A '''virtual machine''' is a software simulation of a computer which can be used as though it were actual hardware. It's possible to run multiple virtual machines on one computer, reducing hardware requirements and introducing flexibility. Some common uses of virtualization include:

* '''Software testing ''' -- Using multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single computer for testing and experimentation.* '''Network simulation ''' -- Testing network services, protocols, and security scenarios with a small number of computers.* '''Isolation ''' -- Protecting multiple sets of data by storing them on multiple virtual machines. If one of the virtual machines is compromised, the data on other virtual machines is still protected.* '''Server consolidation ''' -- Reducing the number of physical servers in a network by moving physical machines to virtual machines. This saves hardware, administration, cooling, and electricity costs, and it can increase the utilization of hardware (by ensuring that the hardware is not under-loaded).* '''Load-balancing and disaster recovery ''' -- It is possible to migrate virtual machines between different physical machines, to ensure that a workload is balanced across multiple computers, to allow routine hardware maintenance and upgrading, and to compensate for hardware failure or other disasters.

'''In this lab, you will create three virtual machines'''. This also gives you an opportunity to experiment with different ways of installing Fedora. Later in this course you will install another operating system distribution in a virtual machines.

You should already have already used both a Fedora installation DVD installation discand a Fedora LIVE CD. In both cases, the boot media (which you used to load the installation software) and the installation source (where the software that got installed came from) were the same: they your CD/DVD provided provides both. However, the Fedora (and most other Linux distributions) permits you to use any combination of boot media and installation media:

** '''Live Image Installation'''** '''Network Installation'''** '''Kickstart Installation'''