I'm learning Hadoop. We just installed a HortonWorks Sandbox on a VM. Once we start the VM, we're able to use our Host's web browser to interact with the VM.
I don't really understand this. I thought the Host and VM were completely isolated?
Why when I launch the VM, can I then use the web interface on my Host computer to interact with the VM? May be a simple question but I've never done this before and I've never used a VM like this.
Thanks
The purpose of a VM is to give an isolated environment yes, but the VM software is still running on your host, and using its hardware.
Your network interface is the same and you're using "port forwarding" features of the VM network interface.
Its nothing to do with Hadoop or that VM, but the settings it came installed with.
Similar settings are applied by web or other application developers that want to test their software in different environments. You don't need a desktop / GUI in a VM to test most server applications.
(Worth pointing out that the latest Hortonworks VM also runs Docker internally, so ports are forwarded out of a container to be exposed by the VM)