---
description: |
    The VirtualBox Packer builder is able to create VirtualBox virtual machines
    and export them in the OVA or OVF format.
layout: docs
page_title: 'VirtualBox - Builders'
sidebar_current: 'docs-builders-virtualbox'
---

# VirtualBox Builder

The VirtualBox Packer builder is able to create
[VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org) virtual machines and export them in the
OVA or OVF format.

Packer actually comes with multiple builders able to create VirtualBox machines,
depending on the strategy you want to use to build the image. Packer supports
the following VirtualBox builders:

-   [virtualbox-iso](/docs/builders/virtualbox-iso.html) - Starts from an ISO
    file, creates a brand new VirtualBox VM, installs an OS, provisions software
    within the OS, then exports that machine to create an image. This is best for
    people who want to start from scratch.

-   [virtualbox-ovf](/docs/builders/virtualbox-ovf.html) - This builder imports an
    existing OVF/OVA file, runs provisioners on top of that VM, and exports that
    machine to create an image. This is best if you have an existing VirtualBox VM
    export you want to use as the source. As an additional benefit, you can feed
    the artifact of this builder back into itself to iterate on a machine.
