Vagrant OEL 8 DevOps · VirtualBox · Files

Vagrant — Synced Folders for OEL 8

Configure synced folders in Vagrant for OEL 8 VMs. VirtualBox shared folders, NFS, rsync types. Share SQL scripts, configs and database dumps with your VM.

Synced Folders Overview

Synced folders allow files to be shared between your host machine and the OEL 8 VM. Changes on either side are reflected immediately. This is extremely useful for sharing SQL scripts, config files, and database dumps without SCP or file transfers.

Basic Synced Folder

Ruby — Synced Folders

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "generic/oracle8"

  # Default: current directory → /vagrant in VM (always enabled)
  # You can disable it:
  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: false

  # Share scripts folder
  config.vm.synced_folder "./scripts", "/home/vagrant/scripts"

  # Share SQL files
  config.vm.synced_folder "./sql", "/home/vagrant/sql"

  # Share with specific owner (for MySQL data)
  config.vm.synced_folder "./mysql-data", "/var/lib/mysql-shared",
    owner: "mysql",
    group: "mysql"

  # Read-only share
  config.vm.synced_folder "./configs", "/etc/myapp-configs",
    mount_options: ["ro"]

end

Synced Folder Types

Type	Speed	Requirements	Best for
VirtualBox Shared Folders (default)	Slow	Guest Additions	Small files, scripts
NFS	Fast	NFS on host (Mac/Linux)	Large files, DB dumps
SMB	Fast	Windows host	Windows host setups
rsync	Medium	rsync installed	One-way sync

NFS Synced Folders (Faster)

Ruby — NFS Synced Folders

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "generic/oracle8"

  # NFS requires private network
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.10"

  # NFS share — much faster than VirtualBox shared folders
  config.vm.synced_folder "./data", "/data",
    type: "nfs",
    nfs_udp: false

  # NFS with specific options
  config.vm.synced_folder "./sql", "/home/vagrant/sql",
    type: "nfs",
    nfs_version: 4,
    nfs_udp: false,
    mount_options: ["nolock", "vers=3", "udp", "noatime"]

end

⚠ Warning: NFS on macOS requires your sudo password the first time to modify /etc/exports. Vagrant handles this automatically.

rsync Synced Folders

Ruby — rsync Folders

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "generic/oracle8"

  # rsync — one-way sync from host to VM
  config.vm.synced_folder "./scripts", "/home/vagrant/scripts",
    type: "rsync",
    rsync__exclude: [".git/", "*.log", "*.tmp"],
    rsync__args: ["--verbose", "--archive", "--delete", "-z"]

end

BASH — rsync Commands

# Manually trigger rsync sync
vagrant rsync

# Auto-sync on file changes (watch mode)
vagrant rsync-auto

Database Use Cases for Synced Folders

Share SQL scripts

Ruby — SQL Scripts Folder

config.vm.synced_folder "./sql-scripts", "/home/vagrant/sql"

# Inside VM, run scripts easily:
# mysql -u root -p < /home/vagrant/sql/create_schema.sql

Share database backups/dumps

Ruby — Backup Folder

config.vm.synced_folder "./backups", "/home/vagrant/backups"

# Inside VM:
# mysqldump -u root -p mydb > /home/vagrant/backups/mydb_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
# File appears on host machine immediately!

Share Ansible playbooks

Ruby — Ansible Folder

config.vm.synced_folder "./ansible", "/home/vagrant/ansible"

Synced Folder Permissions

Ruby — Folder Permissions

# Fix permission issues for database directories
config.vm.synced_folder "./mysql-conf", "/etc/mysql",
  owner: "root",
  group: "root",
  mount_options: ["dmode=755", "fmode=644"]

# For vagrant user owned folders
config.vm.synced_folder "./scripts", "/home/vagrant/scripts",
  owner: "vagrant",
  group: "vagrant"

💡 Note: VirtualBox shared folders can be slow for large database files. Use NFS for sharing large SQL dumps or data files. For MySQL data directory itself, always use the VM local disk — never a shared folder.