Oracle today announced the availability of Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular, open source, cross-platform virtualization software.
The release builds on previous versions by adding new features such as VM Groups which are designed to streamline management, improving network capabilities, and providing support for new host and guest operating system platforms.

Increased Efficiency, Network Enhancements and Broader Platform Support

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2 Group
Increased efficiency: Making it easier and more efficient to manage larger numbers of similar virtual machines, Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2's new VM Group feature enables grouping of VMs.

This allows administrators or users to operate on any number of VMs all at once, through a graphical user interface, APIs, and command line tools.

More flexible VM startup options: VMs that don't need user interaction can now be started within Oracle VM VirtualBox the same way as standard VMs. Virtual machines of all types can be set to start automatically after the host system is booted, allowing virtual machines to be managed similarly to other host services.

Networking improvements:

With an increase in the maximum number of network cards per VM from eight to 36, Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2 can be used to simulate complex networks without the need to procure costly hardware.

New network bandwidth controls have been added, and are designed to prevent any VM from taking more than its allocated share of network traffic.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2 - Latest Platforms

The virtual network card in Oracle VM VirtualBox now supports VLAN tagging, allowing VMs to participate in VLAN environments.

New platform support: Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2 adds support for Windows 8, Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion," and Oracle Linux 6.3.