Change boot2docker memory assignment

Question

I've been playing around with docker on a mac so I need to install boot2docker to make it work.

I have a pretty powerful machine and a very resource hungry app so I want to up the available memory from the default which is 1GB to something like 8GB.

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This is what I've tried

Booting boot2dock with the --memory param

boot2docker --memory=8116 boot

Change the config file

Verbose = true
VBM = "VBoxManage"
SSH = "ssh"
SSHGen = "ssh-keygen"
SSHKey = "/Users/mjsilva/.ssh/id_boot2docker"
VM = "boot2docker-vm"
Dir = "/Users/mjsilva/.boot2docker"
ISO = "/Users/mjsilva/.boot2docker/boot2docker.iso"
VMDK = ""
DiskSize = 20000
Memory = 8116
SSHPort = 2022
DockerPort = 2375
HostIP = "192.168.59.3"
DHCPIP = "192.168.59.99"
NetMask = [255, 255, 255, 0]
LowerIP = "192.168.59.103"
UpperIP = "192.168.59.254"
DHCPEnabled = true
Serial = false
SerialFile = "/Users/mjsilva/.boot2docker/boot2docker-vm.sock"

and then booting boot2docker

boot2docker boot

None of this approaches seem to work. I only end up only having the default memory.

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The only way I manage to change was going to virtualbox GUI shutdown boot2docker, change it manually and boot it again.

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

As boot2docker init -m did not work in my version of boot2docker, I just used VBoxManage command:

VBoxManage modifyvm boot2docker-vm --memory 3500

Also, using this I believe you can avoid destroying your VM, you should just stop it and then start again.

Answer 2

It is NOT necessary to delete your boot2docker vm as Abel Muiño said.

Its enough what to do what Alex Petrenko proposed.

1. boot2docker stop
2. VBoxManage modifyvm boot2docker-vm --memory 3500
3. boot2docker start

Answer 3

You will need to re-initialize the boot2docker VM with the new memory settings:

$ boot2docker delete
$ boot2docker init -m 5555
... lots of output ...
$ boot2docker info
{ ... "Memory":5555 ...}

You can now boot2docker up and the image will always use the configured amount of memory.

Answer 4

You can just tweak the settings in the GUI as well.

1. Open VirtualBox
2. Select 'boot2docker-vm'
3. Click settings
4. Select system
5. Tweak your RAM

No need to delete your boot2docker vm.