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I am creating a new VM, how do I go about creating a bootable ISO file from the databaseXXX.tar.bz2 file I was sent? I am pretty new to Linux, so any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to LQ:
Open your terminal and type this:
then you should be able to use the ISO in it to create a VM.
Virtualbox allows for mounting and booting from ISO for installation.

I have nothing installed though, so I have no terminal window. I don't have a physical disc, so how do I mount it in VM to run the installer? I have an install.jar not ISO files. I wish I just simply had an ISO file

OK, so I guess my real question is how can I create a bootable ISO file from this tar.bz2 file

What Linux Distribution are you planning on install?

Can you download a Linux ISO, otherwise you'd need Magic-ISO or something; 7zip should be able to open the archive in winblow$?

I'd kind of doubt that this file contains a bootable iso.

Why do you think there is a bootable iso inside the archive?

True that. Is there a link to said databaseXXX.tar.bz2, should contain specific files and folders if it's for an ISO?
Separate examples: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/w...urn-image.html
http://schlesinger.us/blog/how-to-bu...under-windows/

It may be that this compressed file contains a virtual hard drive and as such not generally considered an ISO file. We incorrectly use the phrase iso to mean a bit by bit copy of an optical disc. ISO is actually a standard like metric.