Of course, but if you do that please also use a CI tool (such as Jenkins) to ensure the Vagrantfile stays valid. It's actually good to rebuild that VM regularly, especially when it's almost time to deploy.

I haven't done it myself, but I've heard that the same effect (clean starting point) can be achieved with snapshots and restores without the waiting time - it is supposed to work very fast.

Yeah, close to deploy is different. What does a CI tool do in this case? I'm somewhat unfamiliar with the concept.

If you run your tests in a pristine and isolated environment, then you can be more confident in the lack of side-effects.

Basically, by integrating this into your CI tool, you ensure that all your tests / deploys run through a standardized and pristine environment.

No particular reason other than freeing up the disk space that the VM uses (which admittedly not much).

or 'vagrant halt'