Creating a Virtual Machine

Prep Work:
  1. Install Oracle Virtual Box
  2. Insure the machine that you install the VM has the following:
    1. 100 GB or larger hard drive space.  -- I would recommend a 1TB if possible. An External Hard Drive works.
    2. 8 GB Memery space or larger
  3. Download Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 6 for x86_64 (3.54GB)

Download Oracle Linux Release 6 Update 4 for x86_64
  1. Navigate to http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/linux/index.html
  2. Click on the Oracle Linux download link. I highlighted it in red in the below picture.
  1. Once the link has been clicked, you will navigate to oracle's E-delivery. Login to the E-delivery site.
  2. When you have logged in select Oracle Linux and X86 64 bit and click the "GO" Button.
  1. Select "Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 6 Media Pack for x86_64 (64 bit)"
  1. Select an area where you can download the zipped iso files. Once download unzip the files.
Creating a Virtual Machine:

  1. Open Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager and click the "New" Button.
  2. Click the new Button, read the message and click "Next".
  1. Enter a name for the Virtual Machine.  Select the operating system type "Linux". Then select Oracle (64bit).
  1.  Enter the amount of memory that you want the machine to have and click "Next". I entered 3072MB. Remember that when you enter the memory amount, that amount of memory is reserved. Meaning you host computer will not be able to use that memory space. Be careful to leave your machine enough memory to run!
  1. Select "Create New hard Drive"
  1. Read the message and click "Next"
  1. Select the Fixed Hard Drive Storage Radio Box and Click Next.  --I found that when you select Dynamically Expanding Storage, you will run into problems making the Seed Database. It is not worth the pain of a fresh install!
  1. Select where you want to store the VM's hard drive. Remember it will take quite a bit of memory. I suggest using 100GB of memory. It will be big enough for what you will need. When done click the "Next Button".  
  1. Check the summary to make sure it is what you want and click the "Finish" button.
  1. At this point the computer will make the new VM. It takes a while 5-6 minutes. 
  1. Even though we have made a VM we are not done yet. We need to tweak some of the settings to make our life easier and to make sure it can find that "Oracle Linux" iso file. Click on general menu. By clicking the general menu we can see a much larger menu pop up. Make sure the general tab is selected on the left and click the "Advanced" button on the left hand side of the menu. Edit the snapshot path to a hard drive with lots of space. 1TB is recommended!
--Snapshot will save your life. So what are they? Well, Oracle VM Manage can take a picture of your machine's state and save that state. This can be useful because you can revert to a "good" state when you make a mistake. This can save to time and hassle of forgoing a reinstall. But a word of warning. Snapshots take up a lot of hard drive space. That is why I reconmmended a lard hard drive space.  
  1. Click the network Tab. Then select "Bridge Adaptor" for the networking setting.
  1. Select the Storage tab. Once selected you can select the iso file that you downloaded and unzipped.
  1. Once selected click the "Start" button.
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