Convert VirtualBox .ova to Vagrant box

ova-to-box.md

Here's a step by step guide to convert a Virtualbox .ova to a Vagrant box.

1. List your VMs to find the VM id you want to convert:

$ VBoxManage list vms
"testing" {a3f59eed-b9c5-4a5f-9977-187f8eb8c4d4}

2. You can now package the .ova VM as Vagrant box:

$ vagrant package --base a3f59eed-b9c5-4a5f-9977-187f8eb8c4d4 --output name-of-your-box.box

the command vagrant package runs for quite some time before it can creates a Vagrant box. Be faithful and wait.

3. Add the new box to the list of local Vagrant boxes:

$ vagrant box add new-box-name name-of-your-box.box

4. Init, up, ssh and start usign your Vagrant box:

$ vagrant init #Init the new box with a Vagrantfile
$ vagrant up
$ vagrant ssh

And enjoy!

The first command worked great, but now with:
vagrant box add new-box-name name-of-your-box.box

I'm getting an error. Do I need to include the path to the new box?

The command should be
vagrant box add --name

warning: you need to have a user called vagrant before making it a vagrant box (it also needs a public key).

Note you can also instruct vagrant to use a different username. e.g. by adding config.ssh.username = "new_username" in the Vagrantfile.