Reconnect synced folders from Vagrant after VirtualBox restart
puppet, ubuntu, vagrant, virtualbox, windows
Solution
After some further debugging and the lack of response to a similar query on the google/vagrant forum:
- When you use synced folders in puppet, you must restart VirtualBox with `vagrant up` or `vagrant reload`
- If you use the VirtualBox GUI to stop/restart, automount restores the synced folders incorrectly, i.e. to /media/sf_; this cannot be corrected without using a `vagrant reload`,
- The only alternative without `vagrant` is to save the state in VirtualBox (`CTRL-V`). After a restart, the synced folders are restored correctly. However, it is probably impossible to force end-users to always manually save the state.
To use persistent synced folders, you must use `upstart` or similar methods; it cannot be done with `Vagrantfile` only.
See also Alvaro's response: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vagrant-up/oBU0kqPLzYk
Problem
I have created a puppet/vagrant/VirtualBox generated installation of Ubuntu running on a Windows host; see https://bitbucket.org/dmenne/rstudio-shiny-server-on-ubuntu for details. This allows users to run RStudio and Shiny server on Windows. In `Vagrantfile`, I have `config.vm.synced_folder "shiny-server", "/srv/shiny-server", create:true` to create a shared folder. When I start the VM with `vagrant up` or `vagrant reload`, everything works ok. One customer does not want to install vagrant etc, and asks for a standalone VM to be started/stopped with the VirtualBox Manager on Windows. However, after I shutdown a vagrant-booted VM Box, my synced folders do not connect/mount again on VM restart, even if they turn up correctly in the shared folders dialog of the VirtualBox Manager. How can I shrink-wrap a Vagrant-generated VM so it can be started/stopped without Vagrant? EDIT March 2015: I still could not resolve this. When I force automount, on restore `media/sf_<folder>` is synced, not the required folder. How can I force VirtualBox to use sync-template from `Vagrantfile` after a restart? And how do I force automount in vagrant without doing it manually.