113 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
113 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "docs"
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page_title: "Configuration - VirtualBox Provider"
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sidebar_current: "providers-virtualbox-configuration"
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description: |-
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The VirtualBox provider exposes some additional configuration options
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that allow you to more finely control your VirtualBox-powered Vagrant
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environments.
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---
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# Configuration
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The VirtualBox provider exposes some additional configuration options
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that allow you to more finely control your VirtualBox-powered Vagrant
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environments.
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## GUI vs. Headless
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By default, VirtualBox machines are started in headless mode, meaning
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there is no UI for the machines visible on the host machine. Sometimes,
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you want to have a UI. Common use cases include wanting to see a browser
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that may be running in the machine, or debugging a strange boot issue.
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You can easily tell the VirtualBox provider to boot with a GUI:
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```
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config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
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v.gui = true
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end
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```
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## Virtual Machine Name
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You can customize the name that appears in the VirtualBox GUI by
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setting the `name` property. By default, Vagrant sets it to the containing
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folder of the Vagrantfile plus a timestamp of when the machine was created.
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By setting another name, your VM can be more easily identified.
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```ruby
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config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
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v.name = "my_vm"
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end
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```
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## Linked Clones
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By default new machines are created by importing the base box. For large
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boxes this produces a large overhead in terms of time (the import operation)
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and space (the new machine contains a copy of the base box's image).
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Using linked clones can drastically reduce this overhead.
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Linked clones are based on a master VM, which is generated by importing the
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base box only once the first time it is required. For the linked clones only
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differencing disk images are created where the parent disk image belongs to
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the master VM.
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```ruby
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config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
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v.linked_clone = true
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end
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```
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To have backward compatibility:
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```ruby
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config.vm.provider 'virtualbox' do |v|
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v.linked_clone = true if Vagrant::VERSION =~ /^1.8/
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end
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```
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If you do not want backward compatibility and want to force users to
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support linked cloning, you can use `Vagrant.require_version` with 1.8.
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<div class="alert alert-info">
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<strong>Note:</strong> the generated master VMs are currently not removed
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automatically by Vagrant. This has to be done manually. However, a master
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VM can only be removed when there are no linked clones connected to it.
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</div>
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## VBoxManage Customizations
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[VBoxManage](https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html) is a utility that can
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be used to make modifications to VirtualBox virtual machines from the command
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line.
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Vagrant exposes a way to call any command against VBoxManage just prior
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to booting the machine:
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```ruby
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config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
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v.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--cpuexecutioncap", "50"]
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end
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```
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In the example above, the VM is modified to have a host CPU execution
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cap of 50%, meaning that no matter how much CPU is used in the VM, no
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more than 50% would be used on your own host machine. Some details:
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* The `:id` special parameter is replaced with the ID of the virtual
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machine being created, so when a VBoxManage command requires an ID, you
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can pass this special parameter.
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* Multiple `customize` directives can be used. They will be executed in the
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order given.
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There are some convenience shortcuts for memory and CPU settings:
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```ruby
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config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
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v.memory = 1024
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v.cpus = 2
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end
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```
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