Virtualbox / Vagrant "closed by remote host" during routine use

Question

I am attempting to install OpenTreeMap in a Ubuntu environment. Hosted at DigitalOcean, one of their "Droplets". As part of the install process I have installed and configured Virtual Box and Vagrant to virtualize the environment. I have made it part-way through various apt-get install and each time, I am disconnected from the Virtual box.

[Unpacking libicu48 (from .../libicu48_4.8.1.1-3_i386.deb) ... [/*varies*/]
Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed by remote host.
Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed.

I execute using:

vagrant up
vagrant ssh

Once virtualized, the connection is closed when downloading/installing packages. Not always the same stop point, but it always forces a disconnect. I am still connected to my box via SSH, and when I run vagrant status I show the virtual box as "aborted":

Current VM states:

default                  aborted

The VM is in an aborted state. This means that it was abruptly
stopped without properly closing the session. Run `vagrant up`
to resume this virtual machine. If any problems persist, you may
have to destroy and restart the virtual machine.

UPDATE: Tried the recommendation in the comments, I got further through the process and closer, but it is still forcing a disconnect through normal use of vagrant. This time, at a pip install command.

Any clue as to why this might be occurring?

Solution

I encountered the same issue, and it was the RAM, was filled by a huge rsync command. Same applys for cp or mv from within a VM. I imagine that it will be the same with a big apt install ... on pip install .... You need more RAM or find workarounds.

You can try to figure it out too by running your script/provision and in another tab, htop from the host. For me, the RAM get filled more and more each seconds until the crash when Out Of Memory (OOM killer) occurs. The ssh error is just a consequence, not the root cause.

A posssible workaround is:

mount --bind host-shared-dir mountpoint

Note

If someone knows why cp/mv/rsync takes so much RAM from host when you rsync from within a VM, please explain ;)

Comments

[Danila Ladner]

what if you install packages one by one?

[Patrick Moore]

@DanilaLadner thank you, I tried one by one and was able to get through part of the install process. Even still, I continue to get disconnected through normal use of vagrant ssh virtualization.

[nickgrim]

Is it possible that your server is running out of RAM, and the OOM-killer is killing your VirtualBox process?

[Gilles Quenot]

Did you find a solution, I have the same issue

[Patrick Moore]

@GillesQuenot I never did :( I did manage to get OTP running, without virtualization, but it was still many other challenges.

[Gilles Quenot]

If the vm crash, it's not a ssh config that will prevent this. The issue is not ssh, see my answer