Virtual Machines

1. What are Virtual Machines

2. Support: Getting Started and Getting Help

3. About SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines

4. Current SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines

What are Virtual Machines

: virtualization – the underlying technology that allows a virtual operating system to be run as an application on your computer’s operating system

hypervisor – the virtualization application (such as VirtualBox or VMware) running on your host computer that allows it to run a guest virtual operating system

host – the computer on which you are running the hypervisor application

guest – a virtual operating system running within the hypervisor on your host computer. The virtual operating system term is synonymous with other terms such as Virtual Machine, VM and instance

Virtual Machines are virtual computers running as an application on a host computer, such as your laptop. The Virtual Machine runs on top of your host computer’s operating system, using a virtualization tool called a hypervisor. This allows you to run any number of guest operating systems without impacting the operating system on your own host computer. For example, most of our courses use Virtual Machines built on the Linux environment. By taking advantage of hypervisor technology, students can continue to run their preferred operating system (Windows 11/10, Linux, older Intel based macOS devices, etc.), and run the course Virtual Machine on their computer like they would any other application. NOTE: Most hypervisors do NOT support the Apple M1 chipset. See this article for details.

Support: Getting Started and Getting Help

Virtual Machine Step-by-Step Guide
Step-by-step tutorials that demonstrate how to set up Virtual Machines or your computer
Virtual Machine Technical Support
General Virtual Machine guides and troubleshooting articles

About SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines

The SCS Course Virtual Machines (SCS VMs) are all in VirtualBox .ova format (unless otherwise noted). Most will work fine with other hypervisors (KVM, VMWare, Hyper-V, etc.). The naming convention is the usually the course code COMPXXXX of the course it was built for, followed by an optional term, such as –F26 for Fall 2026, representing when it was created. Many VMs continue to be used for both future terms and different courses. Consult with your Instructor to determine the exact SCS VM you are expected to use for your course!

IMPORTANT: Some vital things to remember when working with SCS VMs:

SCS VMs require the VirtualBox Extension Pack (Installing VirtualBox Guide)
The current SCS VMs have been tested with VirtualBox 7.2.4 on Windows 11 and Linux
WARNING: There are known stability issues with versions of VirtualBox newer than 7.2.4, so we recommend that version for the time being. If you use the latest version of VirtualBox, you may need to do some tweaking of settings to get the Virtual Machines to work on your device.
If you are having stability issues with VirtualBox that are not able to be resolved, most of our courses also offer openstack resources that provide a cloud-based alternative. See OpenStack for details.
Older (Archived) SCS VMs are NOT tested on recent operating systems and newer versions of VirtualBox
Most hypervisors, including VirtualBox, do NOT support the Apple M1/M2 chipsets. So SCS VMs cannot be used on those devices. See this article for details

Current SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines

NOTE: Our CURRENT Virtual Machines typically use the credentials username: student / password: student (unless otherwise noted).

Virtual Machine (SHA1 checksum)	Size (GB)	OS	Privileged user / password	Staff / Faculty
COMP2404-F26.ova UPDATED Sep 02, 2026 (24487016549a1c4beb1a8fbf078642ecb9682e46)	3.7	ubuntu 26.04	student / student	A. Pullin Christine Laurendeau
COMP3004-F26.ova UPDATED Sep 02, 2026 (8ad3a6206fcb168c2fd2eb98037066f7b09fe142)	2.5	ubuntu 22.04	student / student	A. Pullin Christine Laurendeau