VirtualBox: Installing CentOS 7 Guest on Windows 8.1 host

Step-by-step guide

Download CentOS.
When selecting a version, select the "DVD ISO" don't select "Everything ISO", it is more than 4 GB for CentOS version 7.
Download & install VirtualBox, or you may use any existing version you already have like what is installed with Genymotion.
Open Virtualbox, and click "New" button.
In the name "CentOS7" you will find the type is automatically changed to "Linux" & version to "Red Hat", change the version to be "Red Hat (64 bit)", click "Next". Note: If you are running VirtualBox in Windows 8/8.1, you may not find the option of 64 bit. If this is the case, and to get it enabled, first make sure that you enabled "Intel Virtualization" option in your BIOS. Second, disable Hyper-v platform in Windows through ControlPanel->Programs->Turn Windows Features On or Off.
For the memory, select at least 1024 MB, click "Next".
For the Hard drive, click "Create a virtual hard drive now", click "Create".
Keep "VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)", click "Next".
Keep storage as "Dynamically allocated", click "Next".
Type a location for this file without spaces.
The maximum size limit 40 GB will be more than enough (Dynamic allocated as required this is just maximum limit), click "Create".
Select your virtual machine, click "Settings":
1. Click "System", Boot order, uncheck "Floppy".
2. Click "Storage", click "Controller: IDE" and select the CD ROM, and click the button "Set up virtual CD DVD drive" and select the iso image file downloaded in step #2, click "OK".
3. Click "Network", Adapter 1, attached to "Bridged Adapter" instead of NAT & then:
  1. Select your WiFi controller in name in-case you are using your laptop and will use the wireless network on your Internet connectivity.
  2. Select your Ethernet in name in-case you are using a PC and you will be using the Ethernet network on your Internet connectivity.
Select your virtual machine, click "Start".
Select "Install CentOS 7".
You can abort checking the media by clicking "Esc".
In the graphical installer starts, select "English", "United States", click "Continue".
Change the timezone.
In software selection "Basic Web Server" & select the following Add-Ons (Based on your needs):
1. Backup client.
2. Directory client.
3. Guest agents.
4. Hardware Monitoring utilities.
5. Large Systems performance.
6. Performance tools.
7. Remote Management for Linux
For Installation Destination, Keep "Automatic partitioning selected".
For Network & hostname:
1. You will find a Network Ethernet (Either you are using Wireless or Ethernet connection on your host; VirtualBox will mimic any network connection to Ethernet), click the button to make it "On" as you will need for Internet connectivity & your work later. It will say connected.
2. Scroll down and change the hostname to "centos7.localdomain"
Click button "Begin Installation".
For root password: root_password_must_memorize
For user creation: Type your name it will suggest login name, make sure to "Make this user as administrator" and provide your password.
When installation, click "Reboot".
From the virtualbox settings, storage, "Remove disk from virtual drive" to avoid re-installing CentOS again.
Make sure your system is up & running before performing post installation steps.

You can scroll up & down in the CentOS guest using shift + pageup & shift + pagedown

Post installation

Installing DKMS & Guest Additions

In-case you have VirtualBox older than v4.3.14RC1, download newer version of Guest Additions, tried for version 4.3.20, & copy it to virtual box folder having the original one. If you have already higher version, please skip this step.
While your CentOS vm is already started, and you have logged using root.
Run the following command to install EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux):
```
yum install epel-release
```
```
Is this ok? y
```
Run the following command to install kernel-devel package that provides the headers needed to compile modules for the kernel:
```
yum install kernel-devel
```
```
Is this ok? y
```
Run the following command to install dkms (Dynamic Kernel Module Support):
```
yum install dkms
```
```
Is this ok? y
```
While your CentOS vm is already started, and you have logged using root. Select "Device" menu, and select "CD/DVD", and mount VirtualBox Guest Additions 4.3.20
In the VM status bar just move to the CD icon, you will find that the CD has mounted "Virtual Guest Additions iso" that is normally located in %VIRTUALBOX_FOLDER%\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
Auto installation doesn't work with CentOS it just mounted the CD, it usually works for Windows, we will perform the next steps to manually install Guest Additions.
Mount the CD ROM using the command (Note: Without installing the kernel-devel specific version although done before, the building of GuestAdditions was always failing, now it will take time and build successfully):
```
yum install kernel-devel-3.10.0-123.el7.x86_64
```
```
Is this ok? y
```
```
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
```
```
cd /mnt
```
```
sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
```
Shutdown your VM using command:
shutdown -h now "configure shared folder"
Go to your VM settings, click "Shared Folder", Add new folder "c:\shared-with-vbox" with below settings:
Go to your VM settings, click "General", tab "Advanced", for Shared Clipboard select "Bidirectional".
Go to your VM settings, click "Storage", Remove disk from virtual drive.
Start your VM, login with root, you need to make a folder in your centos and then mount the shared folder to this newly created folder using below command:
```
cd /tmp
```
```
mkdir sharedhost
```
```
mount -t vboxsf sharedwithvbox /tmp/sharedhost
```

Installing SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) Policy Management tool

This is required later for securing your server when changing the port of SSH

Just run the command:
```
yum install policycoreutils-python
```

Installing Network Time Protocol

This is required later for synchronizing your server with NTP

Just run the command:
```
yum install ntp
```

Configure Squirrel SQL to connect to MySQL

"Squirrel SQL" is a great light weight generic SQL client that I have started using for more than 10 years now. As Java based it can be used from Windows, Linux, Mac OS as well

This is how to configure Squirrel SQL 3.6 on Windows 8.1 to connect to MySQL server ver 5.6 running on CentOS 7.

Steps:
1- Download MySQL Connector/J ver 5.1.34 & extract to any local folder C:\oracle\mysql\mysql-connector-java-5.1.34
2- You will find MySQL Driver in the drivers with red x mark as indicator that MySQL driver is not defined.
3- Double click "MySQL Driver".

4- Click "Extra Class Path" tab.
5- Click "Add" and select jar file from %MYSQL_JAVA_CONNECTOR%\mysql-connector-java-5.1.34-bin.jar
6- Click Ok, and we are done defining the driver.
7- Now create an alias for the DB.

Your driver dialog should look like:

VPS hosting comparison

What is VPS?

VPS is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service. A VPS runs its own copy of an operating system, and customers have superuser-level access to that operating system instance, so they can install almost any software that runs on that OS. For many purposes they are functionally equivalent to a dedicated physical server, and being software defined are able to be much more easily created and configured. They are priced much lower than an equivalent physical server, but as they share the underlying physical hardware with other VPSs, performance may be lower, and may depend on the workload of other instances on the same hardware node.

For Java hosting, why VPS is better than shared hosting?

	Shared	Private (VPS)
Private JVM Heap	No - JVM Heap is shared among other java web apps residing on the same shared tomcat instance.	Yes - you get a your very own dedicated JVM Heap which equates reliability, security, and availability of your web app.
Ability to Start/Stop Application Server	Yes - With scripts which you can execute and the Shared Tomcat will be restarted within 60 minutes or send email to support.	Yes - you can restart tomcat at anytime either via SSH or via our online web console.
Access to Application Server Admin / Manager	No	Yes
Easy deployment of WAR files	No - you will have to upload your WAR and manually unpack it yourself. Tomcat's automatic detection and unpacking of WAR files is disabled due because this is a Shared Tomcat environment.	Yes - you can deploy your WAR files via Tomcat Manager, SSH or simply upload it and Tomcat automatically detects and unpacks it.
Ability to install different software versions of JDK, Tomcat, JBoss, etc.	No - Yes. You can select from different JDK versions and when your account is set up select different Tomcat versions 5.5 and 6.x since it's a shared tomcat environment, you're bound by the shared tomcat version available which is version 5.5.x and JDK 1.5	Yes - you can have custom versions installed for you.
Interference with other application	Yes, you are affected by other application	No, you don't have to worry about other's application.
Memory/Heap Size Increase	No - with shared tomcat you cannot increase your JVM heap size since you're on a shared JVM heap	Yes - you can request additional JVM heap increase.

VPS vs Managed VPS

VPS: is just a virtual machine with root access and you do everything on your own.
Managed VPS: As VPS and you have root access as well but you get extra functionality with extra cost, such extra functionality is different between hosting providers. Sample of services are:

1. 1. GUI web control panel.
  2. Fast script installation.
  3. Operating System updates.
  4. Server hardening.
  5. Backup.
  6. Monitoring.

Managed hosting is for people who are uncertain what their doing with a VPS and can't manage it themselves or don't have the time to.

VPS Comparison

The following providers were selected as constantly repeating in all comparisons on the Internet.

#	Factor	Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
1	Bandwidth limitation (min - max)	2 - 20 TB	1 - 9 TB	2 - unlimited TB
2	SSD (Solid State Drive)	Yes, all	Yes, all	Yes, all
3	Processor series	Intel Ivy Bridge E5-2680	Intel Hexcore	Quad core or Dual Quad core Intel Xeon CPUs
4	Processor speed	2.8 GHZ	2.0 - 3.0 GHZ	Didn't reply
5	Processor range (min-max)	1 - 20 cores	1 - 20 cores	2 - 10 cores
6	Vertical scaling RAM range (min -max)	1 - 96 GB	0.5 - 64 GB	1 - 32 GB
7	Load balancing support documented and well defined on level of application server	Yes	No, being built, you can have node balance as droplet.	No, you need to build it using Nginx, HAproxy or similar
8	MySQL support clustering or not	Load balancing supported for MySQL	Support Master/Master, Master/Slave, Load balancing	Help you setup MySQL clustering
9	Redundancy level	No details provided by their support.	Offered in different layers.	Yes, details in comment.
Managed VPS		Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
10	CLI (Command Line Interface)	Yes, free	Yes, & alternative, but seems community based.	Root access
11	API (Programmatic interface for automating tasks)	Yes, free (In Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Java, Node.js)	V1 stable, V2 Public Beta	No
12	GUI web control panel.	Yes but included in high price Managed requires 100 $ / month	Yes	Yes within their managed hosting service free
13	Fast script installation.	Yes	Yes, but few	Yes, by request
14	Operating System updates.	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No, after looking to support answer link, they help by diving details, or user from community, and you have to do it yourself.	No, your responsibility, but they can help.
15	Automated Backup.	Yes	Yes	Weekly free
16	User initiated Backup.	Yes	Yes	Not sure
17	Monitoring.	Yes	Yes but you need to built as droplet	Basic monitoring included
18	Mobile application monitoring on the go	Yes management & monitoring iOS, Android	Yes by contributors: iOS, Android but seems for management only not monitoring which is much important.	Yes by deployed to another server for monitoring.
19	Scheduling	Yes, through cron	Yes, through cron	Not mentioned in knowledgebase but I think will be through cron as well
20	Professional service for support & installation	Yes but included with estimation & costing	Yes try for help as per the comments section	Yes try for help as per the comments section
Application Server Supported		Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
21	Tomcat	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No specialty rather than try to help as per the comments section	They can help install them if we are not sure how to do it.
22	JBoss	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No specialty rather than try to help as per the comments section	They can help install them if we are not sure how to do it.
23	Glassfish	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No specialty rather than try to help as per the comments section	They can help install them if we are not sure how to do it.
Support		Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
24	SLA*	99.9%	99.99%	99.9% Network 100% for server with refund policy
25	Support model	Web tickets 24 x 7	Web tickets 24 x 7	Web tickets 24 x 7
26	RPO (Recovery Point Objective)	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No clear answer from email received	No clear answer in email
27	RTO (Recovery Time Objective)	No, have a look at support question in comments section.	No clear answer from email received	No clear answer in email
Pricing		Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
28	Price for initial launch**	40 - 80 $ / month	40 - 160 $ / month	60 - 80 $ / month
29	Free plan	No	No	No
30	Price for development server	40 $ / month	40 $ / month	60 $ / month
31	Support cost	0	0	0
32	Backup cost	10 - 20 $ / month Snapshot is supported within the backup service without extra cost, it allows a single snapshot to be kept for every linode, i.e. when you take another snapshot it will ask you to override existing (Details).	Backup: 20 % of virtual cost = 8 - 32 $ / month Snapshot: 0.02 / GB / month	Backup: 0 for weekly
33	Monitoring cost	0 - 20 $ / month	10 $ / month As new droplet	0 they seem partner with SolidAlert for web site monitoring
34	Load balancing cost	20 $ / month	10 $ / month As new droplet	20 $ / month as new server
35	Total cost for initial load (development, production server, Support, Backup, Monitoring)	90 $ / month	98 $ / month	120 $ / month
Documentation		Linode	DigitalOcean	RoseHosting
36	Video	No dedicated channel, but there are lots of videos as tutorials and setup from people using it.	Official Channel, but there are lots of videos for tutorials & setup especially OceanCasts	None
37	Blog	Yes	Yes	No
38	Forum	Yes	Question & Answers	No
39	Documentation site	Yes, comprehensive	Tutorials, comprehensive	Very limited compared to Linode or DigitalOcean
40	Extra	They pay 250$ to the community when submitting articles to encourage sharing information.	They pay 200$ to the community when submitting articles to encourage sharing information.

SLA*:
99% SLA means your cloud access could be disrupted by 7.3 hours a month
          99.9% SLA translates to about 44 minutes of downtime over a month
          99.95% SLA translates to about 22 minutes of downtime over a month
          99.99% SLA translates to about 4 minutes 23 seconds of downtime over a month

Price for initial launch**: For normalization assumption for application is composed of 1 VPS with following configuration:

1. RAM: 6 GB
2. Processor: 2 Core
3. Storage: 100 GB

Price for Development server: For normalization assumption for application is composed of 1 VPS with following configuration:

1. RAM: 4 GB
2. Processor: 1 Core
3. Storage: 50 GB

Conclusion

I think Linode is best option & more production ready than the other VPS provider. It is all based on your needs, and your criteria of selection.

I hope this evaluation helps someone there who might take it as basis and add to it what other relevant factors that is best suited for his/her needs.

Conclusion After 4 months of Linode trial

The server availability is great. Support is quite responsive, and I'm happy customer :)
I have submitted article (Java Development with WildFly on CentOS 7) in their documentation & have been granted 250$ chosen to be credited to my linode account to support my servers ;)

Dropped providers

JustHost: No SSD support.
Arvixe webhosting: Partial SSD support.
HostJava: No SSD support.
Myhosting: It seems their Java support is outdated as talking about Java 6 SE.
JSPZone: No SSD support and plans with very little hardware.
Dailyrazor: No SSD support.
oxxus: They seem rather slow as ordering server takes around 4 hours.
VPS.net: I searched in their knowledge base for Java, Tomcat, Jboss and no results returned, so we will suffer when try to get help. And their prices are higher than Linode or DigitalOcean so no need to add them.
A small orange: Prices are higher than Linode or DigitalOcean, and also their knowledge-base doesn't have reference to Java only 2 links with nearly nothing to mention.

Techie Architect