--- title: "Drupal Development on the Fly · Appnovation" url: "https://www.appnovation.com/insights/drupal-development-fly" description: "Want to be a Drupal pro? How to set up a local development environment that matches your production web server." --- Article # Drupal Development on the Fly [![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/36eb314260fb474cacc1b3a473d7e8402d997898-68x68.png?w=68&auto=format) Appno Blogger Appnovation Coop](/people/appno-blogger.md) Nov 07, 2013 2 min read ![Drupal Development on the Fly](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/31594cd6524e8dba4ef9d11ae36a707fde45b771-680x200.png?w=1400&auto=format) So you want to be a Drupal Pro…. ? In most cases this will require you to master setting-up of a local dev environment that's compatible with the production web server you're building for. Let's say you start with a clean slate so-to-speak, a freshly installed OS of whichever OS flavour you like... in my case it's usually ubuntu. Ideally you’d want to have that OS configured so that the environment has all the necssary tools to make your development endeavors productive. Generally this involves a lot of time and effort to set up. And let's say, as in my case, you're a front-end developer and the building of lamp stacks isn’t on the top of your daily to do list. The configuring of all the settings for git, drush, compass, ruby, php, msql, apache, drupal, and their dependencies - to name a few - could be more time consuming of a task then the occasional local sys admin would like... Oh what to do... The Drupal community comes to the rescue once again! This time with the [DrupalProDevelopment Desktop (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/drupalpro). DrupalPro is built on Ubuntu 12.04 and is a downloadable pre-built machine image for Virtualbox, but may work equally well with VMware, QEMU, Parallels, or the like. It is: easily backed up (even in real-time); easily cloned and customized for each individual project; easy to remove or migrate to the whole stack or to another computer; much more compatible with your production webserver than a [WAMP (opens in new window)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAMP) or [MAMP (opens in new window)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAMP) stack; and, can even be run on a USB3 stick. It's also useful for trainers looking for a clean stable environment that can be setup on the fly. All you need to get going is to install virtual box; in a nutshell: 1\. Install [Virtualbox (opens in new window)](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads)(version 4.1.16+) 2\. Download the image: [DrupalPro: Beta2 (opens in new window)](https://bit.ly/Drupal-Desktop-Development-Beta2) - works in 32 or 64bit environments 3\. Import virtual machine (.ova file): • Start Virtualbox • File -> Import Appliance -> Choose file... -> (select the downloaded ova image file) • Set RAM to 50% of your system RAM (minimum 1000MB) • If you have a multi-core CPU -- assign as many CPU's as you can spare. Virtualbox will only use when/whats needed. • Depending on your setup, you might need to disable HOST ONLY network card. • Import -> (wait for import to finish) And with that you can start developing on the fly! [![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/36eb314260fb474cacc1b3a473d7e8402d997898-68x68.png?w=68&auto=format) Appno Blogger Appnovation Coop · Appnovation](/people/appno-blogger.md) ## Keep reading [![What is Sovereign AI](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/a5889abdd5e80376912546622e046e3fbef234b4-2496x1664.png?w=640&auto=format)](/insights/what-is-open-source-sovereign-ai.md) Article · 7 min AI ### [What Is Open Source, Sovereign AI?](/insights/what-is-open-source-sovereign-ai.md) Every company is encouraging more AI, and almost every AI bill is climbing. Sovereign AI is about two kinds of control: over your data and over your costs. Here's why open source sits at its foundation. [Iain MacNeil](/people/iain-macneil.md) Article [![AI-first experience design](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/8bbc2418e87924ef10f36115478a2e10d5bed95e-1584x624.jpg?w=640&auto=format)](/insights/how-build-ai-first-experience-without-throwing-out-everything-youve-already-built.md) Article · 6 min AI Sep 10, 2026 ### [How to Build an AI-First Experience Without Throwing Out Everything You've Already Built](/insights/how-build-ai-first-experience-without-throwing-out-everything-youve-already-built.md) Users now expect a direct answer, not a list of links to click through. Here's how organizations can layer an AI-First experience onto their existing website or app, in weeks rather than years. [Andrew Douglas](/people/andrew-douglas.md) Article [![What Becomes Possible When AI Can Read All the Data](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/c28ab0bd26753421ee42937e13adc7a7f19b47f0-1296x510.jpg?w=640&auto=format)](/insights/what-becomes-possible-when-ai-can-read-all-data.md) Article · 4 min AI Sep 09, 2026 ### [What Becomes Possible When AI Can Read All the Data](/insights/what-becomes-possible-when-ai-can-read-all-data.md) Most of the world's data has never been analyzed, only sampled. AI changes that. How AI-ready data platforms unlock questions no one could ask before. [Appnovation](/people/appnovation.md) Article ## Get the thinking, *before everyone else.* One considered email a month. New essays, field notes from live engagements, and the occasional strong opinion. No noise.