How to Set a Virtual Machine in Windows OS

Overview

Installing a virtual machine on a Windows operating system seems to be the easiest and most basic process that almost every computer software or data scientist should master. However, in reality, this process sometimes can be tedious and time-consuming because (1) not knowing which software to use (2) configuring the virtual machine to my expectations is sometimes confusing (3) the most difficult (from my point of view) but very basic process, “enabling the internet to the VM”

I made this guide so developers can easily follow and install a VM without any struggle in their Windows machine. In this guide, I will be configuring a CentOS 7 VM that will be further used to build the HBase project to tune the database for faster query operations.

Guide Main Contents:

1. Hyper-V Installation
2. CentOS Download & Internet Configuration
3. CentOS Installation

Install Hyper-V

Step 1

• Open Windows Powershell as administrator and run the next command:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All        

Step 2

• The system might need a reboot, after logging, run the next command again at the power shell in administrator mode:

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V        

CentOS Download & Configuration

Step 1

• Download the ISO from this link The name of the file should be Centos {smth} Everything.iso

Step 2 [Set Up the VM]

• Create a new virtual machine

• On this window, click next to configure several virtual machine parameters.

• Set a name and next

• .Continue to click Generation 1 and Next.

• Our local computer has 32GB of memory. I set 16 GB because I need as many resources as possible. The amount of memory is set as required.

• For the moment, do NOT set the network. Step 3 of this section will show you how to set the internet connection successfully.

• Here, we use default settings.

• Browse the downloaded ISO from the internet and Next.

• This window shows the summary of the settings that we just configured.

Step 3 [Configure The Network]

• From your main device, go to Virtual Switch Manager.

• Create a virtual switch as shown in the image below.

• Set a name, and click the VLAN ID box. After finishing, apply the configurations.

• Go back to the generated VM and click Settings.

• In the Network Adapter, set the Virtual Switch and check the VLAN ID box. After finishing, apply the configurations

• An extra necessary setting is needed to enable the internet connection on the VM. Go to ncpa.cpl through the Windows+R shortcut and open Ethernet Properties.

• Go to sharing and set the configurations as shown in the image below.

If all these settings are followed correctly, you should be able to use virtual machines within your Windows machine.

Issues

• You might see that the VM screen resolution is smaller than it should be. To solve this issue and use all the available resolutions of the screen, type the next command in the Windows Powershell on administrator mode.

Set-VMVideo -VMName "VM Name" -HorizontalResolution 1920 -VerticalResolution 1080 -ResolutionType Single        

References

1. Windows 10 Hyper-V Installation
2. How to Install Centos7 VM Windows
3. Configure VM Network
4. Resolution Troubleshoot

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