VBoxManage is the command line utility to manage all things VirtualBox. VirtualBox geeks will all tell you that there is much more you can do with VBoxManage – many things that are not written into the GUI. Below is a simple intro to VBoxManage!
1. List your available virtual machines:
VBoxManage list vms
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage list vms
"Windows7" {5000a009-ec54-46ae-8952-3ba2f0780097}
"xp32bit" {a0707816-7f79-450a-96f1-35f83a080cff}
"Centos" {a050337e-bb39-41a1-9402-c9dadd4724c9}
"Ubuntu_10_10" {36b57c05-d6b6-404f-9c97-e385fdddcc00}
"Ubuntu_11_04" {ba762433-3d8b-4c5a-864f-33069c23064c}
"OSX_10_6" {d707e411-21f3-4afc-aba1-67d0743a7f29}
"Debian_6" {633c1f0e-8c6b-48d5-b7b7-4128dd47ad84}
"Suse_11_4" {f5bd68bc-887a-4207-a0f5-b647cd3eb2f2}
"Windows_Server_2008_R2" {26a581b3-0268-4466-8095-9229c45a4cbb}
"live_linux" {84dfd459-dca4-42c9-9942-163db0b1f01b}
stmiller@brahms:~$
2. Show configuration info about a vm:
VBoxManage showvminfo “Ubuntu_10_10″
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Ubuntu_10_10" Name: Ubuntu_10_10 Guest OS: Ubuntu UUID: 36b57c05-d6b6-404f-9c97-e385fdddcc00 Config file: /home/stmiller/.VirtualBox/Machines/Ubuntu_10_10/Ubuntu_10_10.xml Snapshot folder: /home/stmiller/.VirtualBox/Machines/Ubuntu_10_10/Snapshots Log folder: /home/stmiller/.VirtualBox/Machines/Ubuntu_10_10/Logs Hardware UUID: 36b57c05-d6b6-404f-9c97-e385fdddcc00 Memory size: 1024MB Page Fusion: off VRAM size: 12MB HPET: off Chipset: piix3 Firmware: BIOS Number of CPUs: 1 Synthetic Cpu: off CPUID overrides: None Boot menu mode: message and menu Boot Device (1): DVD Boot Device (2): HardDisk Boot Device (3): Not Assigned Boot Device (4): Not Assigned ACPI: on IOAPIC: off PAE: on Time offset: 0 ms RTC: UTC Hardw. virt.ext: on Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on Nested Paging: on Large Pages: off VT-x VPID: on State: powered off (since 2011-04-15T16:18:48.000000000) Monitor count: 1 3D Acceleration: off 2D Video Acceleration: off Teleporter Enabled: off Teleporter Port: 0 Teleporter Address: Teleporter Password: Storage Controller Name (0): IDE Controller Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4 Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0 Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 2 Storage Controller Port Count (0): 2 Storage Controller Bootable (0): on Storage Controller Name (1): SATA Controller Storage Controller Type (1): IntelAhci Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0 Storage Controller Max Port Count (1): 30 Storage Controller Port Count (1): 1 Storage Controller Bootable (1): on IDE Controller (1, 0): Empty SATA Controller (0, 0): /home/stmiller/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Ubuntu_10_10.vdi (UUID: 9a928f80-b57f-4832-92ea-08885760f77f) NIC 1: MAC: 0800270F33AC, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0 NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket( send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window( send:64, receive: 64) NIC 2: disabled NIC 3: disabled NIC 4: disabled NIC 5: disabled NIC 6: disabled NIC 7: disabled NIC 8: disabled Pointing Device: USB Tablet Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard UART 1: disabled UART 2: disabled Audio: enabled (Driver: ALSA, Controller: AC97) Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional VRDE: enabled (Address 0.0.0.0, Ports 3389, MultiConn: off, ReuseSingleConn: off, Authentication type: null) Video redirection: disabled VRDE property: TCP/Ports = "3389" VRDE property: TCP/Address =VRDE property: VideoChannel/Enabled = "false" VRDE property: VideoChannel/Quality = "75" VRDE property: Client/DisableDisplay = VRDE property: Client/DisableInput = VRDE property: Client/DisableAudio = VRDE property: Client/DisableUSB = VRDE property: Client/DisableClipboard = VRDE property: Client/DisableUpstreamAudio = USB: enabled USB Device Filters: Available remote USB devices: Currently Attached USB Devices: Shared folders: VRDE Connection: not active Clients so far: 0 Guest: OS type: Ubuntu Additions run level: 0 Configured memory balloon size: 0 MB
3. Start a vm:
VBoxManage startvm ‘name’
VBoxManage startvm “name” -type headless
Optionally add “-type headless” at the end if you are remotely starting a vm. Otherwise it will throw errors complaining of not being able to open a display:
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage startvm "Ubuntu_10_10" Waiting for the remote session to open... ERROR: Virtual machine 'name' has terminated unexpectedly during startup Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component Machine, interface IMachine, callee
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage startvm "Ubuntu_10_10" -type headless Waiting for the VM to power on... VM has been successfully started. stmiller@brahms:~$
4. List your currently running vms:
VBoxManage list runningvms
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage list runningvms
"Ubuntu_10_10" {36b57c05-d6b6-404f-9c97-e385fdddcc00}
5. Pause / resume / reset / poweroff / savestate of your currently running vm:
VBoxManage controlvm “name” pause|resume|reset|poweroff|savestate
stmiller@brahms:~$ VBoxManage controlvm Ubuntu_10_10 poweroff 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100% stmiller@brahms:~$
That should get you started! RTFM and good luck!
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