Networking

VirtualBox Host-Only Networks

By default, private networks are host-only networks, because those are the easiest to work with. In VirtualBox, since you can create multiple host-only networks, it is also possible to specify which host-only network you want the Vagrant VirtualBox provider to use for a given interface. To do this, use the name argument with the name of the host-only interface to use.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.network "private_network", type: "dhcp",
    name: "vboxnet3"
end

VirtualBox Internal Network

The Vagrant VirtualBox provider supports using the private network as a VirtualBox internal network. By default, private networks are host-only networks, because those are the easiest to work with. However, internal networks can be enabled as well.

To specify a private network as an internal network for VirtualBox use the virtualbox__intnet option with the network. The virtualbox__ (double underscore) prefix tells Vagrant that this option is only for the VirtualBox provider.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.50.4",
    virtualbox__intnet: true
end

Additionally, if you want to specify that the VirtualBox provider join a specific internal network, specify the name of the internal network:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.50.4",
    virtualbox__intnet: "mynetwork"
end

VirtualBox NIC Type

You can specify a specific NIC type for the created network interface by using the nic_type parameter. This is not prefixed by virtualbox__ for legacy reasons, but is VirtualBox-specific.

This is an advanced option and should only be used if you know what you are using, since it can cause the network device to not work at all.

Example:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.50.4",
    nic_type: "virtio"
end