---
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.

-   [virtualbox-vm](/docs/builders/virtualbox-vm.html) - This builder uses an
    existing VM to run defined provisioners on top of that VM, and optionally
    creates a snapshot to save the changes applied from the provisioners. In
    addition the builder is able to export that machine to create an image. The
    builder is able to attach to a defined snapshot as a starting point, which
    could be defined statically or dynamically via a variable.
