Virtual Machines with Read-Only disks in Virtualbox

VirtualBox provides a free platform to create/run Virtual Machines; following is the process to create  read-only virtual disk for a virtual machine. There can be several reasons to use Read-Only virtual disks for VMs; I use it avoid viruses or malware. The virtual disk is read-only and nothing can be written to it; as soon as VM is rebooted everything is lost from previous session. Read-Only virtual disk works really good for a Browser Virtual Appliance.

Install a VM with your favourite operating system (Linux or Windows).

Install patches and make OS up-to-date with all security fixes.

Shut-down the VM; open ‘Virtual Media Manager’ for Virtual Box.

Select the desired Virtual Disk and click Release icon on the menu bar (this will release the disk from VM).

Open a terminal window and run following command:
VBoxManage modifyhd –type immutable {full path to vdi file}

Run following file to verify the change:
VBoxManage showhdinfo {full path to vdi file}

Attach the virtual disk to the VM using VM Settings Editor and configuration is complete now.

To change virtual disk back to normal from read-only mode:
VBoxManage modifyhd –type normal {full path to vdi file}

Virtual disk needs to be released from VM to run any ”modifyhd’ commands.

Retirado de: https://naeemzlog.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/virtual-machines-with-read-only-disks-in-virtualbox/

Em: 05/10/2017