How can I get a more clear name for Vagrant machine

Question

I am working with Vagrant and it is a wonderful tool for virtualized enviroments. But I have a doubts about how VirtualBox changes the name of VM created.

I have this Vagrantfile configuration

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|

  config.vm.hostname = "ubuntu"

  config.vm.box = "ubuntu-12.04"

  config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "33.33.33.13"

  config.berkshelf.enabled = true

end 

When I run vagrant up the virtualbox tool creates my machine with a different name.

roberto@rcisla-pc:~/myface$ VBoxManage list vms
"myface_default_1390750040" {eed39077-32da-44e5-961f-2bb772a2bf31}

Why virtualbox creates the machine with the name myface_default_1390750040 when I configured in the Vagrantfile a different name, in this case ubuntu-12.04.

This is my myface cookbook structure

 .
    ├── attributes
    │   └── default.rb
    ├── Berksfile
    ├── Berksfile.lock
    ├── chefignore
    ├── definitions
    ├── files
    │   └── default
    ├── Gemfile
    ├── libraries
    ├── LICENSE
    ├── metadata.rb
    ├── providers
    ├── README.md
    ├── recipes
    │   └── default.rb
    ├── resources
    ├── templates
    │   └── default    │       
    ├── test
    │   └── integration
    │       └── default
    │           └── serverspec
    │               ├── default
    │               │   ├── test_spec.rb
    │               │   └── demo_spec.rb
    │               └── spec_helper.rb
    ├── Thorfile
    └── Vagrantfile

I don't understand why VirtualBox take the name relative to the cookbook and not take the name ubuntu-12.04

I am using

• Vagrant 1.3.5
• VirtualBox 4.3.5 r91406

Answer 1

You can add a config.vm.define block in your vagrant file.

E.g:

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|

  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "nfs"

  config.vm.define "{YOUR NICE NAME HERE}" do |web|

    web.vm.box       = "CentOs"
    web.vm.box_url   = "http://developer.nrel.gov/downloads/vagrant-boxes/CentOS-6.4-x86_64-v20130731.box"
    web.vm.hostname  = 'dev.local'

    web.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 90, host: 9090
    web.vm.network :private_network, ip: "22.22.22.11"

    web.vm.provision :puppet do |puppet|
      puppet.manifests_path = "puppet/manifests"
      puppet.manifest_file  = "web.pp"
      puppet.module_path    = "puppet/modules"
      puppet.options        = ["--verbose", "--hiera_config /vagrant/hiera.yaml", "--parser future"]
    end

  end

end

This way you will see your defined name back when you check the list in virtual box. But remember that Vagrant will always append a random string behind the VM's name, since it needs to identify the correct machine when running multiple vm's of the same vagrant file.