From 2717f5605ae4372c93a3eb768242a4355c37f1de Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Manuel=20P=C3=B6ter?= Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 18:03:03 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Document use_linked_clone property for VirtualBox provider. --- .../v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md | 24 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+) diff --git a/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md b/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md index 22cb2a6c5..c9ee51540 100644 --- a/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md +++ b/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md @@ -36,6 +36,30 @@ config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v| end ``` +## Linked Clones + +By default new machines are created by importing the base box. For large +boxes this produces a large overhead in terms of time (the import operation) +and space (the new machine contains a copy of the base box's image). +Using linked clones can drastically reduce this overhead. + +Linked clones are based on a master VM, which is generated by importing the +base box only once the first time it is required. For the linked clones only +differencing disk images are created where the parent disk image belongs to +the master VM. + +```ruby +config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v| + v.use_linked_clone = true +end +``` + +
+ Note: the generated master VMs are currently not removed + automatically by Vagrant. This has to be done manually. However, a master + VM can only be remove when there are no linked clones connected to it. +
+ ## VBoxManage Customizations [VBoxManage](http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html) is a utility that can