107 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
||
|
|
sidebar_current: "vmware-boxes"
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
# Boxes
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
As with [every provider](/v2/providers/boxes.html), the VMware
|
||
|
|
providers have a custom box format.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This page documents the format so that you can create your own base boxes.
|
||
|
|
Note that currently you must make these base boxes by hand. A future release
|
||
|
|
of Vagrant will provide additional mechanisms for automatically creating such
|
||
|
|
images.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="alert alert-info">
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
<strong>Note:</strong> This is a reasonably advanced topic that
|
||
|
|
a beginning user of Vagrant doesn't need to understand. If you're
|
||
|
|
just getting started with Vagrant, skip this and use an available
|
||
|
|
box. If you're an experienced user of Vagrant and want to create
|
||
|
|
your own custom boxes, this is for you.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Prior to reading this page, please understand the
|
||
|
|
[basics of the box file format](/v2/boxes/format.html).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Contents
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
A VMware base box is a compressed archive of the necessary contents
|
||
|
|
of a VMware "vmwarevm" file. Here is an example of what is contained
|
||
|
|
in such a box:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
$ tree
|
||
|
|
.
|
||
|
|
|-- disk-s001.vmdk
|
||
|
|
|-- disk-s002.vmdk
|
||
|
|
|-- ...
|
||
|
|
|-- disk.vmdk
|
||
|
|
|-- metadata.json
|
||
|
|
|-- precise64.nvram
|
||
|
|
|-- precise64.vmsd
|
||
|
|
|-- precise64.vmx
|
||
|
|
|-- precise64.vmxf
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
0 directories, 17 files
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The files that are strictly required for a VMware machine to function are:
|
||
|
|
nvram, vmsd, vmx, vmxf, and vmdk files.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
There is also the "metadata.json" file used by Vagrant itself. This file
|
||
|
|
contains nothing but the defaults which are documented on the
|
||
|
|
[box format](/v2/boxes/format.html) page.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When bringing up a VMware backed machine, Vagrant copies all of the contents
|
||
|
|
in the box into a privately managed "vmwarevm" folder, and uses the first
|
||
|
|
"vmx" file found to control the machine.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="alert alert-info">
|
||
|
|
<h3>Linked Clones</h3>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
A future version of the VMware provider will implement
|
||
|
|
linked cloning.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Installed Software
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Base boxes for VMware should have the following software installed, as
|
||
|
|
a bare minimum:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
* SSH server with key-based authentication setup. If you want the box to
|
||
|
|
work with default Vagrant settings, the SSH user must be set to accept
|
||
|
|
the [insecure keypair](https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/blob/master/keys/vagrant.pub)
|
||
|
|
that ships with Vagrant.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
* [VMware Tools](http://kb.vmware.com/kb/340) so that things such as shared
|
||
|
|
folders can function. There are many other benefits to installing the tools,
|
||
|
|
such as improved networking performance.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Optimizing Box Size
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Prior to packaging up a box, you should shrink the hard drives as much as
|
||
|
|
possible. This can be done with `vmware-vdiskmanager` which is usually
|
||
|
|
found in `/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library` for VMware Fusion. You first
|
||
|
|
want to defragment then shrink the drive. Usage shown below:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
$ vmware-vdiskmanager -d /path/to/main.vmdk
|
||
|
|
...
|
||
|
|
$ vmware-vdiskmanager -k /path/to/main.vmdk
|
||
|
|
...
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Packaging
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Remove any extraneous files from the "vmwarevm" folder
|
||
|
|
and package it. Be sure to compress the tar with gzip (done below in a
|
||
|
|
single command) since VMware hard disks are not compressed by default.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
$ cd /path/to/my/vm.vmwarevm
|
||
|
|
$ tar cvzf custom.box ./*
|
||
|
|
```
|