As I’ve been diving deeper into DevOps, one of the things I realized was the importance of having a controlled environment where I could experiment with tools and configurations without worrying about messing things up. I knew that cloud environments like AWS or Azure were where most of the action happens in DevOps, but setting up local virtual machines (VMs) gave me a cozy space to practice, test, and break things down without any major consequences.
The Case for Local Virtual Machines
The decision to establish a local VM environment was driven by several factors:
Complete control over the learning environment
Freedom from cloud service cost constraints
Ability to experiment without consequences
Deeper understanding of infrastructure fundamentals
Hands-on experience with system configurations
How I Set It Up
I decided to go with VirtualBox because it’s free and relatively easy to use. The first step was downloading and installing VirtualBox on my machine. I didn’t run into any issues during installation, and once it was up and running, I downloaded an Ubuntu Desktop and CentOS Stream ISO to use as the base for my VMs. I wanted to have experience with both Debian and RHEL.
Creating VMs was pretty straightforward. I followed the prompts in VirtualBox to allocate resources like RAM and storage, aiming for a balance that would let the VMs run smoothly. After that, I mounted the respective ISO and booted up the VMs to start the installation process. It was actually simpler than I thought, and within an hour or so, I had two fully functional Linux distributions running inside VirtualBox.
Once the set up was completed, I went ahead and installed the essentials for my learning journey. I also set up SSH so that I could connect to the VM remotely when needed. Overall, the process was smooth, and having a local VM setup meant I could experiment with different configurations and tools without worrying about doing something that could break a live system.