When I need a new VM for my experiments, I clone this template VM, and I can almost instantly start my investigations.

Then, I keep this virtual machine as a template.

In order to reach this goal, once a new version of the operating system appears (I prefer to use LTS versions of Ubuntu Server), I download its image and create a new virtual machine where I install the operating system from the downloaded image and make initial configuration. So as from time to time my experiments completely broke the system, I should have the possibility to deploy a clean testbed quickly. Therefore, in this article I will show how to configure VirtualBox and guest OSes so that you get access to your virtual machines from the host, e.g., through terminal. Unfortunately, by default after you have installed a guest virtual machine (VM) you do not have network access to it.

Thus, to completely resemble my experience in the cloud I should have terminal access to the guest operating system. Usually, my guest operating system (OS) is Ubuntu Server because I usually use this OS in the cloud. In order to have the same environment and to keep my working machine clean from the garbage left after such experiments, I do my investigations in a virtualized environment. From time to time, I experiment with different tools.

Virtualbox interface