{"id":463,"date":"2016-05-24T10:59:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T14:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?page_id=463"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:33:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:33:27","slug":"virtual-machines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/tech-support\/virtual-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Virtual Machines\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"w-full max-w-xl mx-auto overflow-hidden bg-white rounded-lg shadow-lg cu-stackedlist cu-component not-contained not-prose\">\n    <h2 class=\"px-6 py-4 text-base font-semibold border-b rounded-t-lg md:text-xl bg-gray-50 text-cu-black-800\">\n        Table of Contents\n    <\/h2>\n    <div class=\"grid cu-scrollto cu-stackedlist--toc cu-stackedlist--1 md:grid-cols-1\">\n            <div class=\"space-y-1\">\n                    \n            <div class=\"pl-4 text-cu-red-700\">\n                <div class=\"flex gap-2 pb-3 text-base md:text-lg\">\n                    <span class=\"font-light text-cu-black-700\">\n                        1.\n                    <\/span>\n\n                    <a href=\"#what-are-virtualmachines\" class=\"font-medium hover:underline\">\n                        What are Virtual Machines\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                            <\/div>\n                    \n            <div class=\"pl-4 text-cu-red-700\">\n                <div class=\"flex gap-2 pb-3 text-base md:text-lg\">\n                    <span class=\"font-light text-cu-black-700\">\n                        2.\n                    <\/span>\n\n                    <a href=\"#support-virtualmachines\" class=\"font-medium hover:underline\">\n                        Support: Getting Started and Getting Help\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                            <\/div>\n                    \n            <div class=\"pl-4 text-cu-red-700\">\n                <div class=\"flex gap-2 pb-3 text-base md:text-lg\">\n                    <span class=\"font-light text-cu-black-700\">\n                        3.\n                    <\/span>\n\n                    <a href=\"#about-course-virtualmachines\" class=\"font-medium hover:underline\">\n                        About SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                            <\/div>\n                    \n            <div class=\"pl-4 text-cu-red-700\">\n                <div class=\"flex gap-2 pb-3 text-base md:text-lg\">\n                    <span class=\"font-light text-cu-black-700\">\n                        4.\n                    <\/span>\n\n                    <a href=\"#current-list-virtualmachines\" class=\"font-medium hover:underline\">\n                        Current SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                            <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-are-virtualmachines\">What are Virtual Machines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n    \n    <dl class=\"cu-description cu-component-updated\">\n        \n    <div class=\"grid pt-4 pb-3 border-b accordion border-cu-black-100 md:pt-6 md:pb-5 first:border-t\">\n        <dt class=\"font-semibold not-prose\">\n            <button class=\"flex items-center justify-between w-full text-left accordion__button\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion-virtualization-technology\">\n                <span class=\"flex-1 ml-auto text-left break-words whitespace-normal cu-icon\">\n                    Virtualization Technology\n                <\/span>\n                <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" stroke-width=\"1.5\" stroke=\"currentColor\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-slot=\"icon\" class=\"w-5 h-5 ml-auto transition-transform rotate-0 accordion__icon text-cu-black-500\">\n                    <path stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" d=\"M8.25 4.5l7.5 7.5-7.5 7.5\"><\/path>\n                <\/svg>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/dt>\n        <dd class=\"p-0 mt-0 cu-prose cu-prose-first-last accordion__content md:p-0 md:mt-0\" hidden=\"\" id=\"accordion-virtualization-technology\">\n            \n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>virtualization<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>\u2013 the underlying technology that allows a virtual operating system to be run as an application on your computer\u2019s operating system<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>hypervisor<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>\u2013 the virtualization application (such as&nbsp;<strong>VirtualBox<\/strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>VMware<\/strong>) running on your&nbsp;<strong>host<\/strong>&nbsp;computer that allows it to run a&nbsp;<strong>guest<\/strong>&nbsp;virtual operating system<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>host<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>\u2013 the computer on which you are running the&nbsp;<strong>hypervisor<\/strong>&nbsp;application<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>guest<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>\u2013 a virtual operating system running within the&nbsp;<strong>hypervisor<\/strong>&nbsp;on your&nbsp;<strong>host<\/strong>&nbsp;computer. The&nbsp;<strong>virtual operating system<\/strong>&nbsp;term is synonymous with other terms such as&nbsp;<strong>Virtual Machine<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>VM<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>instance<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n        <\/dd>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n    <\/dl>\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Virtual Machines<\/strong> are virtual computers running as an application on a <strong>host<\/strong> computer, such as your laptop. The <strong>Virtual Machine<\/strong> runs <em>on top of<\/em> your <strong>host<\/strong> computer&#8217;s operating system, using a virtualization tool called a <strong>hypervisor<\/strong>. This allows you to run any number of <strong>guest<\/strong> operating systems without impacting the operating system on your own <strong>host<\/strong> computer. For example, most of our courses use Virtual Machines built on the <em>Linux<\/em> environment. By taking advantage of <strong>hypervisor<\/strong> technology, students can continue to run their preferred operating system (Windows 11\/10, Linux, older <em>Intel based<\/em> macOS devices, etc.), and run the course Virtual Machine on their computer like they would any other application. <em>NOTE: Most hypervisors do NOT support the Apple M1 chipset. See <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/2024\/m1-mac-other-non-virtualization-devices\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"11044\">this article<\/a> for details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"support-virtualmachines\">Support: Getting Started and Getting Help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/tech-support\/virtual-machines\/virtual-machine-technical-support\/virtual-machine-step-by-step-guide\/\" type=\"page\" id=\"8645\">Virtual Machine Step-by-Step Guide<\/a><br><em>Step-by-step tutorials that demonstrate how to set up Virtual Machines or your computer<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/tech-support\/virtual-machines\/virtual-machine-technical-support\/\" type=\"page\" id=\"3949\">Virtual Machine Technical Support<\/a><br><em>General Virtual Machine guides and troubleshooting articles<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"about-course-virtualmachines\">About SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The SCS Course Virtual Machines&nbsp;(SCS VMs) are all in <strong>VirtualBox .ova<\/strong> format (unless otherwise noted). Most will work fine with other <strong>hypervisors (KVM, VMWare, Hyper-V, etc.)<\/strong>. The naming convention is the usually the course code <strong>COMPXXXX<\/strong> of the course it was built for, followed by an optional term, such as <strong>-F25<\/strong>&nbsp;for <strong>Fall 2025<\/strong>, representing when it was created. Many VMs continue to be used for both future terms and different courses. <strong>Consult with your Instructor to determine the exact SCS VM you are expected to use for your course!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT:<\/strong> Some vital things to remember when working with SCS VMs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SCS VMs <strong><em>require<\/em><\/strong> the <strong>VirtualBox Extension Pack<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/2024\/install-virtualbox\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"8657\">Installing VirtualBox Guide<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The current SCS VMs have been tested with <strong>VirtualBox 7.2.4<\/strong> on Windows 11 and Linux<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Older (Archived) SCS VMs are <em>NOT<\/em> tested on recent operating systems and newer versions of VirtualBox<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Most hypervisors, including VirtualBox, do <em>NOT<\/em> support the Apple M1\/M2 chipsets. So SCS VMs cannot be used on those devices. See <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/2024\/m1-mac-other-non-virtualization-devices\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"11044\">this article<\/a> for details<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"current-list-virtualmachines\">Current SCS (COMP) Course Virtual Machines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> Our <strong>CURRENT<\/strong> Virtual Machines typically use the credentials <strong>username: <em>student<\/em> \/ password: <em>student<\/em><\/strong> (unless otherwise noted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Virtual Machine<br>(SHA1 checksum)<\/th><th>Size<br>(GB)<\/th><th>OS<\/th><th>Privileged<br>user \/ password<\/th><th>Staff \/ Faculty<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/git.scs.carleton.ca\/downloads\/CourseVirtualMachines\/2025F-2026W\/COMP2401-F25.ova\">COMP2401-F25.ova<\/a><br><strong>UPDATED Sep 04, 2025<\/strong><br>(fed23c5dfd0be29b00a897221648e0bd8bba72ef)<\/td><td>3.7<\/td><td>ubuntu<br>24.04<\/td><td>student \/ student<\/td><td>A. Pullin<br>Connor Hillen<br>Yanan Mao<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/git.scs.carleton.ca\/downloads\/CourseVirtualMachines\/2025F-2026W\/COMP2406-F25.ova\">COMP2406-F25.ova<\/a><br><strong>UPDATED Sep 04, 2025<\/strong><br>(f9ec4f683413cf947cbd9d2d3036f09b889e0f63)<\/td><td>2.5<\/td><td>ubuntu<br>24.04<\/td><td>student \/ student<\/td><td>A. Pullin<br>A. Runka<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/git.scs.carleton.ca\/downloads\/CourseVirtualMachines\/2025F-2026W\/COMP3000-W26.ova\">COMP3000-W26.ova<\/a><br><strong>UPDATED Jan 15, 2026<\/strong><br>(166d4f5e4e0787b07917b6e009bb7175771a4214)<\/td><td>2.3<\/td><td>ubuntu<br>24.04<\/td><td>student \/ student<\/td><td>A. Pullin<br>Z. Rabinovich<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/git.scs.carleton.ca\/downloads\/CourseVirtualMachines\/2025F-2026W\/COMP3004-F25.ova\">COMP3004-F25.ova<\/a><br><strong>UPDATED Aug 28, 2025<\/strong><br>(ac8bfb97ee21d46cdc5f1bb67274c432729f1a24)<\/td><td>2.9<\/td><td>ubuntu<br>22.04<\/td><td>student \/ student<\/td><td>A. Pullin<br>S. Benjamin<br>C. Laurendeau<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> Look here for the <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/tech-support\/virtual-machines\/virtual-image-archive\/\" type=\"page\" id=\"6592\">archive of Virtual Machines from previous years<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n    \n    <dl class=\"cu-description cu-component-updated\">\n        \n    <div class=\"grid pt-4 pb-3 border-b accordion border-cu-black-100 md:pt-6 md:pb-5 first:border-t\">\n        <dt class=\"font-semibold not-prose\">\n            <button class=\"flex items-center justify-between w-full text-left accordion__button\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion-sha1-checksum-information\">\n                <span class=\"flex-1 ml-auto text-left break-words whitespace-normal cu-icon\">\n                    SHA1 Checksum Information\n                <\/span>\n                <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" stroke-width=\"1.5\" stroke=\"currentColor\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-slot=\"icon\" class=\"w-5 h-5 ml-auto transition-transform rotate-0 accordion__icon text-cu-black-500\">\n                    <path stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" d=\"M8.25 4.5l7.5 7.5-7.5 7.5\"><\/path>\n                <\/svg>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/dt>\n        <dd class=\"p-0 mt-0 cu-prose cu-prose-first-last accordion__content md:p-0 md:mt-0\" hidden=\"\" id=\"accordion-sha1-checksum-information\">\n            \n\n<p><strong>SHA1:&nbsp;<\/strong>We include a&nbsp;<strong>SHA1<\/strong>&nbsp;checksum so that you can verify the integrity of the downloaded .ova file. Here is how to check the SHA1 checksum on different operating systems&nbsp;<em>(this may take some time for larger files)<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Linux:&nbsp;<\/strong><code>sha1sum COMPXXXX-XXX.ova<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>macOS:&nbsp;<\/strong><code>shasum COMPXXXX-XXX.ova<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Windows:&nbsp;<\/strong>Using Powershell, run:&nbsp;<code>Get-FileHash COMPXXXX-XXX.ova -Algorithm SHA1<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>NOTE: Replace&nbsp;<strong>COMPXXXX-XXX.ova<\/strong>&nbsp;with the path\/filename for your particular .ova file<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n        <\/dd>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n    <\/dl>\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are Virtual Machines 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&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":6535,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[75],"class_list":["post-463","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cu_page_type-technical-support"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25227,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/463\/revisions\/25227"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}