BANGALORE, INDIA: By now you must have installed PCQLinux 2008 and be relishing all the new utilities that come packed with it. Amongst others, we've provided virtual appliances of an ERP and CRM app, a web-based meeting software, a messaging and collaboration platform, a document and content management system, and even a directory server to allow central authentication for all of them.

These appliances are created on the VirtualBox virtualization application. The beauty of VirtualBox is that it can run on all the OSes, including Linux, Windows or Mac. Hence, our PCQLinux appliances also do the same. In this article we show how you can configure VirtualBox a Windows machine and then run PCQ Linux appliances on it.

Running the appliance on the Windows based VirtualBox is not difficult but the trick lies in configuring its network card so that the virtual machine can take IP addresses from a DHCP server on your network.

Before you begin the installation, make sure that the system where you're going to run the appliances should have at least 1GB (recommended 2GB) RAM. You need to dedicate at least 512 MB RAM to each appliance you are running. Also, you should have enough free hard disk space in the host machine, because a single compressed appliance .vdi file of approx 1GB will expand to a 3 to 4 GB sized .vdi. And these files can increase in size, depending on the usage of the appliance. So, for a single appliance please keep at least 5 GB (recommended 10 GB) of hard disk space.

Also remember to have a dedicated network card for each appliance. So, if you are going to run a single appliance on the host machine, you should have two network cards: one for the host machine and the second for the appliance. This will make sure that your appliance or host machine's performance doesn't get affected by the other. And if you are planning to have one network card for each appliance, then while bridging the physical network with the virtual network card (explained in step 4), do remember to select the right card for the right appliance.

Copy the appliance that you want to run on the machine and extract it using WinRAR. Once extracted, run VirtualBox and click on New. A wizard will open	Create a virtual machine with at least 512 MB RAM. When the wizard asks for the hard disk, click on the 'Existing' button. Add the .vdi file which you just extracted

For most of the PCQLinux appliances, you need to establish a live connection with your physical network. Click on 'Network' link in the 'Details' section of the virtual machine	Click on 'Add' button at the right of the 'Host Interfaces' option. A dialog box will open. Here provide a name to the interface and click on Ok

Once the virtual host Interface has been added, select 'Host Interface' from 'Attached To' drop down menu. Select the interface you just created in the previous step	To bridge the virtual and physical interface, go to Control Panel-->Network Connections and select both adapters by pressing 'CTRL.' Right click and select 'Add to Bridge'

Now boot the appliance by selecting the virtual machine you have configured and click on Start.This will open up a new window of the virtual machine	If things are in shape, then your virtual machine should get an IP address directly from the DHCP server. To check this, log on to the appliance and run the ifconfig command