a large image file on your physical hard disk, whose contents Oracle VM VirtualBox presents to your VM as if it were a complete hard disk. This file then represents an entire hard disk, so you can even copy it to another host and use it with another Oracle VM VirtualBox installation.
The following fields are available on this wizard page:
Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now. Creates a new empty virtual hard disk image, located in the VM's machine folder.
Enter the following settings:
Disk Size. Use the slider to select a maximum size for the hard disk in the new VM.
Pre-Allocate Full Size. This setting determines the type of image file used for the disk image. Select this setting to use a fixed-size file for the disk image. Deselect this setting to use a dynamically allocated file for the disk image.
The different types of image file behave as follows:
Dynamically allocated file. This type of image file only grows in size when the guest actually stores data on its virtual hard disk. Therefore, this file is small initially. As the drive is filled with data, the file grows to the specified size.
Fixed-size file. This type of image file immediately occupies the file specified, even if only a fraction of that virtual hard disk space is actually in use. While occupying much more space, a fixed-size file incurs less overhead and is therefore slightly faster than a dynamically allocated file.
For more details about the differences, see Section 5.2, “Disk Image Files (VDI, VMDK, VHD, HDD)”.
Use an Existing Hard Disk File. Enables you to select an existing disk image file to use with the new VM.
The drop-down list presented in the window lists all disk images which are known by Oracle VM VirtualBox. These disk images are currently attached to a virtual machine, or have been attached to a virtual machine.
Alternatively, click on the small folder icon next to the drop-down list. In the Hard Disk Selector window that is displayed, click Add to select a disk image file on your host disk.
Do Not Add a Virtual Hard Disk. The new VM is created without a hard disk.
To prevent your physical hard disk on the host OS from filling up, Oracle VM VirtualBox limits the size of the image file. But the image file must be large enough to hold the contents of the guest OS and the applications you want to install. For a Windows or Linux guest, you will probably need several gigabytes for any serious use. The limit of the image file size can be changed later, see Section 8.31, “VBoxManage modifymedium”.
Note
You can skip attaching a virtual hard disk file to the new virtual machine you are creating. But you will then need to attach an hard disk later on, in order to install a guest operating system.
After having selected or created your image file, click Next to go to the next wizard page.
This page displays a summary of the configuration for the virtual machine.
If you are not happy with any of the settings, use the Back button to return to the corresponding page and modify the setting.
Click Finish to create your new virtual machine. The virtual machine is displayed in the machine list on the left side of the VirtualBox Manager window, with the name that you entered on the first page of the wizard.
To configure unattended installation, you typically just need to specify an ISO image in the Create Virtual Machine wizard. Oracle VM VirtualBox then detects the OS type and the unattended installation process is done automatically when the wizard is completed. However, in some situations the installation may need be completed manually.
The following list describes some common scenarios for unattended installation:
OS type is detected automatically. The following outcomes are possible:
If unattended installation is supported for the selected ISO, the guest OS is installed automatically. No user input is required.
If unattended installation is not supported for the selected ISO, the ISO image is inserted automatically into the DVD drive of the new VM. The guest OS installation must then be completed manually.
OS type is not detected automatically. You must configure Type and Version settings in the wizard.
The ISO image is inserted automatically into the DVD drive of the new VM. The guest OS installation must then be completed manually.
Unattended Installation is disabled. Users can disable unattended installation, by selecting the Skip Unattended Installation check box on the initial wizard page.
The ISO image is inserted automatically into the DVD drive of the new VM. The guest OS installation must then be completed manually.
See also Section 3.2, “Unattended Guest Installation” for details of how to perform unattended installation from the command line.