Configuration

While the Parallels provider is a drop-in replacement for VirtualBox, there are additional features that allow you to more finely configure Parallels-specific aspects of your machines.

Virtual Machine Name

You can customize the virtual machine name that appears in the Parallels Desktop GUI. By default, Vagrant sets it to the name of the folder containing the Vagrantfile plus a timestamp of when the machine was created.

To change the name, set the name property to the desired value:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.name = "my_vm"
end

Full Clone vs Linked Clone

Starting since vagrant-parallels v2.0.0, when you create a new virtual machine with vagrant up it is created as a linked clone of the box image. Previously the provider created a full clone of the box image.

Differences between linked and full clones:

• Linked clone creation is extremely faster than the full cloning, because there is no image copying process.
• Linked clone requires much less disk space, because the initial hard disk image is less than 1Mb (it is bound to the parent's snapshot).
• Full clone is a full image copy, which is totally independent from the box. Linked clones are always bound to the specific snapshot of the box image. That means that the box deletion will make all its linked clones not working. Vagrant will warn you about such cases but you still need be careful when you delete boxes!

If you want the provider to create a full clone instead, you should disable the linked clone feature explicitly in Vagrantfile:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.linked_clone = false
end

Note: Changes of this setting will take an effect only for newly created machines.

Parallels Tools Auto-Update

Parallels Tools is a set of Parallels utilities that ensures a high level of integration between the host and the guest operating systems (read more: Parallels Tools Overview).

By default the Parallels provider checks the status of Parallels Tools after booting the machine. If they are outdated or newer, a warning message will be displayed.

You can configure the Parallels provider to update Parallels Tools automatically:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.update_guest_tools = true
end

This option is disabled by default because of Parallels Tools installation takes some time (2-6 minutes) and includes a VM restart. Although, it runs only when there is a version mismatch.

Also, you can completely disable the Parallels Tools version check, if you want:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.check_guest_tools = false
end

In this case both of Parallels Tools status check and an automatic update procedure will be skipped as well.

Customization with prlctl

Parallels Desktop includes the prlctl command-line utility that can be used to modify the virtual machines settings.

The Parallels provider allows to execute the prlctl command with any of the available options just prior to booting the virtual machine:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.customize ["set", :id, "--device-set", "cdrom0", "--image",
                 "/path/to/disk.iso", "--connect"]
end

In the example above, the virtual machine is modified to have a specified ISO image mounted on its virtual media device (cdrom). The :id parameter is replaced with the actual virtual machine ID.

Multiple customize directives can be used simultaneously. They will be executed in the given order.

A simple way is provided to change the memory and CPU settings:

config.vm.provider "parallels" do |prl|
  prl.memory = 1024
  prl.cpus = 2
end

You can read the Command-Line Reference for the complete information about the prlctl command and its options.