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leth/gist:3940766

Created October 23, 2012 18:51
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Virtualbox differencing disks for Vagrant
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gistfile1.md

Summary

  • Detach disk from VM
  • Clone VM (fast!)
  • Attach disk to new VM in 'multiattach' mode (On attaching, virtualbox creates a new differencing image tied to original disk)
  • ...
  • Profit!

Status/Notes

  • Can't import the .ova without cloning the disks. (The ignore option is understood, but causes it to crash.)
  • Cloning the disks is the slow part :/
  • If disk type is already 'multiattach' attach it normally

Pros

  • Superfast vm creation!
  • Saves disk space

Cons

  • Creates a dependency between VM disks and original Box disk
  • Potential for slower disk i/o speed
    • Vagrantfile option to clone disk (full copy) on VM creation instead?

Disclaimer

VM & disk manipulation tested on Linux. Performance not tested. Only tested using vbox 4.2.

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