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This document explains how to jump-start the analysis environment on a laptop using a virtual machine (VM) image. The recipe would work as well for any other hardware (desktop, server). In this document we're exploring a technology based on Oracle VM VirtualBox. The main benefit of the software is that it's stable and it's free. Besides, it's easy to set up. The software is available for all popular platforms, including Linux (all distributions), Windows 7/8, MacOS, or Solaris. However a similar approach would work as well for other hypervisors, such as Parallels, VMware, etc. They all would recognize a format of the Oracle packaged VM Appliance images which we're exporting here.

Preparing your computer to host virtual images

The first step here before downloading anything is to make sure your CPU has a hardware support for the virtualization technology. This is known as VT-x on Intel CPUs or AMD-V on the AMD CPUs. All modern CPUs built over the last 5 years should have it. But you would better check if the one you have you have. Each operating system has the corresponding tool which would tell you this information. Here is how this can be done on some of the systems:

Linux:

% cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep 'model name'
..
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5520  @ 2.27GHz
..

Windows 7:

• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/view-cpu-utilization-performance-information#1TC=windows-7

Windows Vista/8:

• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/find-your-computers-processor-speed

MacOS:

• http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1633

Then you will need to cross check the model with the CPU manufacturer. Normally, all Intel CPU's after Core 2 Duo will support the virtualization.

The next step is to make sure that the virtualization technology is enabled in the machine's BIOS. In many cases it may be disabled. Unfortunately, we can't give you any specific advise on how to do so for your particular computer because BIOS implementations (and user interfaces) vary from one computer to another. The best approach here is to read the Owner's Manual of your computer to figure it out. Note that you may need to rethe VirtualBox will fail to start if the technology is not enabled/available on your machine.

Now you should be ready to set up the Oracle VM VirtualBox software on your machine. You need to download an installer which matches your operating system (not the virtual images which are distributing!). Please, make clear distinction between your host operating system and the guest operating system of the virtual images. You may need to explore the technology by reading articles on this subject (like Virtual Machines on Wikipedia) which are available on the Internet.Setting up Oracle VirtualBox and extension. At this step you're going to install

Downloading and setting up a virtual image

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