Storm was originally designed to run on Unix-style operating systems, but as of Version 0.9.1, it supports deployment on Windows as well.
For our purposes, we will be using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for its relative ease of use. We'll use the server version which by default does not include a graphical user interface since we won't need or use it. The Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server can be downloaded from http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-server-i386.iso.
The instructions that follow the command work equally well on both the actual hardware as well as virtual machines. For the purpose of learning and development, you will likely find it much more convenient to work with virtual machines, especially if you don't have several networked computers readily available.
Virtualization software is readily available for OSX, Linux, and Windows. We recommend any one of the following software options: