node-virtualbox

node-virtualbox |

This is a simple tool that helps provision basic VirtualBox virtual machines with sane defaults.

Installation and Usage

Requires node >= 8.X

npm install node-virtualbox [--save] [-g]

Example run:

node bin.js --provision --vmname "hello" --ip 172.168.0.55 --verbose

ssh into instance.

ssh -i config/resources/insecure_private_key -p 2002 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o IdentitiesOnly=yes vagrant@127.0.0.1

Default setup

The default VM will have 2 cpus and 1G memory. The default image is based on the latest ubuntu/xenial64 image. The VM has two NICs. The first nic uses NAT to forward incoming and outgoing traffic. The second nic is assigned a private host only network address. After creation, you can login with vagrant/vagrant or ssh with the default insecure_private_key located in config/resources/.

Commands

--list return a list of vm names and uuids.

node bin.js --list

--stop Stop vm with save state.

node bin.js --stop --vmname <name>

--delete Unregister vm and delete all its contents.

node bin.js --delete --vmname <name>

--info Provide information about a vm. This will print out a json string with properties of the specified vm.

For example, running node .\bin.js --info --vmname "vm3" will print the following, which can be used to retrieve properties such as the port that can be used for ssh access:

{ name: '"vm3"',
...
'Forwarding(0)': '"guestssh,tcp,,2002,,22"',
}

Provision options

--cpus Set the number of cpus for VM. Default is 2 (or 1 for micro).

--mem Set the size of ram in MB(e.g., 512 or 1024). Default is 1024 (or 512 for micro).

--ovf Set the box to import when creating vm. If this is omitted, the latest ubuntu-xenial image is downloaded and used.

--ssh_port Set the local port used to forward ssh connections to vm. If this is omitted, then a freely available port between 2002 and 2999 is automatically assigned.

--forward_ports Set the port forwarding rules. Format: "<guest_port>:<host_port>" or "<port>". "<port>" translates to "<port>:<port>".

--sync Set a shared folder. Format: "<host_folder>;<guest_folder>". You can provide multiple of these options.

--add_ssh_key Add public ssh key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of the vm.

node bin.js --provision --vmname "shared_folders_vm" --ip 172.16.1.45 --ssh_port 2095 --verbose --sync "C:\Users\chris;/chris" --sync "C:\Users\chris\projects;/projects" --add_ssh_key ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Micro VM

This is for booting micro kernels (custom initramfs inside of an iso)

Example micro VMs (iso):

node bin.js --micro --vmname "micro" --attach_iso <Path>

If you don't specify path to an iso it will download and use an Alpine linux iso.