Chapter 1. Introduction

InnoTek VirtualBox is a family of virtual machine products targeting desktop computers, enterprise servers and embedded systems. Due to its modular architecture, VirtualBox can be deployed in any environment where x86 systems are to be virtualized on x86 systems. (With “x86″, we are referring to 32-bit CPUs from AMD and Intel as well as compatible CPUs from other vendors, plus 64-bit CPUs in 32-bit mode.) 1.1. Virtualization basics VirtualBox allows you to run unmodified operating systems — including all of the software that is installed on them — directly in a special environment on top of your existing operating system. This environment, called a “virtual machine”, is created by the virtualization software. The physical computer is then usually called the “host”, while the virtual machine is often called a “guest”. VirtualBox allows most of the guest code to run unmodified, directly on the host computer, and the guest operating system “thinks” it’s running on real machine. In the background, however, VirtualBox intercepts certain operations that the guest performs to make sure that the guest can cooperate with other programs on the host. The techniques and features that VirtualBox provides are useful for several scenarios: