Virtual machine with VMware player

• Download the latest Version of VMware Player on https://www.vmware.com/
• Download an image of a recent Ubuntu version

• Launch VMware Player and press 'Create a New Virtual Machine', then select the .iso of Ubuntu
• After setting Username and password, select an installation folder for your VM

• Specify the maximum disk size for your VM. VMware Player recommends 20GB, we recommend more.
• Before you finish the setup, press 'Customize Hardware' to allocate a custom amount of memory and processor cores to the Virtual Machine

• Press finish to install the OS

Benefits:

• No configuration necessary
• Guest is member in the network

Drawback:

• Guest is registered in the network as a 'normal' host

The IP address of the virtual machine must be registered as the server IP in the target.

Benefits:

• Guest is not reachable from the network
• Guest can access network via NAT

Drawback:

• Configuration very complicated

When copying virtual machines, chances are that a new Ethernet device with a new MAC address is created. If the Ethernet device gets a new name (eth2 …), you have to add auto to the name of the interface in the file etc/network/interfaces (e.g., auto eth2). Then the service networking must be restarted (sudo service networking restart). Alternatively, you can edit the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and assign the MAC to the eth0 device.