What are virtual appliances, and how to quickly deploy them for performance gains

Oscar Wong/Getty Images Over the years, I've deployed myriad servers and services onto local area networks for use at home, for businesses, for clients, and more. I've also had to install such software to either review or use on my home LAN. Also: How to create a Linux virtual machine with VirtualBox There are times when I'm too busy to install an operating system, install the service in question on the OS, and then configure the service to run properly. When I find myself in such a situation, I'll often turn to virtual appliances. What are virtual appliances? A virtual appliance is essentially an operating system pre-configured with certain server-based services included for a single purpose. For example, you might want to install the open-source cloud platform Nextcloud, but you don't want to first install an OS, then install the necessary dependencies, create a database, and then install the software. Why do all of that when you can deploy a virtual appliance that already has ... Read full article.