With the release of VirtualBox 2.2 today, exporting and importing appliances becomes lot easier. The new features of VirtualBox 2.2 includes import and export of appliances based on OVF or Open Virtualization Format.
One of my earlier blog entry talks about creating appliances. Using the same script mentioned in the earlier blog entry, I now have a OVF Image which will work with VirtualBox 2.2 "Import Appliance" and make it easier to try a virtual PostgreSQL 8.3 database appliance running OpenSolaris under the cover.
The PostgreSQL 8.3 Appliance Image is less than 330MB (unlike a full install of OpenSolaris which could take more than 1500MB). Just unzip the files in a directory and import them through VirtualBox 2.2 using File->Import Appliance Wizard. Since an appliance (database in this case) is typically accessed through external application servers, you will want to use Bridge Network instead of NAT. Detailed instructions to make it accessible (both VirtualBox VM as well as PostgreSQL 8.3) from external clients are published on Postgres 8.3 Appliance page.
Finally it is lot easier to finally see the following grub menu on your own VirtualBox 2.2:
Also for PostgreSQL users/developers who are not familiar with OpenSolaris, this VM allows you to try the DTrace probes and ZFS snapshots with PostgreSQL 8.3. More information related to it is coming soon on Postgres 8.3 Appliance page. Also the PostgreSQL DTrace Toolkit 2009.03.29 is available on PGFoundry.org.
Tip: You can also use my PostgreSQL Monitor Demo to connect to it:
As usual if you have questions, I will be happy to answer them.
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