[OpenIndiana-discuss] Best way to share files between host and VMs?

[Ron Parker]

Hi list,

I'm running oi_151a3 with VirtualBox 4.1.12 and a number of VM's. My
VM's include several Linux's of various vintages including an in-house
"embedded" distribution and Windows 7.

It would be convenient to be able to share GB of data between my host
and the various VM's instead of copying all of that around between the
host and VM's. However the performance of NFS mounting something from
the host into the VM's is painful. Compiles that should take a couple
minutes take over 30 just to ./configure. I am painfully aware of the
contention and performance issues related to OpenIndiana, VirtualBox
and NFS but have no idea how to resolve them.

Something in me screams there has to be a better way. My VM's have two
NIC's configured. One is NAT to reach the local network. I can't
bridge them. The other is host-only to communicate with the host and
occasionally with other VM's.

What is the best way to share data between an OI host and
Linux/Windows VirtualBox VM's?

Thanks,

Ron