--- description: Oracle VirtualBox driver for machine keywords: machine, Oracle VirtualBox, driver title: Oracle VirtualBox --- Create machines locally using [VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org/). This driver requires VirtualBox 5+ to be installed on your host. Using VirtualBox 4.3+ should work but emits a warning. Older versions do not work. ## Usage $ docker-machine create --driver=virtualbox vbox-test You can create an entirely new machine or you can convert a Boot2Docker VM into a machine by importing the VM. To convert a Boot2Docker VM, you'd use the following command: $ docker-machine create -d virtualbox --virtualbox-import-boot2docker-vm boot2docker-vm b2d The size of the VM's disk can be configured this way: $ docker-machine create -d virtualbox --virtualbox-disk-size "100000" large ## Options - `--virtualbox-boot2docker-url`: The URL of the boot2docker image. Defaults to the latest available version. - `--virtualbox-cpu-count`: Number of CPUs to use to create the VM. Defaults to single CPU. - `--virtualbox-disk-size`: Size of disk for the host in MB. - `--virtualbox-host-dns-resolver`: Use the host DNS resolver. (Boolean value, defaults to false) - `--virtualbox-hostonly-cidr`: The CIDR of the host only adapter. - `--virtualbox-hostonly-nicpromisc`: Host Only Network Adapter Promiscuous Mode. Possible options are deny , allow-vms, allow-all - `--virtualbox-hostonly-nictype`: Host Only Network Adapter Type. Possible values are '82540EM' (Intel PRO/1000), 'Am79C973' (PCnet-FAST III), and 'virtio' Paravirtualized network adapter. - `--virtualbox-hostonly-no-dhcp`: Disable the Host Only DHCP Server - `--virtualbox-import-boot2docker-vm`: The name of a Boot2Docker VM to import. - `--virtualbox-memory`: Size of memory for the host in MB. - `--virtualbox-nat-nictype`: Specify the NAT Network Adapter Type. Possible values are '82540EM' (Intel PRO/1000), 'Am79C973' (PCnet-FAST III) and 'virtio' Paravirtualized network adapter. - `--virtualbox-no-dns-proxy`: Disable proxying all DNS requests to the host (Boolean value, default to false) - `--virtualbox-no-share`: Disable the mount of your home directory - `--virtualbox-no-vtx-check`: Disable checking for the availability of hardware virtualization before the vm is started - `--virtualbox-share-folder`: Mount the specified directory instead of the default home location. - `--virtualbox-ui-type`: Specify the UI Type: (gui|sdl|headless|separate) The `--virtualbox-boot2docker-url` flag takes a few different forms. By default, if no value is specified for this flag, Machine checks locally for a boot2docker ISO. If one is found, it is used as the ISO for the created machine. If one is not found, the latest ISO release available on [boot2docker/boot2docker](https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker) is downloaded and stored locally for future use. Therefore, you must run `docker-machine upgrade` deliberately on a machine if you wish to update the "cached" boot2docker ISO. This is the default behavior (when `--virtualbox-boot2docker-url=""`), but the option also supports specifying ISOs by the `http://` and `file://` protocols. `file://` looks at the path specified locally to locate the ISO: for instance, you could specify `--virtualbox-boot2docker-url file://$HOME/Downloads/rc.iso` to test out a release candidate ISO that you have downloaded already. You could also just get an ISO straight from the Internet using the `http://` form. To customize the host only adapter, you can use the `--virtualbox-hostonly-cidr` flag. This specifies the host IP and Machine calculates the VirtualBox DHCP server address (a random IP on the subnet between `.1` and `.25`) so it does not clash with the specified host IP. Machine specifies the DHCP lower bound to `.100` and the upper bound to `.254`. For example, a specified CIDR of `192.168.24.1/24` would have a DHCP server between `192.168.24.2-25`, a lower bound of `192.168.24.100` and upper bound of `192.168.24.254`. With the flag `--virtualbox-share-folder`, you can specify which folder the host shares with the created machine. The format is `local-folder:machine-folder`. For example, `\\?\C:\docker-share:\home\users\`. if you specify the flag with the docker-toolbox using docker-machine from a Windows cmd, it looks like `C:\docker-share\\:/home/users`. The `:` sign needs to be escaped. #### Environment variables and default values | CLI option | Environment variable | Default | |:-------------------------------------|:-----------------------------------|:-------------------------| | `--virtualbox-boot2docker-url` | `VIRTUALBOX_BOOT2DOCKER_URL` | _Latest boot2docker url_ | | `--virtualbox-cpu-count` | `VIRTUALBOX_CPU_COUNT` | `1` | | `--virtualbox-disk-size` | `VIRTUALBOX_DISK_SIZE` | `20000` | | `--virtualbox-host-dns-resolver` | `VIRTUALBOX_HOST_DNS_RESOLVER` | `false` | | `--virtualbox-hostonly-cidr` | `VIRTUALBOX_HOSTONLY_CIDR` | `192.168.99.1/24` | | `--virtualbox-hostonly-nicpromisc` | `VIRTUALBOX_HOSTONLY_NIC_PROMISC` | `deny` | | `--virtualbox-hostonly-nictype` | `VIRTUALBOX_HOSTONLY_NIC_TYPE` | `82540EM` | | `--virtualbox-hostonly-no-dhcp` | `VIRTUALBOX_HOSTONLY_NO_DHCP` | `false` | | `--virtualbox-import-boot2docker-vm` | `VIRTUALBOX_BOOT2DOCKER_IMPORT_VM` | `boot2docker-vm` | | `--virtualbox-memory` | `VIRTUALBOX_MEMORY_SIZE` | `1024` | | `--virtualbox-nat-nictype` | `VIRTUALBOX_NAT_NICTYPE` | `82540EM` | | `--virtualbox-no-dns-proxy` | `VIRTUALBOX_NO_DNS_PROXY` | `false` | | `--virtualbox-no-share` | `VIRTUALBOX_NO_SHARE` | `false` | | `--virtualbox-no-vtx-check` | `VIRTUALBOX_NO_VTX_CHECK` | `false` | | `--virtualbox-share-folder` | `VIRTUALBOX_SHARE_FOLDER` | - | | `--virtualbox-ui-type` | `VIRTUALBOX_UI_TYPE` | `headless` | ## Known Issues Vboxfs suffers from a [longstanding bug](https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9069) causing [sendfile(2)](http://linux.die.net/man/2/sendfile) to serve cached file contents. This causes problems when using a web server such as Nginx to serve static files from a shared volume. For development environments, a good workaround is to disable sendfile in your server configuration.