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SmartOS as a VirtualBox Guest

Quick Start

The best method for using SmartOS under VirtualBox is to download the latest ISO image.

In VirtualBox, create a New machine. Set the OS as "Solaris 11 64bit". Attach the ISO image to the CD-ROM drive and select it as the boot volume. Give the VM at least 2GB of RAM, preferably more.

Before booting the machine, go to the "Storage Section" and add another hard disk (at least 20GB in size, preferably more) named "Zpool", VMDK type, for your ZFS pool.

Some other recommended configuration changes are:

  • Disable Audio
  • Disable "Enable absolute pointing device"
  • Enable PAE/NX
  • Ensure Network is enable on Adapter 1 is of Type "Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop"

When you boot the machine and do the initial configuration ensure that you use the secondary disk (likely named "c0t2d0") as your Zpool.