Virtualbox or XAMPP/LAMPP/WAMPP for simulating a server environment?

[Genesis]

I'm trying to wrap my brain cells around whether now that I've got a handle on Virtualbox, would I still need to use LAMPP? What is better? Setting a Virtual Box machine up from scratch and creating a server environment in it, or installing a XAMPP/LAMPP/WAMPP installation for simulating a server?

 

[GigaGreg]

You can just install XAMPP which is Cross Platform, depending on the operating system, it will display specific name, i.e. Linux - LAMPP, Mac - MAMPP, Windows - WAMP.

 

[Genesis]

I'm not worried about the methodology. More like preference of virtualbox versus any of the stacks. I read an article somewhere that Virtualbox is simpler and simulates a server more accurately.

 

[GigaBot]

I din't have any experience with VirtualBox so far. I always use XAMPP and I have ever experienced any problems with it ...but once I have some more free time, I'll try VirtualBox as well ...

 

[Genesis]

I've enjoyed using LAMPP, but should try XAMPP as well. For fun. Now I'm having fun with Virtual Box.

I won't be able to get to do much in the next few days as have commitments and stuff, but this is a nice appetizer tutorial for me:

[video=youtube]

Alternatively I've also thought about trying Windows 10 out in a Virtual Box. I've got two spare Windows 7 OEM disks. So maybe I could start a partition with Windows 7 and then upgrade the Windows 7 to Windows 10. And see how it behaves.

Here's a tutorial I'm really going to study when I do try Windows 10 in Virtual Box:

[video=youtube]

 

[agentsky]

If you want a fast OS in virtualbox then install linux and use LAMPP but if you want Windows in your virtualbox then you can use XAMPP.


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[strokerace]

From my understanding, you want to run a server. If that is the case, you can run that from your current set up without virtualbox. Now, if you want to run virtualbox with CentOs, then I would suggest installing Lampp as it will make it simpler to set up sql databases and you can use myphpadmin. I am not sure if CentOS has it installed or if its easy to set up and use. I have no experience with that O/S at this time.
Lamp, Wamp etc, just makes things simple to set up and access in a nice interface and you can turn on and off the service.
Other thing you could do with CentOS, is to search google for the linux commands to access and turn on and off these mysql and Apache.

 

[Genesis]

Thanks Strokerace. I've got a little bit of experience with CentOS. I have it on a VPS so have played a little with it. Brings back my memories of installing mySQL, php etc from scratch. Thinking back to that and comparing it with my very easy experience with Lampplite, Lampp/xampp or Wamp would definitely be a better option for setting up a desktop server.

 

[riddict]

There is a huge different of uses between Virtualbox and XAMPP/LAMPP.
If you want to try a new OS, you can use VirtualBox or a similar software. XAMPP used to run a php script on local server.

 

[lin-uni-team]

It's all about trade-off. With XAMPP, you have easibility but in exchange for security. With VB, you have full access but you are required to have knowledge. Classic problem.

 

[starswper]

" Setting a Virtual Box machine up from scratch and creating a server environment in it " never tryed that.. for me XAMPP was enought for what I needed.. also VirtualBox takes many resources from my poor PC.

 

[Genesis]

" Setting a Virtual Box machine up from scratch and creating a server environment in it " never tryed that.. for me XAMPP was enought for what I needed.. also VirtualBox takes many resources from my poor PC.

Virtualbox is only really used for when one wants to run more than one OS. Like Linux side by side Windows or Windows 7 and Windows XP at the same time. When Windows 7 first started there were many Windows XP applications that could not work because there were no drivers for them. So people could use Windows 7 Professional to create Virtual Box to run Windows XP as well so they could get their printers to work for example. As far as I know Windows 7 home version can't run Virtual Box.

But you're right of course. If one is short on resources, one wouldn't do it this way.

 

[fouadChk]

I'm trying to wrap my brain cells around whether now that I've got a handle on Virtualbox, would I still need to use LAMPP? What is better? Setting a Virtual Box machine up from scratch and creating a server environment in it, or installing a XAMPP/LAMPP/WAMPP installation for simulating a server?

As always, the answer will depend on what you're intending to do and in which environment.

If your system is Windows-based and the Web stack (i.e. Apache, PHP, MySQL) doesn't need a configuration that requires a Linux environment then you'll be better off just installing the 3 software packages one by one or, if you're not comfortable configuring them manually, then the XAMPP/WAMPP bundles.

This way you'll end up with a system that has Apache listening on port 80, and hopefully those bundles will restrict it to the localhost IP (127.0.0.1) or any other non-public (private) IP. In such case there is no security risk or what so ever. Apache is listening to your local requests only.

There is plenty of configuration that one should consider, in particular enabling Apache's virtual hosting feature to host locally as many web servers as one wishes.

Apache is a powerful beast and needs a lot of time of hands-on practice and configuration checking.

But if you install Apache inside a VirtualBox environment (whatever the OS) you'll have just added another layer of software/complexity and you'll have to configure the ad-hoc network interfaces that you should use to communicate with it inside that Box.

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PS: I didn't read the thread's discussion, sorry!.. I just wanted to add my 2 cents on this.

 

[Genesis]

Thanks fouadChk. I picked up on an even easier solution where everything was done for me with https://serverpress.com/get-desktopserver/. I can have three installations for free on it, and it looks after everything else for me. I don't experiment as much. I.e. I have a WordPress, myBB and phpBB scripts on it and am playing with them. The system uses xampplite. And was effortless to install. What I liked about it is one can turn everything off once one has completed something. And then when one wants to use it turn all of it on again. I do that every time. Not sure whether it makes things safer, but I hope it does. Probably one of the most useful development platforms I've had so far on my level. Probably for more heavy duty development this will turn out to be too simple.

 

[reynerhl]

For web development purpose, there is a great solution that helps small and huge teams: Vagrant ( https://www.vagrantup.com/)

It is like a tier upper VirtualBox/VMWare that helps to configure similar enviroments avoiding some classic errors such as "In my machine it works".

The vagrant box comes with different preconfigured SO flavor, for example, Laravel/Homestead comes with Redis Cache configured, Nginx, and many other usefull tools.

 

[fhaas]

I always test my installations on a virtual maschine wich is installed in virtualbox.
When i do my changes on the packages its perfect to make snapshots and be able to came back to this point.

I never use Standard LAMP installations. I set up a perfectly working maschine. for fast tests I clone the maschine and make my tests and then
it is perfectly to be able to delete them after that.

 

[seiji]

I use wamp but would prefer xampp, but I could not get it to work as I needed it

 

[somebodies]

I use XAMPP, easy to install and set up. Just make sure to allow it through the firewall

 

[AleksssBoss157]

You should use XAMPP because works on windows,it's easy to manage.And a virtual machine will slow down your pc.

 

[ItsSkittlesYT]

Virturalbox it just runs the best