Table of Contents
As briefly mentioned in Section 1.17, “Alternative Front-Ends”, VBoxManage is the command-line interface to Oracle VM VirtualBox. With it, you can completely control Oracle VM VirtualBox from the command line of your host operating system. VBoxManage supports all the features that the graphical user interface gives you access to, but it supports a lot more than that. It exposes all the features of the virtualization engine, even those that cannot be accessed from the GUI.
You will need to use the command line if you want to do the following:
Use a different user interface than the main GUI such as the VBoxHeadless server.
Control some of the more advanced and experimental configuration settings for a VM.
There are two main things to keep in mind when using VBoxManage. First, VBoxManage must always be used with a specific subcommand, such as list or createvm or startvm. All the subcommands that VBoxManage supports are described in detail in Chapter 8, VBoxManage.
Second, most of these subcommands require that you specify a particular virtual machine after the subcommand. There are two ways you can do this:
You can specify the VM name, as it is shown in the Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI. Note that if that name contains spaces, then you must enclose the entire name in double quotes. This is always required with command line arguments that contain spaces. For example:
VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"
You can specify the UUID, which is the internal unique identifier that Oracle VM VirtualBox uses to refer to the virtual machine. Assuming that the VM called "Windows XP" has the UUID shown below, the following command has the same effect as the previous example:
VBoxManage startvm 670e746d-abea-4ba6-ad02-2a3b043810a5
You can enter VBoxManage list vms to have all currently registered VMs listed with all their settings, including their respective names and UUIDs.
Some typical examples of how to control Oracle VM VirtualBox from the command line are listed below:
To create a new virtual machine from the command line and
immediately register it with Oracle VM VirtualBox, use
VBoxManage createvm with the
--register option, as follows:
$ VBoxManage createvm --name "SUSE 10.2" --register
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version version-number
(C) 2005-2018 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
Virtual machine 'SUSE 10.2' is created.
UUID: c89fc351-8ec6-4f02-a048-57f4d25288e5
Settings file: '/home/username/.config/VirtualBox/Machines/SUSE 10.2/SUSE 10.2.xml'As can be seen from the above output, a new virtual machine has been created with a new UUID and a new XML settings file.
For more details, see Section 8.7, “VBoxManage createvm”.
To show the configuration of a particular VM, use VBoxManage showvminfo. See Section 8.5, “VBoxManage showvminfo” for details and an example.
To change settings while a VM is powered off, use VBoxManage modifyvm. For example:
VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows XP" --memory 512
See also Section 8.8, “VBoxManage modifyvm”.
To change the storage configuration, such as to add a storage controller and then a virtual disk, use VBoxManage storagectl and VBoxManage storageattach. See Section 8.20, “VBoxManage storagectl” and Section 8.19, “VBoxManage storageattach”.
To control VM operation, use one of the following:
To start a VM that is currently powered off, use VBoxManage startvm. See Section 8.13, “VBoxManage startvm”.
To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change some of its settings, use VBoxManage controlvm. See Section 8.14, “VBoxManage controlvm”.
When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an invalid command line, the following command syntax list is shown. Note that the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform. If in doubt, check the output of VBoxManage for the commands available on your particular host.
Usage:
VBoxManage [<general option>] <command>
General Options:
[-v|--version] print version number and exit
[-q|--nologo] suppress the logo
[--settingspw <pw>] provide the settings password
[--settingspwfile <file>] provide a file containing the settings password
[@<response-file>] load arguments from the given response file (bourne style)
Commands:
list [--long|-l] [--sorted|-s] vms|runningvms|ostypes|hostdvds|hostfloppies|
intnets|bridgedifs|hostonlyifs|natnets|dhcpservers|
hostinfo|hostcpuids|hddbackends|hdds|dvds|floppies|
usbhost|usbfilters|systemproperties|extpacks|
groups|webcams|screenshotformats|cloudproviders|
cloudprofiles
showvminfo <uuid|vmname> [--details]
[--machinereadable]
showvminfo <uuid|vmname> --log <idx>
registervm <filename>
unregistervm <uuid|vmname> [--delete]
createvm --name <name>
[--groups <group>, ...]
[--ostype <ostype>]
[--register]
[--basefolder <path>]
[--uuid <uuid>]
[--default]
modifyvm <uuid|vmname>
[--name <name>]
[--groups <group>, ...]
[--description <desc>]
[--ostype <ostype>]
[--iconfile <filename>]
[--memory <memorysize in MB>]
[--pagefusion on|off]
[--vram <vramsize in MB>]
[--acpi on|off]
[--pciattach 03:04.0]
[--pciattach 03:04.0@02:01.0]
[--pcidetach 03:04.0]
[--ioapic on|off]
[--hpet on|off]
[--triplefaultreset on|off]
[--apic on|off]
[--x2apic on|off]
[--paravirtprovider none|default|legacy|minimal|
hyperv|kvm]
[--paravirtdebug <key=value> [,<key=value> ...]]
[--hwvirtex on|off]
[--nestedpaging on|off]
[--largepages on|off]
[--vtxvpid on|off]
[--vtxux on|off]
[--pae on|off]
[--longmode on|off]
[--ibpb-on-vm-exit on|off]
[--ibpb-on-vm-entry on|off]
[--spec-ctrl on|off]
[--l1d-flush-on-sched on|off]
[--l1d-flush-on-vm-entry on|off]
[--nested-hw-virt on|off]
[--cpu-profile "host|Intel 80[86|286|386]"]
[--cpuid-portability-level <0..3>
[--cpuid-set <leaf[:subleaf]> <eax> <ebx> <ecx> <edx>]
[--cpuid-remove <leaf[:subleaf]>]
[--cpuidremoveall]
[--hardwareuuid <uuid>]
[--cpus <number>]
[--cpuhotplug on|off]
[--plugcpu <id>]
[--unplugcpu <id>]
[--cpuexecutioncap <1-100>]
[--rtcuseutc on|off]
[--graphicscontroller none|vboxvga|vmsvga|vboxsvga]
[--monitorcount <number>]
[--accelerate3d on|off]
[--accelerate2dvideo on|off]
[--firmware bios|efi|efi32|efi64]
[--chipset ich9|piix3]
[--bioslogofadein on|off]
[--bioslogofadeout on|off]
[--bioslogodisplaytime <msec>]
[--bioslogoimagepath <imagepath>]
[--biosbootmenu disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu]
[--biosapic disabled|apic|x2apic]
[--biossystemtimeoffset <msec>]
[--biospxedebug on|off]
[--boot<1-4> none|floppy|dvd|disk|net>]
[--nic<1-N> none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|
generic|natnetwork]
[--nictype<1-N> Am79C970A|Am79C973|
82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|
virtio]
[--cableconnected<1-N> on|off]
[--nictrace<1-N> on|off]
[--nictracefile<1-N> <filename>]
[--nicproperty<1-N> name=[value]]
[--nicspeed<1-N> <kbps>]
[--nicbootprio<1-N> <priority>]
[--nicpromisc<1-N> deny|allow-vms|allow-all]
[--nicbandwidthgroup<1-N> none|<name>]
[--bridgeadapter<1-N> none|<devicename>]
[--hostonlyadapter<1-N> none|<devicename>]
[--intnet<1-N> <network name>]
[--nat-network<1-N> <network name>]
[--nicgenericdrv<1-N> <driver>
[--natnet<1-N> <network>|default]
[--natsettings<1-N> [<mtu>],[<socksnd>],
[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
[<tcprcv>]]
[--natpf<1-N> [<rulename>],tcp|udp,[<hostip>],
<hostport>,[<guestip>],<guestport>]
[--natpf<1-N> delete <rulename>]
[--nattftpprefix<1-N> <prefix>]
[--nattftpfile<1-N> <file>]
[--nattftpserver<1-N> <ip>]
[--natbindip<1-N> <ip>
[--natdnspassdomain<1-N> on|off]
[--natdnsproxy<1-N> on|off]
[--natdnshostresolver<1-N> on|off]
[--nataliasmode<1-N> default|[log],[proxyonly],
[sameports]]
[--macaddress<1-N> auto|<mac>]
[--mouse ps2|usb|usbtablet|usbmultitouch]
[--keyboard ps2|usb
[--uart<1-N> off|<I/O base> <IRQ>]
[--uartmode<1-N> disconnected|
server <pipe>|
client <pipe>|
tcpserver <port>|
tcpclient <hostname:port>|
file <file>|
<devicename>]
[--uarttype<1-N> 16450|16550A|16750
[--lpt<1-N> off|<I/O base> <IRQ>]
[--lptmode<1-N> <devicename>]
[--guestmemoryballoon <balloonsize in MB>]
[--audio none|null|dsound|oss|alsa|pulse|
oss|pulse|coreaudio]
[--audioin on|off]
[--audioout on|off]
[--audiocontroller ac97|hda|sb16]
[--audiocodec stac9700|ad1980|stac9221|sb16]
[--clipboard disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|
bidirectional]
[--draganddrop disabled|hosttoguest]
[--vrde on|off]
[--vrdeextpack default|<name>
[--vrdeproperty <name=[value]>]
[--vrdeport <hostport>]
[--vrdeaddress <hostip>]
[--vrdeauthtype null|external|guest]
[--vrdeauthlibrary default|<name>
[--vrdemulticon on|off]
[--vrdereusecon on|off]
[--vrdevideochannel on|off]
[--vrdevideochannelquality <percent>]
[--usbohci on|off]
[--usbehci on|off]
[--usbxhci on|off]
[--usbrename <oldname> <newname>]
[--snapshotfolder default|<path>]
[--teleporter on|off]
[--teleporterport <port>]
[--teleporteraddress <address|empty>
[--teleporterpassword <password>]
[--teleporterpasswordfile <file>|stdin]
[--tracing-enabled on|off]
[--tracing-config <config-string>]
[--tracing-allow-vm-access on|off]
[--usbcardreader on|off]
[--autostart-enabled on|off]
[--autostart-delay <seconds>]
[--recording on|off]
[--recording screens all|<screen ID> [<screen ID> ...]]
[--recording filename <filename>]
[--recording videores <width> <height>]
[--recording videorate <rate>]
[--recording videofps <fps>]
[--recording maxtime <s>]
[--recording maxfilesize <MB>]
[--recording opts <key=value> [,<key=value> ...]]
[--defaultfrontend default|<name>]
clonevm <uuid|vmname>
[--snapshot <uuid>|<name>]
[--mode machine|machineandchildren|all]
[--options link|keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|
keepdisknames|keephwuuids]
[--name <name>]
[--groups <group>, ...]
[--basefolder <basefolder>]
[--uuid <uuid>]
[--register]
movevm <uuid|vmname>
--type basic
[--folder <path>]
import <ovfname/ovaname>
[--dry-run|-n]
[--options keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|importtovdi]
[more options]
(run with -n to have options displayed
for a particular OVF)
export <machines> --output|-o <name>.<ovf/ova/tar.gz>
[--legacy09|--ovf09|--ovf10|--ovf20|--opc10]
[--manifest]
[--iso]
[--options manifest|iso|nomacs|nomacsbutnat]
[--vsys <number of virtual system>]
[--vmname <name>]
[--product <product name>]
[--producturl <product url>]
[--vendor <vendor name>]
[--vendorurl <vendor url>]
[--version <version info>]
[--description <description info>]
[--eula <license text>]
[--eulafile <filename>]
[--cloud <number of virtual system>]
[--vmname <name>]
[--cloudprofile <cloud profile name>]
[--cloudshape <shape>]
[--clouddomain <domain>]
[--clouddisksize <disk size in GB>]
[--cloudbucket <bucket name>]
[--cloudocivcn <OCI vcn id>]
[--cloudocisubnet <OCI subnet id>]
[--cloudkeepobject <true/false>]
[--cloudlaunchinstance <true/false>]
[--cloudpublicip <true/false>]
startvm <uuid|vmname>...
[--type gui|sdl|headless|separate]
[-E|--putenv <NAME>[=<VALUE>]]
controlvm <uuid|vmname>
pause|resume|reset|poweroff|savestate|
acpipowerbutton|acpisleepbutton|
keyboardputscancode <hex> [<hex> ...]|
keyboardputstring <string1> [<string2> ...]|
keyboardputfile <filename>|
setlinkstate<1-N> on|off |
nic<1-N> null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic|
natnetwork [<devicename>] |
nictrace<1-N> on|off |
nictracefile<1-N> <filename> |
nicproperty<1-N> name=[value] |
nicpromisc<1-N> deny|allow-vms|allow-all |
natpf<1-N> [<rulename>],tcp|udp,[<hostip>],
<hostport>,[<guestip>],<guestport> |
natpf<1-N> delete <rulename> |
guestmemoryballoon <balloonsize in MB> |
usbattach <uuid>|<address>
[--capturefile <filename>] |
usbdetach <uuid>|<address> |
audioin on|off |
audioout on|off |
clipboard disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|
bidirectional |
draganddrop disabled|hosttoguest |
vrde on|off |
vrdeport <port> |
vrdeproperty <name=[value]> |
vrdevideochannelquality <percent> |
setvideomodehint <xres> <yres> <bpp>
[[<display>] [<enabled:yes|no> |
[<xorigin> <yorigin>]]] |
setscreenlayout <display> on|primary <xorigin> <yorigin> <xres> <yres> <bpp> | off
screenshotpng <file> [display] |
recording on|off |
recording screens all|none|<screen>,[<screen>...] |
recording filename <file> |
recording videores <width>x<height> |
recording videorate <rate> |
recording videofps <fps> |
recording maxtime <s> |
recording maxfilesize <MB> |
setcredentials <username>
--passwordfile <file> | <password>
<domain>
[--allowlocallogon <yes|no>] |
teleport --host <name> --port <port>
[--maxdowntime <msec>]
[--passwordfile <file> |
--password <password>] |
plugcpu <id> |
unplugcpu <id> |
cpuexecutioncap <1-100>
webcam <attach [path [settings]]> | <detach [path]> | <list>
addencpassword <id>
<password file>|-
[--removeonsuspend <yes|no>]
removeencpassword <id>
removeallencpasswords
changeuartmode<1-N> disconnected|
server <pipe>|
client <pipe>|
tcpserver <port>|
tcpclient <hostname:port>|
file <file>|
<devicename>]
discardstate <uuid|vmname>
adoptstate <uuid|vmname> <state_file>
snapshot <uuid|vmname>
take <name> [--description <desc>] [--live]
[--uniquename Number,Timestamp,Space,Force] |
delete <uuid|snapname> |
restore <uuid|snapname> |
restorecurrent |
edit <uuid|snapname>|--current
[--name <name>]
[--description <desc>] |
list [--details|--machinereadable] |
showvminfo <uuid|snapname>
closemedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
[--delete]
storageattach <uuid|vmname>
--storagectl <name>
[--port <number>]
[--device <number>]
[--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd]
[--medium none|emptydrive|additions|
<uuid|filename>|host:<drive>|iscsi]
[--mtype normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
readonly|multiattach]
[--comment <text>]
[--setuuid <uuid>]
[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
[--passthrough on|off]
[--tempeject on|off]
[--nonrotational on|off]
[--discard on|off]
[--hotpluggable on|off]
[--bandwidthgroup <name>]
[--forceunmount]
[--server <name>|<ip>]
[--target <target>]
[--tport <port>]
[--lun <lun>]
[--encodedlun <lun>]
[--username <username>]
[--password <password>]
[--passwordfile <file>]
[--initiator <initiator>]
[--intnet]
storagectl <uuid|vmname>
--name <name>
[--add ide|sata|scsi|floppy|sas|usb|pcie]
[--controller LSILogic|LSILogicSAS|BusLogic|
IntelAHCI|PIIX3|PIIX4|ICH6|I82078|
[ USB|NVMe]
[--portcount <1-n>]
[--hostiocache on|off]
[--bootable on|off]
[--rename <name>]
[--remove]
bandwidthctl <uuid|vmname>
add <name> --type disk|network
--limit <megabytes per second>[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
set <name>
--limit <megabytes per second>[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
remove <name> |
list [--machinereadable]
(limit units: k=kilobit, m=megabit, g=gigabit,
K=kilobyte, M=megabyte, G=gigabyte)
showmediuminfo [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
createmedium [disk|dvd|floppy] --filename <filename>
[--size <megabytes>|--sizebyte <bytes>]
[--diffparent <uuid>|<filename>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX,
Formatted]
modifymedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
[--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
readonly|multiattach]
[--autoreset on|off]
[--property <name=[value]>]
[--compact]
[--resize <megabytes>|--resizebyte <bytes>]
[--move <path>]
[--setlocation <path>]
[--description <description string>]
clonemedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|inputfile> <uuid|outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|<other>]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--existing]
mediumproperty [disk|dvd|floppy] set <uuid|filename>
<property> <value>
[disk|dvd|floppy] get <uuid|filename>
<property>
[disk|dvd|floppy] delete <uuid|filename>
<property>
encryptmedium <uuid|filename>
[--newpassword <file>|-]
[--oldpassword <file>|-]
[--cipher <cipher identifier>]
[--newpasswordid <password identifier>]
checkmediumpwd <uuid|filename>
<pwd file>|-
convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--uuid <uuid>]
convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--uuid <uuid>]
getextradata global|<uuid|vmname>
<key>|[enumerate]
setextradata global|<uuid|vmname>
<key>
[<value>] (no value deletes key)
setproperty machinefolder default|<folder> |
hwvirtexclusive on|off |
vrdeauthlibrary default|<library> |
websrvauthlibrary default|null|<library> |
vrdeextpack null|<library> |
autostartdbpath null|<folder> |
loghistorycount <value>
defaultfrontend default|<name>
logginglevel <log setting>
proxymode system|noproxy|manual
proxyurl <url>
usbfilter add <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>|global
--name <string>
--action ignore|hold (global filters only)
[--active yes|no] (yes)
[--vendorid <XXXX>] (null)
[--productid <XXXX>] (null)
[--revision <IIFF>] (null)
[--manufacturer <string>] (null)
[--product <string>] (null)
[--remote yes|no] (null, VM filters only)
[--serialnumber <string>] (null)
[--maskedinterfaces <XXXXXXXX>]
usbfilter modify <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>|global
[--name <string>]
[--action ignore|hold] (global filters only)
[--active yes|no]
[--vendorid <XXXX>|""]
[--productid <XXXX>|""]
[--revision <IIFF>|""]
[--manufacturer <string>|""]
[--product <string>|""]
[--remote yes|no] (null, VM filters only)
[--serialnumber <string>|""]
[--maskedinterfaces <XXXXXXXX>]
usbfilter remove <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>|global
sharedfolder add <uuid|vmname>
--name <name> --hostpath <hostpath>
[--transient] [--readonly] [--automount]
sharedfolder remove <uuid|vmname>
--name <name> [--transient]
guestproperty get <uuid|vmname>
<property> [--verbose]
guestproperty set <uuid|vmname>
<property> [<value> [--flags <flags>]]
guestproperty delete|unset <uuid|vmname>
<property>
guestproperty enumerate <uuid|vmname>
[--patterns <patterns>]
guestproperty wait <uuid|vmname> <patterns>
[--timeout <msec>] [--fail-on-timeout]
guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> [--verbose|-v] [--quiet|-q]
[--username <name>] [--domain <domain>]
[--passwordfile <file> | --password <password>]
run [common-options]
[--exe <path to executable>] [--timeout <msec>]
[-E|--putenv <NAME>[=<VALUE>]] [--unquoted-args]
[--ignore-operhaned-processes] [--profile]
[--no-wait-stdout|--wait-stdout]
[--no-wait-stderr|--wait-stderr]
[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
-- <program/arg0> [argument1] ... [argumentN]]
start [common-options]
[--exe <path to executable>] [--timeout <msec>]
[-E|--putenv <NAME>[=<VALUE>]] [--unquoted-args]
[--ignore-operhaned-processes] [--profile]
-- <program/arg0> [argument1] ... [argumentN]]
copyfrom [common-options]
[--follow] [-R|--recursive]
<guest-src0> [guest-src1 [...]] <host-dst>
copyfrom [common-options]
[--follow] [-R|--recursive]
[--target-directory <host-dst-dir>]
<guest-src0> [guest-src1 [...]]
copyto [common-options]
[--follow] [-R|--recursive]
<host-src0> [host-src1 [...]] <guest-dst>
copyto [common-options]
[--follow] [-R|--recursive]
[--target-directory <guest-dst>]
<host-src0> [host-src1 [...]]
mkdir|createdir[ectory] [common-options]
[--parents] [--mode <mode>]
<guest directory> [...]
rmdir|removedir[ectory] [common-options]
[-R|--recursive]
<guest directory> [...]
removefile|rm [common-options] [-f|--force]
<guest file> [...]
mv|move|ren[ame] [common-options]
<source> [source1 [...]] <dest>
mktemp|createtemp[orary] [common-options]
[--secure] [--mode <mode>] [--tmpdir <directory>]
<template>
stat [common-options]
<file> [...]
guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> [--verbose|-v] [--quiet|-q]
list <all|sessions|processes|files> [common-opts]
closeprocess [common-options]
< --session-id <ID>
| --session-name <name or pattern>
<PID1> [PID1 [...]]
closesession [common-options]
< --all | --session-id <ID>
| --session-name <name or pattern> >
updatega|updateguestadditions|updateadditions
[--source <guest additions .ISO>]
[--wait-start] [common-options]
[-- [<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]
watch [common-options]
metrics list [*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
(comma-separated)
metrics setup
[--period <seconds>] (default: 1)
[--samples <count>] (default: 1)
[--list]
[*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
metrics query [*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
metrics enable
[--list]
[*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
metrics disable
[--list]
[*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
metrics collect
[--period <seconds>] (default: 1)
[--samples <count>] (default: 1)
[--list]
[--detach]
[*|host|<vmname> [<metric_list>]]
natnetwork add --netname <name>
--network <network>
[--enable|--disable]
[--dhcp on|off]
[--port-forward-4 <rule>]
[--loopback-4 <rule>]
[--ipv6 on|off]
[--port-forward-6 <rule>]
[--loopback-6 <rule>]
natnetwork remove --netname <name>
natnetwork modify --netname <name>
[--network <network>]
[--enable|--disable]
[--dhcp on|off]
[--port-forward-4 <rule>]
[--loopback-4 <rule>]
[--ipv6 on|off]
[--port-forward-6 <rule>]
[--loopback-6 <rule>]
natnetwork start --netname <name>
natnetwork stop --netname <name>
natnetwork list [<pattern>]
hostonlyif ipconfig <name>
[--dhcp |
--ip<ipv4> [--netmask<ipv4> (def: 255.255.255.0)] |
--ipv6<ipv6> [--netmasklengthv6<length> (def: 64)]]
create |
remove <name>
dhcpserver add|modify --netname <network_name> |
--ifname <hostonly_if_name>
[--ip <ip_address>
--netmask <network_mask>
--lowerip <lower_ip>
--upperip <upper_ip>]
[--enable | --disable]
[--options [--vm <name> --nic <1-N>]
--id <number> [--value <string> | --remove]]
(multiple options allowed after --options)
dhcpserver remove --netname <network_name> |
--ifname <hostonly_if_name>
usbdevsource add <source name>
--backend <backend>
--address <address>
usbdevsource remove <source name>
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] formatfat [--quick]
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] cat [--hex] [--offset=byte-offset] [--size=bytes] [--output=-|filename]
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] stream [--format=image-format] [--variant=image-variant] [--output=-|filename]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> dumpvmcore [--filename=name]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> info <item> [args...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> injectnmi
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> log [[--release] | [--debug]] [group-settings...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> logdest [[--release] | [--debug]] [destinations...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> logflags [[--release] | [--debug]] [flags...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> osdetect
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> osinfo
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> osdmesg [--lines=lines]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> getregisters [--cpu=id] [reg-set.reg-name...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> setregisters [--cpu=id] [reg-set.reg-name=value...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> show [[--human-readable] | [--sh-export] | [--sh-eval] | [--cmd-set]] [settings-item...]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> stack [--cpu=id]
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> statistics [--reset] [--descriptions] [--pattern=pattern]
VBoxManage extpack install [--replace] <tarball>
VBoxManage extpack uninstall [--force] <name>
VBoxManage extpack cleanup
VBoxManage unattended detect <--iso=install-iso> [--machine-readable]
VBoxManage unattended install <uuid|vmname> <--iso=install-iso> [--user=login] [--password=password] [--password-file=file] [--full-user-name=name] [--key=product-key] [--install-additions] [--no-install-additions] [--additions-iso=add-iso] [--install-txs] [--no-install-txs] [--validation-kit-iso=testing-iso] [--locale=ll_CC] [--country=CC] [--time-zone=tz] [--hostname=fqdn] [--package-selection-adjustment=keyword] [--dry-run] [--auxiliary-base-path=path] [--image-index=number] [--script-template=file] [--post-install-template=file] [--post-install-command=command] [--extra-install-kernel-parameters=params] [--language=lang] [--start-vm=session-type]
Each time VBoxManage is invoked, only one command can be executed. However, a command might support several subcommands which then can be invoked in one single call. The following sections provide detailed reference information on the different commands.
-v|--version: Show the
version of this tool and exit.
--nologo: Suppress the output
of the logo information. This option is useful for scripts.
--settingspw: Specifiy a
settings password.
--settingspwfile: Specify a
file containing the settings password.
The settings password is used for certain settings which need to
be stored in encrypted form for security reasons. At the moment,
the only encrypted setting is the iSCSI initiator secret, see
Section 8.19, “VBoxManage storageattach”. As long as no
settings password is specified, this information is stored in
plain text. After using the
--settingspw|--settingspwfile
option once, it must be always used. Otherwise, the encrypted
setting cannot be unencrypted.
The list command gives relevant information about your system and information about Oracle VM VirtualBox's current settings.
The following subcommands are available with VBoxManage list:
vms: Lists all virtual machines currently
registered with Oracle VM VirtualBox. By default this displays a
compact list with each VM's name and UUID. If you also specify
--long or
-l, this will be a detailed
list as with the showvminfo command, see
Section 8.5, “VBoxManage showvminfo”.
runningvms: Lists all currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers (UUIDs) in the same format as with vms.
ostypes: Lists all guest operating systems presently known to Oracle VM VirtualBox, along with the identifiers used to refer to them with the modifyvm command.
hostdvds, hostfloppies: Lists the DVD, floppy, bridged networking, and host-only networking interfaces on the host, along with the name used to access them from within Oracle VM VirtualBox.
intnets: Displays information about the internal networks.
bridgedifs, hostonlyifs, natnets, dhcpservers: Lists the bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces, NAT network interfaces, and DHCP servers currently available on the host. See Chapter 6, Virtual Networking.
hostinfo: Displays information about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size, and operating system version.
hostcpuids: Lists the CPUID parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.
hddbackends: Lists all known virtual disk back-ends of Oracle VM VirtualBox. For each such format, such as VDI, VMDK, or RAW, this subcommand lists the back-end's capabilities and configuration.
hdds, dvds, floppies: Shows information about virtual disk images currently in use by Oracle VM VirtualBox, including all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with them by Oracle VM VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager. See Section 5.3, “The Virtual Media Manager”.
usbhost: Shows information about USB devices attached to the host, including information useful for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use by the host.
usbfilters: Lists all global USB filters registered with Oracle VM VirtualBox and displays the filter parameters. Global USB filters are for devices which are accessible to all virtual machines.
systemproperties: Displays some global Oracle VM VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current authentication library in use.
extpacks: Displays all Oracle VM VirtualBox extension packs that are currently installed. See Section 1.6, “Installing Oracle VM VirtualBox and Extension Packs” and Section 8.43, “VBoxManage extpack”.
groups: Displays details of the VM Groups. See Section 1.10, “Using VM Groups”.
webcams: Displays a list of webcams attached to the running VM. The output format is a list of absolute paths or aliases that were used for attaching the webcams to the VM using the webcam attach command.
screenshotformats: Displays a list of available screenshot formats.
cloudproviders: Displays a list of cloud providers that are supported by Oracle VM VirtualBox. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is an example of a cloud provider.
cloudprofiles: Displays a list of cloud profiles that have been configured.
Cloud profiles are used when exporting VMs to a cloud service. See Section 1.15.4, “Exporting an Appliance to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure”.
The showvminfo command shows information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same information as VBoxManage list vms --long would show for all virtual machines.
You will see information as shown in the following example.
$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version version-number
(C) 2005-2018 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
Name: Windows XP
Guest OS: Other/Unknown
UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
Config file: /home/username/.config/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
Memory size: 512MB
VRAM size: 12MB
Number of CPUs: 2
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: on
...
Use the --machinereadable option
to produce the same output, but in machine readable format with a
property=value string on each line. For example:
... groups="/" ostype="Oracle (64-bit)" UUID="457af700-bc0a-4258-aa3c-13b03da171f2" ...
The registervm command enables
you to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into
Oracle VM VirtualBox. The machine must not conflict with one already
registered in Oracle VM VirtualBox and it may not have any hard or
removable disks attached. It is advisable to place the definition
file in the machines folder before registering it.
When creating a new virtual machine with VBoxManage
createvm, as shown in
Section 8.7, “VBoxManage createvm”, you can directly specify
the --register option to avoid having to
register it separately.
The unregistervm command unregisters a virtual
machine. If --delete is also specified, the
following files will also be deleted automatically:
All hard disk image files, including differencing files, which are used by the machine and not shared with other machines.
Saved state files that the machine created. One if the machine was in Saved state and one for each online snapshot.
The machine XML file and its backups.
The machine log files.
The machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all of the above files.
The VBoxManage createvm command creates a new XML virtual machine definition file.
You must specify the name of the VM by using --name
. This name is used by
default as the file name of the settings file that has the
name.xml extension and the machine
folder, which is a subfolder of the
.config/VirtualBox/Machines
folder. Note that the machine folder path name varies based on the
OS type and the Oracle VM VirtualBox version.
Ensure that the VM name conforms to the host OS's file name requirements. If you later rename the VM, the file and folder names will be updated to match the new name automatically.
The --basefolder
option specifies the machine folder path name. Note that the names
of the file and the folder do not change if you rename the VM.
path
The --group option assigns the VM to the specified groups. Note
that group IDs always start with
group-ID,
.../ so that they can be nested. By
default, each VM is assigned membership to the
/ group.
The --ostype
option specifies the guest OS to run in the VM. Run the
VBoxManage list ostypes command to see the
available OS types.
ostype
The --uuid option
specifies the universal unique identifier (UUID) of the VM. The
UUID must be unique within the namespace of the host or of its VM
group memberships. By default, the VBoxManage
command automatically generates the UUID.
uuid
The --default option applies a
default hardware configuration for the specified guest OS. By
default, the VM is created with minimal hardware.
The --register option registers the VM with your
Oracle VM VirtualBox installation. By default, the VBoxManage
createvm command creates only the XML configuration for
the VM but does not registered the VM. If you do not register the
VM at creation, you can run the VBoxManage
registervm command after you create the VM.
This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes available correspond to the VM settings that Oracle VM VirtualBox graphical user interface displays in each VM's Settings dialog. These are described in Chapter 3, Configuring Virtual Machines. However, some of the more advanced settings are only available through the VBoxManage interface.
These commands require that the machine is powered off, neither running nor in a Saved state. Some machine settings can also be changed while a machine is running. Those settings will then have a corresponding subcommand with the VBoxManage controlvm subcommand. See Section 8.14, “VBoxManage controlvm”.
The following general settings are available through VBoxManage modifyvm:
--name <name>:
Changes the VM's name and can be used to rename the internal
virtual machine files, as described in
Section 8.7, “VBoxManage createvm”.
--groups <group>,
...: Changes the group membership of a VM.
Groups always start with a
/ and can be nested. By
default VMs are in group /.
--description <desc>:
Changes the VM's description, which is a way to record
details about the VM in a way which is meaningful for the
user. The GUI interprets HTML formatting, the command line
allows arbitrary strings potentially containing multiple
lines.
--ostype <ostype>:
Specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be
used here, use VBoxManage list ostypes.
--iconfile
<filename>: Specifies the absolute
path on the host file system for the Oracle VM VirtualBox icon to
be displayed in the VM.
--memory
<memorysize>: Sets the amount of RAM,
in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself
from the host. See Section 1.8, “Creating Your First Virtual Machine”.
--pagefusion on|off:
Enables and disables the Page Fusion feature. Page Fusion is
disabled by default. The Page Fusion feature minimises
memory duplication between VMs with similar configurations
running on the same host. See
Section 4.10.2, “Page Fusion”.
--vram <vramsize>:
Sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
have. See Section 3.6, “Display Settings”.
--acpi on|off and
--ioapic on|off: Determines
whether the VM has ACPI and I/O APIC support. See
Section 3.5.1, “Motherboard Tab”.
--pciattach <host PCI address [@ guest
PCI bus address]>: Attaches a specified
PCI network controller on the host to a specified PCI bus on
the guest. See Section 9.5, “PCI Passthrough”.
--pcidetach <host PCI
address>: Detaches a specified PCI
network controller on the host from the attached PCI bus on
the guest. See Section 9.5, “PCI Passthrough”.
--hardwareuuid
<uuid>: The UUID presented to the
guest through memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware, and
guest properties. By default this is the same as the VM
UUID. This setting is useful when cloning a VM. Teleporting
takes care of this automatically.
--cpus <cpucount>:
Sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine, see
Section 3.5.2, “Processor Tab”. If CPU hot-plugging
is enabled, this then sets the maximum
number of virtual CPUs that can be plugged into the virtual
machines.
--cpuhotplug on|off:
Enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be
added to and removed from a virtual machine while it is
running. See Section 9.4, “CPU Hot-Plugging”.
--plugcpu|unplugcpu
<id>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled,
this setting adds or removes a virtual CPU on the virtual
machine. <id>
specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or
removed and must be a number from 0 to the maximum number of
CPUs configured with the
--cpus option. CPU 0 can
never be removed.
--cpuexecutioncap
<1-100>: Controls how much CPU time a
virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.
--pae on|off: Enables and
disables PAE. See Section 3.5.2, “Processor Tab”.
--longmode on|off: Enables
and disables long mode. See
Section 3.5.2, “Processor Tab”.
--spec-ctrl on|off: Enables
and disables the exposure of speculation control interfaces
to the guest, provided they are available on the host.
Depending on the host CPU and workload, enabling speculation
control may significantly reduce performance.
--cpu-profile <host|intel
80[86|286|386]>: Enables specification
of a profile for guest CPU emulation. Specify either one
based on the host system CPU (host), or one from a number of
older Intel Micro-architectures: 8086, 80286, 80386.
--hpet on|off: Enables and
disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by
default. Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista
onwards.
--hwvirtex on|off: Enables
and disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions,
such as Intel VT-x or AMD-V, in the processor of your host
system. See Section 10.3, “Hardware vs. Software Virtualization”.
--triplefaultreset on|off:
Enables resetting of the guest instead of triggering a Guru
Meditation. Some guests raise a triple fault to reset the
CPU so sometimes this is desired behavior. Works only for
non-SMP guests.
--apic on|off: Enables and
disables I/O APIC. With I/O APIC, operating systems can use
more than 16 interrupt requests (IRQs) thus avoiding IRQ
sharing for improved reliability. This setting is enabled by
default. See Section 3.5.1, “Motherboard Tab”.
--x2apic on|off: Enables
and disables CPU x2APIC support. CPU x2APIC support helps
operating systems run more efficiently on high core count
configurations, and optimizes interrupt distribution in
virtualized environments. This setting is enabled by
default. Disable this setting when using host or guest
operating systems that are incompatible with x2APIC support.
--paravirtprovider
none|default|legacy|minimal|hyperv|kvm:
Specifies which paravirtualization interface to provide to
the guest operating system. Specifying
none explicitly turns off
exposing any paravirtualization interface. The option
default selects an
appropriate interface when starting the VM, depending on the
guest OS type. This is the default option chosen when
creating new VMs. The
legacy option is used for
VMs which were created with older Oracle VM VirtualBox versions
and will pick a paravirtualization interface when starting
the VM with Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 and newer. The
minimal provider is
mandatory for Mac OS X guests.
kvm and
hyperv are recommended for
Linux and Windows guests respectively. These options are
explained in Section 10.4, “Paravirtualization Providers”.
--paravirtdebug <keyword=value>
[,<keyword=value> ...]: Specifies
debugging options specific to the paravirtualization
provider configured for this VM. See the provider specific
options in Section 9.31, “Paravirtualized Debugging” for a list of
supported keyword-value pairs for each provider.
--nestedpaging on|off: If
hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in
the processor of your host system. See
Section 10.3, “Hardware vs. Software Virtualization” and
Section 13.4.1, “CVE-2018-3646”.
--largepages on|off: If
hardware virtualization and nested
paging are enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional
performance improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by
enabling this setting. This causes the hypervisor to use
large pages to reduce TLB use and overhead.
--vtxvpid on|off: If
hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only,
this additional setting enables or disables the use of the
tagged TLB (VPID) feature in the processor of your host
system. See Section 10.3, “Hardware vs. Software Virtualization”.
--vtxux on|off: If hardware
virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this setting
enables or disables the use of the unrestricted guest mode
feature for executing your guest.
--accelerate3d on|off: If
the Guest Additions are installed, this setting enables or
disables hardware 3D acceleration. See
Section 4.5.1, “Hardware 3D Acceleration (OpenGL and Direct3D 8/9)”.
--accelerate2dvideo on|off:
If the Guest Additions are installed, this setting enables
or disables 2D video acceleration. See
Section 4.5.2, “Hardware 2D Video Acceleration for Windows Guests”.
--chipset piix3|ich9: By
default, Oracle VM VirtualBox emulates an Intel PIIX3 chipset.
Usually there is no reason to change the default setting
unless this is required to relax some of its constraints.
See Section 3.5.1, “Motherboard Tab”.
You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. By default, an Oracle VM VirtualBox logo is displayed.
With --bioslogofadein
on|off and
--bioslogofadeout on|off,
you can determine whether the logo should fade in and out,
respectively.
With --bioslogodisplaytime
<msec> you can set how long the logo
should be visible, in milliseconds.
With --bioslogoimagepath
<imagepath> you can replace the image
that is shown with your own logo. The image must be an
uncompressed 256 color BMP file without color space
information (Windows 3.0 format). The image must not be
bigger than 640 x 480.
--biosbootmenu
disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu: Specifies
whether the BIOS enables the user to select a temporary boot
device. The menuonly option
suppresses the message, but the user can still press F12 to
select a temporary boot device.
--biosapic
x2apic|apic|disabled: Specifies the
firmware APIC level to be used. Options are: x2apic, apic or
disabled (no apic or x2apic) respectively.
Note that if x2apic is specified and x2APIC is unsupported by the VCPU, biosapic downgrades to apic, if supported. Otherwise biosapic downgrades to disabled. Similarly, if apic is specified, and APIC is unsupported, a downgrade to disabled results.
--biossystemtimeoffset
<ms>: Specifies a fixed time offset,
in milliseconds, of the guest relative to the host time. If
the offset is positive, the guest time runs ahead of the
host time.
--biospxedebug on|off:
Enables additional debugging output when using the Intel PXE
boot ROM. The output is written to the release log file. See
Section 12.1.2, “Collecting Debugging Information”.
--boot<1-4>
none|floppy|dvd|disk|net: Specifies the
boot order for the virtual machine. There are four
slots, which the VM will try to access
from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can set a device that
the VM should attempt to boot from.
--rtcuseutc on|off: Sets
the real-time clock (RTC) to operate in UTC time. See
Section 3.5.1, “Motherboard Tab”.
--graphicscontroller
none|vboxvga|vmsvga|vboxsvga: Specifies the
use of a graphics controller, with an option to choose a
specific type. See Section 3.6.1, “Screen Tab”.
--snapshotfolder
default|<path>: Specifies the folder
where snapshots are kept for a virtual machine.
--firmware
bios|efi|efi32|efi64: Specifies the
firmware to be used to boot the VM: Available options are:
BIOS, or one of the EFI options: efi, efi32, or efi64. Use
EFI options with care.
--guestmemoryballoon
<size> Sets the default size of the
guest memory balloon. This is the memory allocated by the
Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest operating
system and returned to the hypervisor for reuse by other
virtual machines.
<size> must be
specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. See
Section 4.10.1, “Memory Ballooning”.
--defaultfrontend
default|<name>: Specifies the default
frontend to be used when starting this VM. See
Section 8.13, “VBoxManage startvm”.
The following networking settings are available through VBoxManage modifyvm. With all these settings, the decimal number directly following the option name, 1-N in the list below, specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings should be changed.
--nic<1-N>
none|null|nat|natnetwork|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic:
Configures the type of networking for each of the VM's
virtual network cards. Options are: not present
(none), not connected to
the host (null), use
network address translation
(nat), use the new network
address translation engine
(natnetwork), bridged
networking (bridged), or
use internal networking
(intnet), host-only
networking (hostonly), or
access rarely used sub-modes
(generic). These options
correspond to the modes described in
Section 6.2, “Introduction to Networking Modes”.
--nictype<1-N>
Am79C970A|Am79C973|82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|virtio:
Enables you to specify the networking hardware that
Oracle VM VirtualBox presents to the guest for a specified VM
virtual network card. See Section 6.1, “Virtual Networking Hardware”.
--cableconnected<1-N>
on|off: Enables you to temporarily
disconnect a virtual network interface, as if a network
cable had been pulled from a real network card. This might
be useful, for example for resetting certain software
components in the VM.
With the nictrace options,
you can optionally trace network traffic by dumping it to a
file, for debugging purposes.
With --nictrace<1-N>
on|off, you can enable network tracing for
a particular virtual network card.
If enabled, you must specify with
--nictracefile<1-N>
<filename> the absolute path of the
file the trace should be logged to.
--nicproperty<1-N>
<paramname>="paramvalue": This
option, in combination with
nicgenericdrv enables you
to pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.
These parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For examples, see Section 6.8, “UDP Tunnel Networking”.
--nicspeed<1-N>
<kbps>: Only has an effect if generic
networking has been enabled for a particular virtual network
card. See the --nic option.
This mode enables access to rarely used networking
sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel. This option
specifies the throughput rate in KBps.
--nicbootprio<1-N>
<priority>: Specifies the order in
which NICs are tried for booting over the network, using
PXE. The priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range.
Priority 1 is the highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0,
which is the default unless otherwise specified, is the
lowest.
Note that this option only has an effect when the Intel PXE boot ROM is used.
--nicpromisc<1-N>
deny|allow-vms|allow-all: Enables you to
specify how promiscuous mode is handled for the specified VM
virtual network card. This setting is only relevant for
bridged networking. deny,
the default setting, hides any traffic not intended for the
VM. allow-vms hides all
host traffic from the VM, but allows the VM to see traffic
to and from other VMs.
allow-all removes this
restriction completely.
--nicbandwidthgroup<1-N>
none|<name>: Adds and removes an
assignment of a bandwidth group for the specified virtual
network interface. Specifying
none removes any current
bandwidth group assignment from the specified virtual
network interface. Specifying
<name> adds an
assignment of a bandwidth group to the specified virtual
network interface.
See Section 6.10, “Limiting Bandwidth for Network Input/Output”.
--bridgeadapter<1-N>
none|<devicename>: Only has an effect
if bridged networking has been enabled for a virtual network
card. See the --nic option.
Use this option to specify which host interface the given
virtual network interface will use. See
Section 6.5, “Bridged Networking”.
--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
none|<devicename>: Only has an effect
if host-only networking has been enabled for a virtual
network card. See the --nic
option. Use this option to specify which host-only
networking interface the given virtual network interface
will use. See Section 6.7, “Host-Only Networking”.
--intnet<1-N>
network: Only has an effect if internal
networking has been enabled for a virtual network card. See
the --nic option. Use this
option to specify the name of the internal network. See
Section 6.6, “Internal Networking”.
--nat-network<1-N> <network
name>: If the networking type is set to
natnetwork, not
nat, then this setting
specifies the name of the NAT network this adapter is
connected to. Optional.
--nicgenericdrv<1-N> <backend
driver>: Only has an effect if generic
networking has been enabled for a virtual network card. See
the --nic option. This mode
enables you to access rarely used networking sub-modes, such
as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
--macaddress<1-N>
auto|<mac>: With this option you can
set the MAC address of a particular network adapter on the
VM. Normally, each network adapter is assigned a random
address by Oracle VM VirtualBox at VM creation.
The following NAT networking settings are available through VBoxManage modifyvm. With all these settings, the decimal number directly following the option name, 1-N in the list below, specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings should be changed.
--natnet<1-N>
<network>|default: If the
networking type is set to
nat, not
natnetwork, then this
setting specifies the IP address range to be used for this
network. See Section 9.10, “Fine Tuning the Oracle VM VirtualBox NAT Engine”.
--natpf<1-N>
[<name>],tcp|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
<guestport>: Defines a NAT
port-forwarding rule. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring Port Forwarding with NAT”.
--natpf<1-N> delete
<name>: Deletes a NAT
port-forwarding rule. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring Port Forwarding with NAT”.
--nattftpprefix<1-N>
<prefix>: Defines a prefix for the
built-in TFTP server. For example, where the boot file is
located. See Section 6.3.2, “PXE Booting with NAT” and
Section 9.10.2, “Configuring the Boot Server (Next Server) of a NAT Network Interface”.
--nattftpfile<1-N>
<bootfile>: Defines the TFT boot
file. See Section 9.10.2, “Configuring the Boot Server (Next Server) of a NAT Network Interface”.
--nattftpserver<1-N>
<tftpserver>: Defines the TFTP
server address to boot from. See
Section 9.10.2, “Configuring the Boot Server (Next Server) of a NAT Network Interface”.
--nattbindip<1-N>
<ip;>: Oracle VM VirtualBox's NAT engine
normally routes TCP/IP packets through the default
interface assigned by the host's TCP/IP stack. Use this
setting to instruct the NAT engine to bind to a specified
IP address instead. See
Section 9.10.3, “Tuning TCP/IP Buffers for NAT”.
--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
on|off: Specifies whether the built-in
DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
resolution.
--natdnsproxy<1-N>
on|off: Makes the NAT engine proxy all
guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers. See
Section 9.10.5, “Enabling DNS Proxy in NAT Mode”.
--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
on|off: Makes the NAT engine use the
host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests. See
Section 9.10.5, “Enabling DNS Proxy in NAT Mode”.
--natsettings<1-N>
[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
[<tcprcv>]: Controls several NAT
settings. See Section 9.10.3, “Tuning TCP/IP Buffers for NAT”.
--nataliasmode<1-N>
default|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]:
Defines behaviour of the NAT engine core: log - enables
logging, proxyonly - switches off aliasing mode and makes
NAT transparent, sameports - enforces the NAT engine to
send packets through the same port as they originated on,
default - disable all aliasing modes. See
Section 9.10.7, “Configuring Aliasing of the NAT Engine”.
The following hardware settings, such as serial port, audio, clipboard, drag and drop, monitor, and USB settings are available through VBoxManage modifyvm:
--mouse
<ps2|usb|usbtablet|usbmultitouch>:
Specifies the mode of the mouse to be used in the VM.
Available options are: ps2, usb, usbtablet, usbmultitouch.
--keyboard <ps2|usb>:
Specifies the mode of the keyboard to be used in the VM.
Available options are: ps2, usb.
--uart<1-N> off|<I/O base>
<IRQ>: Configures virtual serial
ports for the VM. See Section 3.10, “Serial Ports”.
--uartmode<1-N>
<arg>: Controls how Oracle VM VirtualBox
connects a given virtual serial port, configured with the
--uartX setting, to the
host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
in Section 3.10, “Serial Ports”, for each such port, you
can specify <arg> as
one of the following options:
disconnected: Even
though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
"other end". This is like a real COM port without a
cable.
server
<pipename>: On a Windows host,
this tells Oracle VM VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the
host named
<pipename> and
connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that
Windows requires that the name of a named pipe begins
with \\.\pipe\.
On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local domain socket is used.
client
<pipename>: Operates as for
server, except that the
pipe, or local domain socket, is not created by
Oracle VM VirtualBox but is assumed to exist already.
tcpserver <port>:
Configures Oracle VM VirtualBox to create a TCP socket on the
host with TCP
<port> and
connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that
UNIX-like systems require ports over 1024 for normal
users.
tcpclient
<hostname:port>: Operates as for
tcpserver, except that
the TCP socket is not created by Oracle VM VirtualBox, but is
assumed to exist already.
uarttype <1-N>
16450|16550A|16750: Confgures the UART
type for a virtual serial port. The default UART type is
16550A.
file <file>:
Redirects the serial port output to a raw file
<file> specified by its absolute path on the host
file system.
<devicename>: If,
instead of the above options, the device name of a
physical hardware serial port of the host is specified,
the virtual serial port is connected to that hardware
port. On a Windows host, the device name will be a COM
port such as COM1. On a
Linux host, the device name will be
/dev/ttyS0 or similar.
This enables you to wire up a real serial port to a
virtual machine.
--lptmode<1-N>
<Device>: Specifies the Device Name
of the parallel port that the Parallel Port feature will be
using. Use this before
--lpt. This feature depends
on the host operating system. For Windows hosts, use a
device name such as lpt1. On Linux hosts, use a device name
such as /dev/lp0.
--lpt<1-N> <I/O base>
<IRQ>: Specifies the I/O address of
the parallel port and the IRQ number that the Parallel Port
feature will be using. Optional. Use this
after
--lptmod. I/O base address
and IRQ are the values that guest sees. For example, the
values avalable under guest Device Manager.
--audio
none|null|dsound|oss|alsa|pulse|coreaudio:
Specifies whether the VM should have audio support, and if
so, which type. The list of supported audio types depends on
the host and can be determined with VBoxManage
modifyvm.
--audiocontroller
ac97|hda|sb16: Specifies the audio
controller to be used with the VM.
--audiocodec
stac9700|ad1980|stac9221|sb16: Specifies
the audio codec to be used with the VM.
--audioin on: Specifies
whether capturing audio from the host is enabled or
disabled.
--audioout on: Specifies
whether audio playback from the guest is enabled or
disabled.
--clipboard
disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional:
Configues how the guest or host operating system's clipboard
should be shared with the host or guest. See
Section 3.4, “General Settings”. This setting requires
that the Guest Additions be installed in the virtual
machine.
--draganddrop
disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional:
Specifies the drag and drop mode to use between the host and
the virtual machine. See Section 4.4, “Drag and Drop”.
This requires that the Guest Additions be installed in the
virtual machine.
--monitorcount
<count>: Enables multi-monitor
support. See Section 3.6, “Display Settings”.
--usb on|off: Enables and
disables the VM's virtual USB controller. See
Section 3.11.1, “USB Settings”.
--usbehci on|off: Enables
and disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller. See
Section 3.11.1, “USB Settings”.
--usbxhci on|off: Enables
and disables the VM's virtual USB 3.0 controller. See
Section 3.11.1, “USB Settings”.
--usbrename <oldname>
<newname>: Enables renaming of the
VM's virtual USB controller from <oldname> to
<newname>.
The VBoxManage modifyvm command enables you to modify recording settings for video recording, audio recording, or both.
Use the following options to update the recording settings:
--recording on|off enables or disables the
recording of a VM session into a WebM/VP8 file. When this
option value is on,
recording begins when the VM session starts.
--recordingscreens
all| enables
you to specify which VM screens to record. The recording for
each screen that you specify is saved to its own file.
screen-ID
[screen-ID ...]
--recordingfile
specifies the
file in which to save the recording.
filename
--recordingmaxsize
specifies the maximum
size of the recorded video file in megabytes. The recording
stops when the file reaches the specified size. If this
value is zero, the recording continues until you stop the
recording.
MB
--recordingmaxtime
specifies the
maximum amount time to record in seconds. The recording
stops after the specified number of seconds elapses. If this
value is zero, the recording continues until you stop the
recording.
seconds
--recordingopts
specifies additional video-recording options
in a comma-separated keyword-value format. For example,
keyword=value[,keyword=value
...]foo=bar,a=b.
Only use this option only if you are an advanced user. For information about keywords, see Oracle VM VirtualBox Programming Guide and Reference.
--recordingvideofps
specifies the
maximum number of video frames per second (FPS) to record.
Frames that have a higher frequency are skipped. Increasing
this value reduces the number of skipped frames and
increases the file size.
fps
--recordingvideorate
specifies the
bit rate of the video in kilobits per second. Increasing
this value improves the appearance of the video at the cost
of an increased file size.
bit-rate
--recordingvideores
specifies the video resolution of the recorded video in
pixels.
widthxheight
The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are available through VBoxManage modifyvm:
--vrde on|off: Enables and
disables the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE)
server.
--vrdeproperty
"TCP/Ports|Address=<value>": Sets the
port numbers and IP address on the VM that the VRDE server
can bind to.
For TCP/Ports, <value> should be a port or a range
of ports that the VRDE server can bind to.
default or
0 means port 3389, the
standard port for RDP. See the description for the
--vrdeport option in
Section 8.8.5, “Remote Machine Settings”.
For TCP/Address, <value> should be the IP address
of the host network interface that the VRDE server will
bind to. If specified, the server will accept
connections only on the specified host network
interface. See the description for the
--vrdeaddress option in
Section 8.8.5, “Remote Machine Settings”.
--vrdeproperty
"VideoChannel/Enabled|Quality|DownscaleProtection=<value>":
Sets the VRDP video redirection properties.
For VideoChannel/Enabled, <value> can be set to "1", switching the VRDP video channel on. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
For VideoChannel/Quality, <value> should be set between 10 and 100% inclusive, representing a JPEG compression level on the VRDE server video channel. Lower values mean lower quality but higher compression. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
For VideoChannel/DownscaleProtection, <value> can be set to "1" to enable the videochannel downscale protection feature. When enabled, if a video's size equals the shadow buffer size, then it is regarded as a full screen video, and is displayed. But if its size is between fullscreen and the downscale threshold then it is not displayed, as it could be an application window, which would be unreadable when downscaled. When the downscale protection feature is disabled, an attempt is always made to display videos.
--vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableDisplay|DisableInput|DisableAudio|DisableUSB=1":
Disables one of the VRDE server features: Display, Input,
Audio or USB respectively. To reenable a feature, use
"Client/DisableDisplay=" for example. See
Section 7.1.10, “VRDP Customization”.
--vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableClipboard|DisableUpstreamAudio=1":
Disables one of the VRDE server features: Clipboard or
UpstreamAudio respectively. To reenable a feature, use
"Client/DisableClipboard=" for example. See
Section 7.1.10, “VRDP Customization”.
--vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableRDPDR=1": Disables the VRDE
server feature: RDP device redirection for smart cards. To
reenable this feature, use "Client/DisableRDPR=".
--vrdeproperty
"H3DRedirect/Enabled=1": Enables the VRDE
server feature: 3D redirection. To disable this feature, use
"H3DRedirect/Enabled=".
--vrdeproperty
"Security/Method|ServerCertificate|ServerPrivateKey|CACertificate=<value>":
Sets the desired security method and path of server
certificate, path of server private key, path of CA
certificate, that are used for a connection.
--vrdeproperty
"Security/Method=<value>" sets
the desired security method, which is used for a
connection. Valid values are:
Negotiate: Both
Enhanced (TLS) and Standard RDP Security connections
are allowed. The security method is negotiated with
the client. This is the default setting.
RDP: Only Standard
RDP Security is accepted.
TLS: Only Enhanced
RDP Security is accepted. The client must support
TLS.
--vrdeproperty
"Security/ServerCertificate=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the server
certificate. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
--vrdeproperty
"Security/ServerPrivateKey=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the server
private key. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
--vrdeproperty
"Security/CACertificate=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the CA self
signed certificate. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
--vrdeproperty
"Audio/RateCorrectionMode|LogPath=<value>"
sets the audio connection mode, or path of the audio
logfile.
--vrdeproperty
"Audio/RateCorrectionMode=<value>"
where <value> is the desired rate correction mode.
Allowed values are:
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_VOID:
No mode specified, use to unset any Audio mode
already set.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_RC:
Rate correction mode.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_LPF:
Low pass filter mode.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_CS:
Client sync mode to prevent underflow or overflow of
the client queue.
--vrdeproperty
"Audio/LogPath=<value>" where
<value> is the absolute path of the Audio log
file.
--vrdeextpack
default|<name>: Specifies the library
to use for accessing the VM remotely. The default is to use
the RDP code which is part of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension
Pack.
--vrdeport
default|<ports>: A port or a range of
ports the VRDE server can bind to.
default or
0 means port 3389, the
standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated
list of ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two
port numbers to specify a range. The VRDE server will bind
to one of the available ports from the
specified list. Only one machine can use a given port at a
time. For example, the option --vrdeport
5000,5010-5012 will tell the server to bind
to one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011, or 5012.
--vrdeaddress <IP
address>: The IP address of the host
network interface the VRDE server will bind to. If
specified, the server will accept connections only on the
specified host network interface.
The setting can be used to specify whether the VRDP server should accept either IPv4, IPv6, or both connections:
Only IPv4: --vrdeaddress
"0.0.0.0"
Only IPv6: --vrdeaddress
"::"
Both IPv6 and IPv4: --vrdeaddress
""
This is the default setting.
--vrdeauthtype
null|external|guest: Enables you to
indicate use of authorization, and specify how authorization
will be performed. See Section 7.1.5, “RDP Authentication”.
--vrdeauthlibrary
default|<name>: Specifies the library
used for RDP authentication. See
Section 7.1.5, “RDP Authentication”.
--vrdemulticon on|off:
Enables multiple connections to be made to the same VRDE
server, if the server supports this feature. See
Section 7.1.7, “Multiple Connections to the VRDP Server”.
--vrdereusecon on|off: This
specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections
are disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will
allow a new client to connect and will drop the existing
connection. When this option is disabled, the default
setting, a new connection will not be accepted if there is
already a client connected to the server.
--vrdevideochannel on|off:
Enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
server. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
--vrdevideochannelquality
<percent>: Specifies the image
quality for video redirection. See
Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
With the following commands for VBoxManage modifyvm you can configure a machine to be a target for teleporting. See Section 7.2, “Teleporting”.
--teleporter on|off:
Enables and disables the teleporter feature whereby when the
machine is started, it waits to receive a teleporting
request from the network instead of booting normally.
Teleporting requests are received on the port and address
specified using the following parameters.
--teleporterport
<port>,
--teleporteraddress
<address>: These settings must be
used with --teleporter.
They specify the port and address the virtual machine should
listen to in order to receive a teleporting request sent
from another virtual machine.
<port> can be any
free TCP/IP port number, such as 6000.
<address> can be any
IP address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to
bind to. The default is 0.0.0.0, which means any address.
--teleporterpassword
<password>: If this optional setting
is used, then the teleporting request will only succeed if
the source machine specifies the same password as the one
given with this command.
--teleporterpasswordfile
<password>: If this optional setting
is used, then the teleporting request will only succeed if
the source machine specifies the same password as the one
specified in the file give with this command. Use
stdin to read the password
from stdin.
--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
<ecx> <edx>: Advanced users can
use this setting before a teleporting operation, to restrict
the virtual CPU capabilities that Oracle VM VirtualBox presents to
the guest operating system. This must be run on both the
source and the target machines involved in the teleporting
and will then modify what the guest sees when it executes
the CPUID machine
instruction. This might help with misbehaving applications
that wrongly assume that certain CPU capabilities are
present. The meaning of the parameters is hardware
dependent, refer to the AMD or Intel processor
documentation.
The following settings are only relevant for low-level VM debugging. Regular users will never need these settings.
--tracing-enabled on|off:
Enables the tracebuffer. This consumes some memory for the
tracebuffer and adds extra overhead.
--tracing-config
<config-string>: Enables tracing
configuration. In particular, this defines which group of
tracepoints are enabled.
--tracing-allow-vm-access
on|off: Enables and disables VM access to
the tracebuffer. By default, this setting is disabled.
The following setting defines access to a USB Card Reader by the guest environment. USB card readers are typically used for accessing data on memory cards such as CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), or MultiMediaCard (MMC).
--usbcardreader on|off:
Enables and disables the USB card reader interface.
These settings configure the VM autostart feature, which automatically starts the VM at host system boot-up. Note that there are prerequisites that need to be addressed before using this feature. See Section 9.23, “Starting Virtual Machines During System Boot”.
--autostart-enabled on|off:
Enables and disables VM autostart at host system boot-up,
using the specified user name.
--autostart-delay
<seconds>: Specifies a delay, in
seconds, following host system boot-up, before the VM
autostarts.
The VBoxManage clonevm command creates a clone of an existing virtual machine (VM). The clone can be a full copy of the VM or a linked copy of a VM.
VBoxManage clonevmvm[ --basefolderbasefolder] [ --groupgroup, ... ] [ --mode machine | machinechildren | all ] [ --namename] [ --options link | keepallmacs | keepnatmacs | keepdisknames | keephwuuids ] [ --register ] [ --snapshotvm] [ --uuiduuid]
In addition to specifying the name of the VM to clone, which is required, you can specify any of the following options:
--basefolder
basefolder specifies the name of
the folder in which to save the configuration for the new VM.
--groups assigns the clone to the specified group or
groups. If you specify more than one group, separate each
group name with a comma.
group,
...
Note that each group is identified by a group ID that starts
with a slash character (/) so
that groups can be nested. By default, a clone is always
assigned membership to the /
group.
--mode machine|machineandchildren|all
specifies which of the following cloning modes to use:
machine mode clones the
current state of the existing VM without any snapshots.
This is the default mode.
machineandchildren mode
clones the snapshot specified by by the
--snapshot option and all child
snapshots.
all mode clones all
snapshots and the current state of the existing VM.
--name
specifies a new name for the new VM. The default value is
"namename Clone", where
name is the original name of the
VM.
--options specifies how to create a new
clone.
--options link creates a linked clone,
which can be cloned only from a snapshot.
--options keepallmacs specifies that the
new clone reuses the MAC addresses of each virtual network
card from the existing VM.
If you do not specify this option or the --options
keepnatmacs option, the default behavior is to
reinitialize the MAC addresses of each virtual network
card.
--options keepnatmacs specifies that the
new clone reuses the MAC addresses of each virtual network
card from the existing VM when the network type is NAT.
If you do not specify this option or the --options
keepallmacs option, the default behavior is to
reinitialize the MAC addresses of each virtual network
card.
--option keepdisknames specifies that the
new clone reuses the disk image names from the existing
VM. By default, disk images are renamed. You can preserve
source hardware IDs by adding
keephwuuids.
--option keephwuuids specifies that the
new clone reuses the hardware IDs from the existing VM. By
default, new UUIDs are used.
--register automatically registers the new
clone in this Oracle VM VirtualBox installation. You can manually
register the new VM later by using the VBoxManage
registervm command. See
Section 8.6, “VBoxManage registervm/unregistervm”.
--snapshot
specifies the snapshot on which to base the new VM. By
default, the clone is created from the current state of the
specified VM.
vm
--uuid
specifies the UUID for the new VM. Ensure that this ID is
unique for the Oracle VM VirtualBox instance if you decide to
register this new VM. By default, Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a
new UUID.
uuid
This command moves a virtual machine to a new location on the host.
Associated files of the virtual machine, such as settings files and disk image files, are moved to the new location. The Oracle VM VirtualBox configuration is updated automatically.
The movevm subcommand requires the name of the virtual machine which should be moved.
Also required is the type of move operation, specified by
--type basic. Other types of move
operation may be supported in future releases.
The --folder setting configures
the new location on the host file system. Enter a relative
pathname or a full pathname.
This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in Oracle VM VirtualBox. See Section 1.15, “Importing and Exporting Virtual Machines” for an introduction to appliances.
The import subcommand takes at least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images, if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the content of the OVF file.
It is therefore recommended to first run the
import subcommand with the
--dry-run or
-n option. This will then print a
description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would
be imported into Oracle VM VirtualBox, together with the optional
command-line options to influence the import behavior.
Use of the --options
keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|keepdisknames option
enables additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
two options enable specification of how the MAC addresses of every
virtual network card should be handled. They can either be
reinitialized, which is the default setting, left unchanged
(keepallmacs) or left unchanged
when the network type is NAT
(keepnatmacs). If you add
keepdisknames all new disk images
are assigned the same names as the originals, otherwise they are
renamed.
As an example, the following is a screen output for a sample appliance containing a Windows XP guest:
VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
OK.
Virtual system 0:
0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
2: Suggested VM group "/"
(change with "--vsys 0 --group <group>")
3: Suggested VM settings file name "/home/klaus/VirtualBox VMs/dummy2 2/dummy2 2.vbox"
(change with "--vsys 0 --settingsfile <filename>")
4: Suggested VM base folder "/home/klaus/VirtualBox VMs"
(change with "--vsys 0 --basefolder <path>")
5: End-user license agreement
(display with "--vsys 0 --eula show";
accept with "--vsys 0 --eula accept")
6: Number of CPUs: 1
(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
7: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
8: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
9: USB controller
(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
10: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
11: Floppy
(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
12: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic|LsiLogic}";
disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
13: IDE controller, type PIIX4
(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
14: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")
The individual configuration items are numbered, and depending on
their type support different command-line options. The import
subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
--vsys X --unit Y --ignore
option, where X is the number of the virtual system and Y the item
number, as printed on the screen. X is zero, unless there are
several virtual system descriptions in the appliance.
In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk
controllers, respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image.
In this case, the additional
--controller option indicates
which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default
coming from the OVF file.
You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind
the same --vsys option. For
example, to import a machine as described in the OVF, but without
the sound card and without the USB controller, and with the disk
image connected to the IDE controller instead of the SCSI
controller, use the following command:
VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10This command exports one or more virtual machines from Oracle VM VirtualBox. You can export to either of the following:
A virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual disk images to compressed VMDK.
A cloud service, such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. A single VM can be exported in VMDK format.
See Section 1.15, “Importing and Exporting Virtual Machines” for more details on exporting VMs from Oracle VM VirtualBox.
List the machine, or the machines, that you would like to export
to the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an
additional --output or
-o option. Note that the
directory of the target OVF file will also receive the exported
disk images in the compressed VMDK format, regardless of the
original format, and should have enough disk space left for
them.
Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can
append several product information to the appliance file. Use
--product,
--producturl,
--vendor,
--vendorurl,
--version and
--description to specify this
additional information. For legal reasons you may add a license
text or the content of a license file by using the
--eula and
--eulafile option respectively.
As with OVF import, you use the --vsys
X option to apply these options to the correct
virtual machine.
For virtualization products which are not fully compatible with
the OVF standard 1.0 you can enable an OVF 0.9 legacy mode with
the --legacy09 option. Other
options are --ovf09,
--ovf10,
--ovf20.
To specify options controlling the exact content of the
appliance file, you can use --options to
request the creation of a manifest file, which enables detection
of corrupted appliances on import, the additional export of DVD
images, and the exclusion of MAC addresses. You can specify a
list of options, such as --options
manifest,nomacs. For details, check the help output of
VBoxManage export.
By default, an exported disk image is converted into stream VMDK format. This ensures compatibility with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
List the machine that you want to export to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and specify
the target cloud service provider by using the
--output or
-o option.
To export a VM to a cloud service such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, use the
--cloud option to specify the VM to export.
This option works in the same way as the --vsys
option for OVF export.
Some of the following options are settings for the VM instance. As a result, you must enter an Oracle Cloud Identifier (OCID) for a resource. Use the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console to view OCIDs.
--output/-o: Specifies the short name of
the cloud service provider to which you export. For Oracle Cloud Infrastructure,
enter OCI://.
--cloud
number-of-virtual-system:
Specifies a number that identifies the VM that you are
exporting. Numbering starts at
0 for the first VM.
--vmname name:
Specifies the name of the exported VM. This name is used as
the VM instance name in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
--cloudprofile
cloud-profile-name: Specifies the
cloud profile that is used to connect to the cloud service
provider. The cloud profile contains your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account
details, such as your user OCID and the fingerprint for your
public key. See Section 1.15.4, “Exporting an Appliance to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure”.
To use a cloud profile, you must have the required permissions on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Add xref to information about the required permissions.
--cloudshape
shape: Specifies the shape used
for the VM instance. The shape defines the number of CPUs
and the amount of memory allocated to the VM instance. The
shape must be compatible with the exported image.
--clouddomain
domain: Specifies the
availability domain to use for the VM instance. Enter the
OCID for the availability domain.
--clouddisksize
disk-size-in-GB: Specifies the
disk size used for the exported disk image in gigabytes. The
minimum value is 50 GB and the maximum value is 300 GB.
--cloudbucket
bucket-name: Specifies the bucket
in which to store the uploaded files. In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, a bucket is
a logical container for storing objects.
--cloudocivcn
OCI-vcn-ID: Specifies the virtual
cloud network (VCN) to use for the VM instance. Enter the
OCID for the VCN.
--cloudocisubnet
OCI-subnet-ID: Specifies the
subnet of the VCN to use for the VM instance. Enter the OCID
for the subnet.
--cloudkeepobject true | false: Specifies
whether to store the exported disk image in Oracle Object
Storage.
--cloudlaunchinstance true | false:
Specifies whether to start the VM instance after the export
to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure completes.
--cloudpublicip true | false: Specifies
whether to enable a public IP address for the VM instance.
The following example shows a typical command line for exporting a VM to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
For the next release, describe exactly what this command does in terms of the command line options.
# VBoxManage export myVM --output OCI:// --cloud 0 --vmname myVM_Cloud \ --cloudprofile "standard user" --cloudbucket myBucket \ --cloudshape VM.Standard2.1 --clouddomain aaaa:US-ASHBURN-AD-1 --clouddisksize 50 \ --cloudocivcn ocid1.vcn.oc1.iad.aaaa... --cloudocisubnet ocid1.subnet.oc1.iad.aaaa... \ --cloudkeepobject true --cloudlaunchinstance true --cloudpublicip true
This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the Powered Off or Saved states.
The optional --type specifier
determines whether the machine will be started in a window or
whether the output should go through
VBoxHeadless, with VRDE enabled or not. See
Section 7.1.2, “VBoxHeadless, the Remote Desktop Server”. The list of types is subject to
change, and it is not guaranteed that all types are accepted by
any product variant.
The global or per-VM default value for the VM frontend type will be taken if the type is not explicitly specified. If none of these are set, the GUI variant will be started.
The following values are allowed:
gui
Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.
headless
Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.
separate
Starts a VM with a detachable UI. Technically, it is a headless VM with user interface in a separate process. This is an experimental feature as it lacks certain functionality, such as 3D acceleration.
If you experience problems with starting virtual machines with particular frontends and there is no conclusive error information, consider starting virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as this can give additional error information.
The controlvm subcommand enables you to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The following can be specified:
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> pause: Temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold, without permanently changing its state. The VM window is gray, to indicate that the VM is currently paused. This is equivalent to selecting the Pause item in the Machine menu of the GUI.
Use VBoxManage controlvm <vm> resume: Undoes a previous pause command. This is equivalent to selecting the Resume item in the Machine menu of the GUI.
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> reset: Has the same effect on a virtual machine as pressing the Reset button on a real computer. A cold reboot of the virtual machine is done, which immediately restarts and reboots the guest operating system. The state of the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. This is equivalent to selecting the Reset item in the Machine menu of the GUI.
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> poweroff: Has the same effect on a virtual machine as pulling the power cable on a real computer. The state of the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. This is equivalent to selecting the Close item in the Machine menu of the GUI, or clicking the VM window's close button, and then selecting Power Off the Machine in the displayed dialog.
After this, the VM's state will be Powered Off. From that state, it can be started again. See Section 8.13, “VBoxManage startvm”.
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> savestate: Saves the current state of the VM to disk and then stops the VM. This is equivalent to selecting the Close item in the Machine menu of the GUI or clicking the VM window's close button, and then selecting Save the Machine State in the displayed dialog.
After this, the VM's state will be Saved. From this state, it can be started again. See Section 8.13, “VBoxManage startvm”.
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> acpipowerbutton: Sends an ACPI shutdown signal to the VM, as if the power button on a real computer had been pressed. So long as the VM is running a fairly modern guest operating system providing ACPI support, this should trigger a proper shutdown mechanism from within the VM.
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> keyboardputscancode <hex> [<hex>...]: Sends commands using keycodes to the VM. Keycodes are documented in the public domain. For example: http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/scancodes-1.html.
VBoxManage controlvm "VM name" teleport --hostname <name> --port <port> [--passwordfile <file> | --password <password>]: Makes the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a teleport to the given target. See Section 7.2, “Teleporting”. If the optional password is specified, it must match the password that was given to the modifyvm command for the target machine. See Section 8.8.6, “Teleporting Settings”.
The following extra options are available with controlvm that do not directly affect the VM's running state:
setlinkstate<1-N>:
Connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
network interfaces.
nic<1-N>
null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic|natnetwork[<devicename>]:
Specifies the type of networking that should be made available
on the specified VM virtual network card. They available types
are: not connected to the host
(null), use network address
translation (nat), bridged
networking (bridged),
communicate with other virtual machines using internal
networking (intnet),
host-only networking
(hostonly), natnetwork
networking (natnetwork), or
access to rarely used submodes
(generic). These options
correspond to the modes which are described in detail in
Section 6.2, “Introduction to Networking Modes”.
With the nictrace options,
you can optionally trace network traffic by dumping it to a
file, for debugging purposes.
nictrace<1-N> on|off:
Enables network tracing for a particular virtual network card.
If enabled, you must specify with
--nictracefile<1-N>
<filename> the pathname of the file to
which the trace should be logged.
nicpromisc<1-N>
deny|allow-vms|allow-all: Specifies how the
promiscious mode is handled for the specified VM virtual
network card. This setting is only relevant for bridged
networking. The default setting of
deny hides any traffic not
intended for this VM.
allow-vms hides all host
traffic from this VM but enables the VM to see traffic to and
from other VMs. allow-all
removes this restriction completely.
nicproperty<1-N>
<paramname>="paramvalue": This option,
in combination with
nicgenericdrv enables you to
pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.
Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. See Section 6.8, “UDP Tunnel Networking”.
natpf<1-N>
[<name>],tcp|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
<guestport>: Specifies a NAT
port-forwarding rule. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring Port Forwarding with NAT”.
natpf<1-N> delete
<name>: Deletes a NAT port-forwarding
rule. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring Port Forwarding with NAT”.
The guestmemoryballoon<balloon size in
MB>: Changes the size of the guest memory
balloon. This is the memory allocated by the Oracle VM VirtualBox
Guest Additions from the guest operating system and returned
to the hypervisor for reuse by other virtual machines. This
must be specified in megabytes. See
Section 4.10.1, “Memory Ballooning”.
usbattach<uuid|address> [--capturefile
<filename>]
and usbdetach <uuid|address>
[--capturefile <filename>]: Makes host
USB devices visible or invisible to the virtual machine on the
fly, without the need for creating filters first. The USB
devices can be specified by UUID (unique identifier) or by
address on the host system. Use the
--capturefile option to
specify the absolute path of a file for writing activity
logging data.
You can use VBoxManage list usbhost to locate this information.
audioin on: Selects whether
capturing audio from the host is enabled or disabled.
audioout on: Selects whether
audio playback from the guest is enabled or disabled.
clipboard
disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional:
Selects how the guest or host operating system's clipboard
should be shared with the host or guest. See
Section 3.4, “General Settings”. This requires that the
Guest Additions be installed in the virtual machine.
draganddrop
disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional:
Selects the current drag and drop mode being used between the
host and the virtual machine. See
Section 4.4, “Drag and Drop”. This requires that the Guest
Additions be installed in the virtual machine.
vrde on|off: Enables and
disables the VRDE server, if it is installed.
vrdeport
default|<ports>: Changes the port or a
range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to.
default or
0 means port 3389, the
standard port for RDP. See the description for the
--vrdeport option in
Section 8.8.5, “Remote Machine Settings”.
vrdeproperty
"TCP/Ports|Address=<value>": Sets the
port numbers and IP address on the VM to which the VRDE server
can bind.
For TCP/Ports, <value> should be a port or a range
of ports to which the VRDE server can bind.
default or
0 means port 3389, the
standard port for RDP. See the description for the
--vrdeport option in
Section 8.8.5, “Remote Machine Settings”.
For TCP/Address, <value>: The IP address of the host
network interface that the VRDE server will bind to. If
specified, the server will accept connections only on the
specified host network interface. See the description for
the --vrdeaddress option
in
Section 8.8.5, “Remote Machine Settings”.
vrdeproperty
"VideoChannel/Enabled|Quality|DownscaleProtection=<value>":
Sets the VRDP video redirection properties.
For VideoChannel/Enabled, <value> can be set to "1" switching the VRDP video channel on. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
For VideoChannel/Quality, <value> should be set between 10 and 100% inclusive, representing a JPEG compression level on the VRDE server video channel. Lower values mean lower quality but higher compression. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
For VideoChannel/DownscaleProtection, <value> can be set to "1" to enable the videochannel downscale protection feature. When enabled, if a video's size equals the shadow buffer size, then it is regarded as a full screen video, and is displayed. If its size is between fullscreen and the downscale threshold it is not displayed, as it could be an application window, which would be unreadable when downscaled. When the downscale protection feature is disabled, an attempt is always made to display videos.
vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableDisplay|DisableInput|DisableAudio|DisableUSB=1":
Disables one of the VRDE server features: Display, Input,
Audio, or USB. To reenable a feature, use
"Client/DisableDisplay=" for example. See
Section 7.1.10, “VRDP Customization”.
vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableClipboard|DisableUpstreamAudio=1".
Disables one of the VRDE server features: Clipboard or
UpstreamAudio. To reenable a feature, use
"Client/DisableClipboard=" for example. See
Section 7.1.10, “VRDP Customization”.
vrdeproperty
"Client/DisableRDPDR=1": Disables the VRDE
server feature: RDP device redirection for smart cards. To
reenable this feature, use "Client/DisableRDPR=".
vrdeproperty
"H3DRedirect/Enabled=1": Enables the VRDE
server feature: 3D redirection. To disable this feature, use
"H3DRedirect/Enabled=".
vrdeproperty
"Security/Method|ServerCertificate|ServerPrivateKey|CACertificate=<value>":
Sets the desired security method, path of the server
certificate, path of the server private key, and path of CA
certificate, used for a connection.
vrdeproperty
"Security/Method=<value>": Sets the
desired security method, which is used for a connection.
Valid values are as follows:
Negotiate: Both
Enhanced (TLS) and Standard RDP Security connections
are allowed. The security method is negotiated with
the client. This is the default setting.
RDP: Only Standard
RDP Security is accepted.
TLS: Only Enhanced
RDP Security is accepted. The client must support TLS.
vrdeproperty
"Security/ServerCertificate=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the server
certificate. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
vrdeproperty
"Security/ServerPrivateKey=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the server
private key. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
vrdeproperty
"Security/CACertificate=<value>"
where <value> is the absolute path of the CA self
signed certificate. See Section 7.1.6, “RDP Encryption”.
vrdeproperty
"Audio/RateCorrectionMode|LogPath=<value>":
Sets the audio connection mode, or path of the audio logfile.
vrdeproperty
"Audio/RateCorrectionMode=<value>"
where <value> is the desired rate correction mode,
allowed values are:
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_VOID:
No mode specified, use to unset any Audio mode already
set.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_RC:
Rate correction mode.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_LPF:
Low pass filter mode.
VRDP_AUDIO_MODE_CS:
Client sync mode to prevent underflow or overflow of
the client queue.
vrdeproperty
"Audio/LogPath=<value>" where
<value> is the absolute path of the audio log file.
vrdevideochannelquality
<percent>: Sets the image quality for
video redirection. See Section 7.1.9, “VRDP Video Redirection”.
setvideomodehint: Requests
that the guest system change to a particular video mode. This
requires that the Guest Additions be installed, and will not
work for all guest systems.
screenshotpng: Takes a
screenshot of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.
recording on|off enables or
disables the recording of a VM session into a WebM/VP8 file.
When this option value is on,
recording begins when the VM session starts.
recordingscreens
all|
enables you to specify which VM screens to record. The
recording for each screen that you specify is saved to its own
file. You cannot modify this setting while recording is
enabled.
screen-ID
[screen-ID ...]
recordingfile
specifies
the file in which to save the recording. You cannot modify
this setting while recording is enabled.
filename
recordingvideores
specifies the resolution of the recorded video in pixels. You
cannot modify this setting while recording is enabled.
widthxheight
recordingvideorate
specifies
the bit rate of the video in kilobits per second. Increasing
this value improves the appearance of the video at the cost of
an increased file size. You cannot modify this setting while
recording is enabled.
bit-rate
recordingvideofps
specifies the
maximum number of video frames per second (FPS) to record.
Frames that have a higher frequency are skipped. Increasing
this value reduces the number of skipped frames and increases
the file size. You cannot modify this setting while recording
is enabled.
fps
recordingmaxtime
specifies
the maximum amount time to record in seconds. The recording
stops after the specified number of seconds elapses. If this
value is zero, the recording continues until you stop the
recording.
seconds
recordingmaxsize
specifies the
maximum size of the recorded video file in megabytes. The
recording stops when the file reaches the specified size. If
this value is zero, the recording continues until you stop the
recording. You cannot modify this setting while recording is
enabled.
MB
recordingopts
specifies additional recording options
in a comma-separated keyword-value format. For example,
keyword=value[,keyword=value
...]foo=bar,a=b. You cannot
modify this setting while recording is enabled.
Only use this option only if you are an advanced user. For information about keywords, see Oracle VM VirtualBox Programming Guide and Reference.
setcredentials: Used for
remote logins on Windows guests. See
Section 9.1, “Automated Guest Logins”.
teleport --host <name> --port
<port>: Configures a VM as a target for
teleporting. <name> specifies the virtual machine name.
<port> specifies the port on the virtual machine which
should listen for teleporting requests from other virtual
machines. It can be any free TCP/IP port number, such as 6000.
See Section 7.2, “Teleporting”.
--maxdowntime
<msec>: Specifies the maximum
downtime, in milliseconds, for the teleporting target VM.
Optional.
--password
<password>: The teleporting request
will only succeed if the source machine specifies the same
password as the one given with this command. Optional.
--passwordfile <password
file>: The teleporting request will
only succeed if the source machine specifies the same
password as the one specified in the password file with
the path specified with this command. Use
stdin to read the
password from stdin. Optional.
plugcpu|unplugcpu <id>:
If CPU hot-plugging is enabled, this setting adds and removes
a virtual CPU to the virtual machine.
<id> specifies the
index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and must be a
number from 0 to the maximum number of CPUs configured. CPU 0
can never be removed.
The cpuexecutioncap
<1-100>: Controls how much CPU time a
virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.
webcam attach <path|alias>
[<keyword=value>[;<keyword=value>...]]:
Attaches a webcam to a running VM. Specify the absolute path
of the webcam on the host operating system, or use its alias,
obtained by using the command: VBoxManage list
webcams.
Note that alias '.0' means the default video input device on the host operating system, '.1', '.2', etc. mean first, second, etc. video input device. The device order is host-specific.
The optional settings parameter is a
; delimited list of
name-value pairs, enabling configuration of the emulated
webcam device.
The following settings are supported:
MaxFramerate: Specifies the highest rate in frames per second,
at which video frames are sent to the guest. Higher frame
rates increase CPU load, so this setting can be useful when
there is a need to reduce CPU load. The default setting is
no maximum limit, thus
enabling the guest to use all frame rates supported by the
host webcam.
MaxPayloadTransferSize: Specifies the maximum number of bytes the emulated webcam can send to the guest in one buffer. The default setting is 3060 bytes, which is used by some webcams. Higher values can slightly reduce CPU load, if the guest is able to use larger buffers. Note that higher MaxPayloadTransferSize values may be not supported by some guest operating systems.
webcam detach
<path|alias>: Detaches a webcam from a
running VM. Specify the absolute path of the webcam on the
host, or use its alias obtained from the webcam
list command.
Please note the following points, relating to specific host operating systems:
Windows hosts: When the webcam device is detached from the host, the emulated webcam device is automatically detached from the guest.
Mac OS X hosts: OS X version 10.7 or newer is required.
When the webcam device is detached from the host, the emulated webcam device remains attached to the guest and must be manually detached using the VBoxManage controlvm webcam detach command.
Linux hosts: When the webcam is detached from the host, the emulated webcam device is automatically detached from the guest only if the webcam is streaming video. If the emulated webcam is inactive, it should be manually detached using the VBoxManage controlvm webcam detach command.
webcam list: Lists webcams
attached to the running VM. The output is a list of absolute
paths or aliases that were used for attaching the webcams to
the VM using the webcam attach command.
addencpassword <id> <password
file>|- [--removeonsuspend
<yes|no>]: Supplies an encrypted VM
specified by <id> with the encryption password to enable
a headless start. Either specify the absolute path of a
password file on the host file system: <password file>,
or use - to instruct
VBoxManage to prompt the user for the
encryption password.
--removeonsuspend
<yes|no>: Specifies whether to remove
the passsword or keep the password in VM memory when the VM is
suspended. If the VM has been suspended and the password has
been removed, the user needs to resupply the password before
the VM can be resumed. This feature is useful in cases where
the user does not want the password to be stored in VM memory,
and the VM is suspended by a host suspend event.
On Oracle VM VirtualBox versions 5.0 and later, data stored on hard disk images can be transparently encrypted for the guest. Oracle VM VirtualBox uses the AES algorithm in XTS mode and supports 128 or 256 bit data encryption keys (DEK). The DEK is stored encrypted in the medium properties, and is decrypted during VM startup by supplying the encryption password.
The VBoxManage encryptmedium command is used to create a DEK encrypted medium. See Section 9.30.2, “Encrypting Disk Images”. When starting an encrypted VM from the Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI, the user will be prompted for the encryption password.
For a headless encrypted VM start, use the following command:
VBoxManage startvm "vmname" --type headless
Then supply the required encryption password as follows:
VBoxManage "vmname" controlvm "vmname" addencpassword ...
removeencpassword <id>:
Removes encryption password authorization for password
<id> for all encrypted media attached to the VM.
removeallencpasswords:
Removes encryption password authorization for all passwords
for all encrypted media attached to the VM.
changeuartmode <1-N>:
Changes the connection mode for a given virtual serial port.
This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is not currently running. This will cause the VM's operating system to restart next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.
If you have a Saved state file
(.sav) that is separate from the
VM configuration, you can use this command to
adopt the file. This will change the VM to
saved state and when you start it, Oracle VM VirtualBox will attempt to
restore it from the saved state file you indicated. This command
should only be used in special setups.
This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings, copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was running. After a snapshot has been taken, Oracle VM VirtualBox creates a differencing hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the preexisting differencing files.
VBoxManage snapshot <uuid|vmname>
take <name> [--description <desc>] [--live]
[--uniquename Number,Timestamp,Space,Force] |
delete <uuid|snapname> |
restore <uuid|snapname> |
restorecurrent |
edit <uuid|snapname>|--current
[--name <name>]
[--description <desc>] |
list [--details|--machinereadable]
showvminfo <uuid|snapname>
The take operation takes a snapshot of the
current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new
snapshot is inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the
current snapshot and then becomes the new current snapshot. The
--description parameter enables
you to describe the snapshot. If
--live is specified, the VM will
not be stopped during the snapshot creation. This is called live
snapshotting.
The delete operation deletes a snapshot, specified by name or by UUID. This can take a while to finish since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to be merged with their child differencing images.
The restore operation will restore the given snapshot, specified by name or by UUID, by resetting the virtual machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot becomes the new current snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.
The restorecurrent operation is a shortcut to restore the current snapshot, which is the snapshot from which the current state is derived. This subcommand is equivalent to using the restore subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.
With the edit operation, you can change the name or description of an existing snapshot.
The list operation shows all snapshots of a virtual machine.
With the showvminfo operation, you can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing snapshot.
This command removes a hard disk, DVD, or floppy image from a Oracle VM VirtualBox media registry.
VBoxManage closemedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
[--delete]Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will become unregistered in any case.
This command attaches, modifies, and removes a storage medium connected to a storage controller that was previously added with the storagectl command. The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage storageattach <uuid|vmname>
--storagectl <name>
[--port <number>]
[--device <number>]
[--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd]
[--medium none|emptydrive|additions|
<uuid>|<filename>|host:<drive>|iscsi]
[--mtype normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable
readonly|multiattach]
[--comment <text>]
[--setuuid <uuid>]
[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
[--passthrough on|off]
[--tempeject on|off]
[--nonrotational on|off]
[--discard on|off]
[--hotpluggable on|off]
[--bandwidthgroup name|none]
[--forceunmount]
[--server <name>|<ip>]
[--target <target>]
[--tport <port>]
[--lun <lun>]
[--encodedlun <lun>]
[--username <username>]
[--password <password>]
[--passwordfile <file>]
[--initiator <initiator>]
[--intnet]A number of parameters are commonly required. Some parameters are required only for iSCSI targets.
The common parameters are as follows:
uuid|vmname
The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.
--storagectl
Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained with VBoxManage showvminfo. See Section 8.5, “VBoxManage showvminfo”.
--port
The number of the storage controller's port which is to be modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single port.
--device
The number of the port's device which is to be modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device per port.
--type
Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
attached, detached, or modified. This argument can only be
omitted if the type of medium can be determined from either
the medium given with the
--medium argument or from a
previous medium attachment.
--medium
Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are supported:
none: Any existing
device should be removed from the given slot.
emptydrive: For a
virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this makes the device
slot behave like a removeable drive into which no media
has been inserted.
additions: For a
virtual DVD drive only, this attaches the
VirtualBox Guest Additions image to
the given device slot.
If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a storage medium that is already known to Oracle VM VirtualBox. For example, because it has been attached to another virtual machine. See Section 8.4, “VBoxManage list” for details of how to list known media. This medium is then attached to the given device slot.
If a filename is specified, it must be the full path of an existing disk image in ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK, or other format. The disk image is then attached to the given device slot.
host:<drive>: For
a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this connects the
given device slot to the specified DVD or floppy drive
on the host computer.
iscsi: For virtual hard
disks only, this is used for specifying an iSCSI target.
In this case, additional parameters must be given. These
are described below.
Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable media such as floppies and CDs/DVDs, can be effected while a VM is running. Others, such as device changes or changes in hard disk device slots, require the VM to be powered off.
--mtype
Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots and write operations. See Section 5.4, “Special Image Write Modes”.
--comment
An optional description that you want to have stored with this medium. For example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage server downstairs". This is purely descriptive and not needed for the medium to function correctly.
--setuuid, --setparentuuid
Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option.
Inappropriate use can make the medium unusable or lead to
broken VM configurations if any other VM is referring to the
same media already. The most frequently used variant is
--setuuid "", which assigns
a new random UUID to an image. This option is useful for
resolving duplicate UUID errors if you duplicated an image
using a file copy utility.
--passthrough
For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing support. This feature is currently experimental, see Section 5.9, “CD/DVD Support”.
--tempeject
For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to on, the eject has only a temporary effect. If the VM is powered off and restarted the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.
--nonrotational
Enables you to enable the non-rotational flag for virtual hard disks. Some guests, such as Windows 7 or later, treat such disks like SSDs and do not perform disk fragmentation on such media.
--discard
Enables the auto-discard feature for a virtual hard disks. This specifies that a VDI image will be shrunk in response to the trim command from the guest OS. The following requirements must be met:
The disk format must be VDI.
The size of the cleared area must be at least 1 MB.
Oracle VM VirtualBox will only trim whole 1 MB blocks. The VDIs themselves are organized into 1 MB blocks, so this will only work if the space being trimmed is at least a 1 MB contiguous block at a 1 MB boundary. On Windows, occasional defragmentation with defrag.exe /D, or on Linux running btrfs filesystem defrag as a background cron job may be beneficial.
The Guest OS must be configured to issue the trim command, and typically this means that the guest OS is made to see the disk as an SSD. Ext4 supports the -o discard mount flag. Mac OS X probably requires additional settings. Windows should automatically detect and support SSDs, at least in versions 7, 8, and 10. The Linux exFAT driver from Samsung supports the trim command.
It is unclear whether Microsoft's implementation of exFAT supports this feature, even though that file system was originally designed for flash.
Alternatively, there are other methods to issue trim. For example, the Linux fstrim command, part of the util-linux package. Earlier solutions required a user to zero out unused areas, using zerofree or similar, and to compact the disk. This is only possible when the VM is offline.
--bandwidthgroup
Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device. See Section 5.8, “Limiting Bandwidth for Disk Images”.
--forceunmount
For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. See Section 5.9, “CD/DVD Support”.
When iscsi is used with the
--medium parameter for iSCSI
support, additional parameters must or can be used. See also
Section 5.10, “iSCSI Servers”.
--server
The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target. Required.
--target
Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target and used to identify the storage resource. Required.
--tport
TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target. Optional.
--lun
Logical Unit Number of the target resource. Optional. Often, this value is zero.
--encodedlun
Hex-encoded Logical Unit Number of the target resource. Optional. Often, this value is zero.
--username, --password,
--passwordfile
Username and password, called the initiator secret, for target authentication, if required. Optional.
Username and password are stored without encryption, in
clear text, in the XML machine configuration file if no
settings password is provided. When a settings password is
specified for the first time, the password is stored in
encrypted form. As an alternative to providing the
password on the command line, a reference to a file
containing the text can be provided using the
passwordfile option.
--initiator
iSCSI Initiator. Optional.
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator is a system, such as a server that attaches to an IP network and initiates requests and receives responses from an iSCSI target. The SAN components in Microsoft iSCSI Initiator are largely analogous to Fibre Channel SAN components, and they include the following:
To transport blocks of iSCSI commands over the IP network, an iSCSI driver must be installed on the iSCSI host. An iSCSI driver is included with Microsoft iSCSI Initiator.
A gigabit Ethernet adapter that transmits 1000 megabits per second (Mbps) is recommended for the connection to an iSCSI target. Like standard 10/100 adapters, most gigabit adapters use a preexisting Category 5 or Category 6E cable. Each port on the adapter is identified by a unique IP address.
An iSCSI target is any device that receives iSCSI commands. The device can be an end node, such as a storage device, or it can be an intermediate device, such as a network bridge between IP and Fibre Channel devices. Each port on the storage array controller or network bridge is identified by one or more IP addresses
--intnet
If specified, connect to the iSCSI target using Internal Networking. This needs further configuration, see Section 9.8.3, “Access iSCSI Targets Using Internal Networking”.
This command attaches, modifies, and removes a storage controller. After this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the storageattach command.
The syntax for this command is as follows:
VBoxManage storagectl <uuid|vmname>
--name <name>
[--add ide|sata|scsi|floppy|sas|usb|pcie]
[--controller LSILogic|LSILogicSAS|BusLogic|
IntelAhci|PIIX3|PIIX4|ICH6|I82078|
USB|NVMe]
[--portcount <1-30>]
[--hostiocache on|off]
[--bootable on|off]
[--rename <name>]
[--remove]The parameters are as follows:
uuid|vmname
The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.
--name
Specifies the name of the storage controller. Mandatory.
--add
Specifies the type of the system bus to which the storage controller must be connected.
--controller
Enables a choice of chipset type being emulated for the given storage controller.
--portcount
This specifies the number of ports the storage controller should support.
--hostiocache
Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images attached to this storage controller. See Section 5.7, “Host Input/Output Caching”.
--bootable
Specifies whether this controller is bootable.
--rename
Specifies a new name for the storage controller.
--remove
Removes the storage controller from the VM configuration.
This command creates, deletes, modifies, and shows bandwidth groups of the given virtual machine.
VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid|vmname>
add <name> --type disk|network --limit <MBps>[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
set <name> --limit <MBps>[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
remove <name> |
list [--machinereadable]The following subcommands are available:
add: Creates a new bandwidth group of a given type.
set: Modifies the limit for an existing bandwidth group.
remove: Deletes a bandwidth group.
list: Shows all bandwidth groups defined
for the given VM. Use the
--machinereadable option to
produce the same output, but in machine readable format. This
is of the form: name="value" on a line by line basis.
The parameters are as follows:
uuid|vmname
The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.
--name
Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.
--type
Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
supported: disk and
network. See
Section 5.8, “Limiting Bandwidth for Disk Images” or
Section 6.10, “Limiting Bandwidth for Network Input/Output” for the
description of a particular type.
--limit
Specifies the limit for the given bandwidth group. This can
be changed while the VM is running. The default unit is
megabytes per second. The unit can be changed by specifying
one of the following suffixes:
k for kilobits per second,
m for megabits per second,
g for gigabits per second,
K for kilobytes per second,
M for megabytes per second,
G for gigabytes per second.
The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.
To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks or adapters in the running VM.
This command shows information about a medium, notably its size, its size on disk, its type, and the virtual machines which use it.
For compatibility with earlier versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the showvdiinfo command is also supported and mapped internally to the showmediuminfo command.
VBoxManage showmediuminfo [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
The medium must be specified either by its UUID, if the medium is registered, or by its filename. Registered images can be listed using VBoxManage list hdds, VBoxManage list dvds, or VBoxManage list floppies, as appropriate. See Section 8.4, “VBoxManage list”.
This command creates a new medium. The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage createmedium [disk|dvd|floppy] --filename <filename>
[--size <megabytes>|--sizebyte <bytes>]
[--diffparent <uuid>|<filename>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]The parameters are as follows:
--filename <filename>
Specifies a file name <filename> as an absolute path on the host file system. Mandatory.
--size <megabytes>
Specifies the image capacity, in 1 MB units. Optional.
--diffparent
<uuid>|<filename>
Specifies the differencing image parent, either as a UUID or by the absolute pathname of the file on the host file system. Useful for sharing a base box disk image among several VMs.
--format VDI|VMDK|VHD
Specifies the file format for the output file. Available options are VDI, VMDK, VHD. The default format is VDI. Optional.
--variant
Specifies any required file format variants for the output file. This is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Options are Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX. Not all combinations are supported, and specifying mutually incompatible flags results in an error message. Optional.
For compatibility with earlier versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the createvdi and createhd commands are also supported and mapped internally to the createmedium command.
With the modifymedium command, you can change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been created.
VBoxManage modifymedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|filename>
[--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
readonly|multiattach]
[--autoreset on|off]
[--property <name=[value]>]
[--compact]
[--resize <megabytes>|--resizebyte <bytes>]
[--move <path>]
[--setlocation <path>]For compatibility with earlier versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the modifyvdi and modifyhd commands are also supported and mapped internally to the modifymedium command.
The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID, if the medium is registered, or by its filename. Registered images can be listed using VBoxManage list hdds, see Section 8.4, “VBoxManage list”. A filename must be specified as a valid path, either as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current directory.
The following options are available:
With the --type argument, you
can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
immutable, write-through and other modes. See
Section 5.4, “Special Image Write Modes”.
For immutable hard disks only, the --autoreset
on|off option determines whether the disk is
automatically reset on every VM startup. See
Section 5.4, “Special Image Write Modes”. By default, autoreset is on.
The --compact option can be
used to compact disk images. Compacting removes blocks that
only contains zeroes. Using this option will shrink a
dynamically allocated image. It will reduce the
physical size of the image without
affecting the logical size of the virtual disk. Compaction
works both for base images and for differencing images created
as part of a snapshot.
For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
sdelete tool provided by Microsoft. Run
sdelete -z in the guest to zero the free
disk space, before compressing the virtual disk image. For
Linux, use the zerofree utility which
supports ext2/ext3 filesystems. For Mac OS X guests, use the
diskutil secureErase freespace 0
/ command from an elevated Terminal.
Please note that compacting is currently only available for VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also supported for disk formats other than VDI.
The --resize x option, where
x is the desired new total space in megabytes enables you to
change the capacity of an existing image. This adjusts the
logical size of a virtual disk without
affecting the physical size much.
This option currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and
only for the dynamically allocated variants. It can only be
used to expand, but not shrink, the capacity. For example, if
you originally created a 10 GB disk which is now full, you can
use the --resize 15360
command to change the capacity to 15 GB (15,360 MB) without
having to create a new image and copy all data from within a
virtual machine. Note however that this only changes the drive
capacity. You will typically next need to use a partition
management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
to fill the drive.
The --resizebyte x option
does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in
bytes instead of megabytes.
The --move <path>
option can be used to relocate a medium to a different
location <path> on the host file system. The path can be
either relative to the current directory or absolute.
The --setlocation
<path> option can be used to set the
new location <path> of the medium on the host file
system if the medium has been moved for any reasons. The path
can be either relative to the current directory or absolute.
The new location is used as is, without any sanity checks. The user is responsible for setting the correct path.
This command duplicates a virtual disk, DVD, or floppy medium to a new medium, usually an image file, with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be transferred to another host system or reimported into Oracle VM VirtualBox using the Virtual Media Manager. See Section 5.3, “The Virtual Media Manager” and Section 5.6, “Cloning Disk Images”. The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage clonemedium [disk|dvd|floppy] <uuid|inputfile> <uuid|outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|<other>]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--existing]The medium to clone as well as the target image must be described either by its UUIDs, if the mediums are registered, or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by VBoxManage list hdds. See Section 8.4, “VBoxManage list”. A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current directory.
The following options are available:
--format
Set a file format for the output file different from the file format of the input file.
--variant
Set a file format variant for the output file. This is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will result in an error message.
--existing
Perform the clone operation to an already existing destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.
For compatibility with earlier versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the clonevdi and clonehd commands are still supported and mapped internally to the clonehd disk command.
This command sets, gets, or deletes a medium property. The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage mediumproperty [disk|dvd|floppy] set <uuid|filename>
<property> <value>
Use <disk|dvd|floppy>
to optionally specify the type of medium: disk (hard drive),
dvd, or floppy.
Use <uuid|filename> to
supply either the UUID or absolute path of the medium or
image.
Use <property> to
supply the name of the property.
Use <value> to supply
the property value.
VBoxManage mediumproperty [disk|dvd|floppy] get <uuid|filename>
<property>
Use <disk|dvd|floppy>
to optionally specify the type of medium: disk (hard drive),
dvd, or floppy.
Use <uuid|filename> to
supply either the UUID or absolute path of the medium or
image.
Use <property> to
supply the name of the property.
VBoxManage mediumproperty [disk|dvd|floppy] delete <uuid|filename>
<property>
Use <disk|dvd|floppy>
to optionally specify the type of medium: disk (hard drive),
dvd, or floppy.
Use <uuid|filename> to
supply either the UUID or absolute path of the medium or
image.
Use <property> to
supply the name of the property.
This command is used to create a DEK encrypted medium or image. See Section 9.30.2, “Encrypting Disk Images”.
The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage encryptmedium <uuid|filename>
[--newpassword <file|->]
[--oldpassword <file|->]
[--cipher <cipher id>]
[--newpasswordid <password id>]
Use <uuid|filename> to
supply the UUID or absolute path of the medium or image to be
encrypted.
Use --newpassword
<file|-> to supply a new encryption
password. Either specify the absolute pathname of a password
file on the host operating system, or
- to prompt you for the
password on the command line. Always use the
--newpasswordid option with
this option.
Use --oldpassword
<file|-> to supply any old encryption
password. Either specify the absolute pathname of a password
file on the host operating system, or
- to prompt you for the old
password on the command line.
Use this option to gain access to an encrypted medium or image
to either change its password using
--newpassword or change its
encryption using --cipher.
Use --cipher <cipher>
to specify the cipher to use for encryption. This can be
either AES-XTS128-PLAIN64 or
AES-XTS256-PLAIN64.
Use this option to change any existing encryption on the medium or image, or to set up new encryption on it for the first time.
Use --newpasswordid <password
id> to supply the new password identifier.
This can be chosen by the user, and is used for correct
identification when supplying multiple passwords during VM
startup.
If the user uses the same password when encrypting multiple images and also the same password identifier, the user needs to supply the password only once during VM startup.
This command is used to check the current encryption password on a DEK encrypted medium or image. See Section 9.30.2, “Encrypting Disk Images”.
The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage checkmediumpwd <uuid|filename>
<pwd file|->
Use <uuid|filename> to
supply the UUID or absolute path of the medium or image to be
checked.
Use <pwd file|-> to
supply the password identifier to be checked. Either specify
the absolute pathname of a password file on the host operating
system, or - to prompt you
for the password on the command line.
This command converts a raw disk image to a Oracle VM VirtualBox Disk Image (VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:
VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--uuid <uuid>]
VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--uuid <uuid>]The parameters are as follows:
--bytes
The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through stdin.
--format
Select the disk image format to create. The default format is VDI. Other options are VMDK and VHD.
--variant
Choose a file format variant for the output file. This is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will result in an error message.
--uuid
Specify the UUID of the output file.
The stdin form of the command forces VBoxManage to read the content of the disk image from standard input. This useful when using the command in a pipe.
For compatibility with earlier versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the convertdd command is also supported and mapped internally to the convertfromraw command.
These commands enable you to attach and retrieve string data for a
virtual machine or for a Oracle VM VirtualBox configuration, by
specifying global instead of a
virtual machine name. You must specify a keyword as a text string
to associate the data with, which you can later use to retrieve
it. For example:
VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01 VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02
This example would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the keyword installdate for the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You could then retrieve the information as follows:
VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate
This would return the following:
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version version-number
(C) 2005-2018 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
Value: 2006.01.01You could retrieve the information for all keywords as follows:
VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 enumerate
To remove a keyword, the setextradata command must be run without specifying data, only the keyword. For example:
VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate
This command is used to change global settings which affect the entire Oracle VM VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings in the Global Settings dialog in the graphical user interface. The following properties are available:
machinefolder
Specifies the default folder in which virtual machine definitions are kept. See Section 10.1, “Where Oracle VM VirtualBox Stores its Files”.
hwvirtexclusive
Specifies whether Oracle VM VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) of the host system's processor. See Section 10.3, “Hardware vs. Software Virtualization”. If you wish to share these extensions with other hypervisors running at the same time, you must disable this setting. Doing so has negative performance implications.
vrdeauthlibrary
Specifies which library to use when external authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine. See Section 7.1.5, “RDP Authentication”.
websrvauthlibrary
Specifies which library the web service uses to authenticate users. For details about the Oracle VM VirtualBox web service, see the Oracle VM VirtualBox SDK reference, Chapter 11, Oracle VM VirtualBox Programming Interfaces.
vrdeextpack
Specifies which library implements the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension.
loghistorycount
Selects how many rotated VM logs are retained.
autostartdbpath
Selects the path to the autostart database. See Section 9.23, “Starting Virtual Machines During System Boot”.
defaultfrontend
Selects the global default VM frontend setting. See Section 8.13, “VBoxManage startvm”.
logginglevel
Configures the VBoxSVC release logging details. See http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VBoxLogging.
proxymode
Configures the mode for an HTTP proxy server.
proxyurl
Configures the URL for an HTTP proxy server. Used when a
manual proxy is configured using the
manual setting of the
proxymode property.
VBoxManage usbfilter add <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>global
--name <string>
--action ignore|hold (global filters only)
[--active yes|no (yes)]
[--vendorid <XXXX> (null)]
[--productid <XXXX> (null)]
[--revision <IIFF> (null)]
[--manufacturer <string> (null)]
[--product <string> (null)]
[--remote yes|no (null, VM filters only)]
[--serialnumber <string> (null)]
[--maskedinterfaces <XXXXXXXX>]
VBoxManage usbfilter modify <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>global
[--name <string>]
[--action ignore|hold (global filters only)]
[--active yes|no]
[--vendorid <XXXX>]
[--productid <XXXX>]
[--revision <IIFF>]
[--manufacturer <string>]
[--product <string>]
[--remote yes|no (null, VM filters only)]
[--serialnumber <string>]
[--maskedinterfaces <XXXXXXXX>]
VBoxManage usbfilter remove <index,0-N>
--target <uuid|vmname>global
The usbfilter commands are used for working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which affect the whole Oracle VM VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is applied. For example, if the first global filter says to hold, or make available, a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second filter says to ignore all Kingston devices. That particular Kingston memory stick will be available to any machine with the appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device will.
When creating a USB filter using usbfilter add,
you must supply three or four mandatory parameters. The index
specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and
the following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise, the
new filter will be added onto the end of the list. The
target parameter selects the
virtual machine that the filter should be attached to or use
global to apply it to all virtual
machines. name is a name for the
new filter. For global filters,
action says whether to allow VMs
access to devices that fit the filter description (hold) or not to
give them access (ignore). In addition, you should specify
parameters to filter by. You can find the parameters for devices
attached to your system using VBoxManage list
usbhost. Finally, you can specify whether the filter
should be active. For local filters, whether they are for local
devices, remote devices over an RDP connection, or either.
When you modify a USB filter using usbfilter
modify, you must specify the filter by index and by
target, which is either a virtual machine or
global. See the output of
VBoxManage list usbfilters to find global
filter indexes and VBoxManage showvminfo to
find indexes for individual machines. The properties which can be
changed are the same as for usbfilter add. To
remove a filter, use usbfilter remove and
specify the index and the target.
The following is a list of the additional usbfilter add and usbfilter modify options, with details of how to use them.
--action ignore|hold:
Specifies whether devices that fit the filter description are
allowed access by machines (hold), or have access denied
(ignore). Applies to global filters only.
--active yes|no: Specifies
whether the USB Filter is active or temporarily disabled. For
usbfilter create the default
is active.
--vendorid <XXXX>|"":
Specifies a vendor ID filter. The string representation for an
exact match has the form XXXX, where X is the hexadecimal
digit, including leading zeroes.
--productid <XXXX>|"":
Specifies a product ID filter. The string representation for
an exact match has the form XXXX, where X is the hexadecimal
digit, including leading zeroes.
--revision <IIFF>|"":
Specifies a revision ID filter. The string representation for
an exact match has the form IIFF, where I is the decimal digit
of the integer part of the revision, and F is the decimal
digit of its fractional part, including leading and trailing
zeros. Note that for interval filters, it is best to use the
hexadecimal form, because the revision is stored as a 16-bit
packed BCD value. Therefore, the expression int:0x0100-0x0199
will match any revision from 1.0 to 1.99 inclusive.
--manufacturer
<string>|"": Specifies a manufacturer
ID filter, as a string.
--product <string>|"":
Specifies a product ID filter, as a string.
--remote yes|no"": Specifies
a remote filter, indicating whether the device is physically
connected to a remote VRDE client or to a local host machine.
Applies to VM filters only.
--serialnumber
<string>|"": Specifies a serial number
filter, as a string.
--maskedinterfaces
<XXXXXXXX>: Specifies a masked
interface filter, for hiding one or more USB interfaces from
the guest. The value is a bit mask where the set bits
correspond to the USB interfaces that should be hidden, or
masked off. This feature only works on Linux hosts.
VBoxManage sharedfolder add <uuid|vmname>
--name <name> --hostpath <hostpath>
[--transient] [--readonly] [--automount]
This command enables you to share folders on the host computer with guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this functionality.
Parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>:
Specifies the UUID or name of the VM whose guest operating
system will be sharing folders with the host computer.
Mandatory.
--name <name>:
Specifies the name of the share. Each share has a unique name
within the namespace of the host operating system. Mandatory.
-hostpath <hostpath>:
Specifies the absolute path on the host operating system of
the directory to be shared with the guest operating system.
Mandatory.
-transient: Specifies that
the share is transient, meaning that it can be added and
removed at runtime and does not persist after the VM has
stopped. Optional.
-readonly: Specifies that the
share has only read-only access to files at the host path.
By default, shared folders have read/write access to the files on the host path. On Linux distributions, shared folders are mounted with 770 file permissions with root user and vboxsf as the group. Using this option the file permissions change to 700. Optional.
-automount: Specifies that
the share will be automatically mounted. On Linux
distributions, this will be to either
/media/USER/sf_<name>
or /media/sf_<name>,
where <name> is the share named. The actual location
depends on the guest OS. Optional.
VBoxManage sharedfolder remove <uuid|vmname>
--name <name> [--transient]
This command enables you to delete shared folders on the host computer shares with the guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this functionality.
Parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>:
Specifies the UUID or name of the VM whose guest operating
system is sharing folders with the host computer. Mandatory.
--name <name>:
Specifies the name of the share to be removed. Each share has
a unique name within the namespace of the host operating
system. Mandatory.
-transient: Specifies that
the share is transient, meaning that it can be added and
removed at runtime and does not persist after the VM has
stopped. Optional.
Shared folders are described in Section 4.3, “Shared Folders”.
The guestproperty commands enable you to get or
set properties of a running virtual machine. See
Section 4.7, “Guest Properties”. Guest properties are
arbitrary keyword-value string pairs which can be written to and
read from by either the guest or the host, so they can be used as
a low-volume communication channel for strings, provided that a
guest is running and has the Guest Additions installed. In
addition, a number of values whose keywords begin with
/VirtualBox/are automatically set
and maintained by the Guest Additions.
The following subcommands are available, where
<vm> can either be a VM
name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage
commands:
enumerate <vm> [--patterns
<pattern>]: Lists all the guest
properties that are available for the given VM, including the
value. This list will be very limited if the guest's service
process cannot be contacted, for example because the VM is not
running or the Guest Additions are not installed.
If --patterns <pattern>
is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that
match the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following
wildcard characters:
* (asterisk): Represents
any number of characters. For example,
"/VirtualBox*" would
match all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".
? (question mark):
Represents a single arbitrary character. For example,
"fo?" would match both
"foo" and "for".
| (pipe symbol): Can be
used to specify multiple alternative patterns. For
example, "s*|t*" would
match anything starting with either "s" or "t".
get <vm>
<property>: Retrieves the value of a
single property only. If the property cannot be found, for
example because the guest is not running, the following
message is shown:
No value set!
set <vm> <property> [<value>
[--flags <flags>]]: Enables you to set
a guest property by specifying the keyword and value. If
<value> is omitted, the
property is deleted. With
--flags, you can specify
additional behavior. You can combine several flags by
separating them with commas.
TRANSIENT: The value will
not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits.
TRANSRESET: The value
will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts or exits.
RDONLYGUEST: The value
can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only
read it.
RDONLYHOST: The value can
only be changed by the guest, but the host can only read
it.
READONLY: The value
cannot be changed at all.
wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
<timeout>: Waits for a particular value
described by the pattern string to change or to be deleted or
created. The pattern rules are the same as for the
enumerate subcommand.
delete <vm>
<property>: Deletes a guest property
which has been set previously.
The guestcontrol commands enable control of the guest from the host. See Section 4.9, “Guest Control of Applications” for an introduction.
The guestcontrol command has two sets of subcommands. The first set requires guest credentials to be specified, the second does not.
The first set of subcommands is of the following form:
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> <sub-command>
[--username <name> ]
[--passwordfile <file> | --password <password>]
[--domain <domain> ]
[-v|--verbose] [-q|quiet] ...
The common options are as follows:
[--username <name> ]
[--passwordfile <file> | --password <password>]
[--domain <domain> ]
[-v|--verbose] [-q|quiet]
The common options for the first set of subcommands are explained in the following list.
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--username <name>
Specifies the user name on guest OS under which the process should run. This user name must already exist on the guest OS. If unspecified, the host user name is used. Optional
--passwordfile
<file>|--password
Specifies the absolute path on guest file system of password file containing the password for the specified user account or password for the specified user account. Optional. If both are omitted, empty password is assumed.
--domain <domain>
User domain for Windows guests. Optional.
-v|--verbose
Makes the subcommand execution more verbose. Optional
-q|--quiet
Makes the subcommand execution quieter. Optional.
The first set of subcommands are as follows:
run: Executes a guest
program, forwarding stdout, stderr, and stdin to and from the
host until it completes.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> run [common-options]
--exe <path to executable> [--timeout <msec>]
[-E|--putenv <NAME>[=<VALUE>]] [--unquoted-args]
[--ignore-operhaned-processes] [--profile]
[--no-wait-stdout|--wait-stdout]
[--no-wait-stderr|--wait-stderr]
[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
-- <program/arg0> [argument1] ... [argumentN]]
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--exe <path to
executable>
Specifies the absolute path of the executable on the
guest OS file system. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe.
--timeout <msec>
Specifies the maximum time, in microseconds, that the executable can run, during which VBoxManage receives its output. Optional. If unspecified, VBoxManage waits indefinitely for the process to end, or an error occurs.
-E|--putenv
<NAME>=<VALUE>
Sets, modifies, and unsets environment variables in the environment in which the program will run. Optional.
The guest process is created with the standard default
guest OS environment. Use this option to modify that
default environment. To set or modify a variable use:
<NAME>=<VALUE>.
To unset a variable use:
<NAME>=
Any spaces in names and values should be enclosed by quotes.
To set, modify, and unset multiple variables, use
multiple instances of the
--E|--putenv option.
--unquoted-args
Disables escaped double quoting, such as \"fred\", on arguments passed to the executed program. Optional.
--ignore-operhaned-processes
Ignore orphaned processes. Not yet implemented. Optional.
--profile
Use Profile. Not yet implemented. Optional.
--no-wait-stdout|--wait-stdout
Does not wait or waits until the guest process ends and
receives its exit code and reason/flags. In the case of
--wait-stdout,
VBoxManage receives its stdout while
the process runs. Optional.
--no-wait-stderr|--wait-stderr
Does not wait or waits until the guest process ends and
receives its exit code, error messages, and flags. In
the case of
--wait-stderr,
VBoxManage receives its stderr while
the process runs. Optional.
--dos2unix
Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX/Linux-compatible line endings, CR + LF to LF. Not yet implemented. Optional.
--unix2dos
Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS/Windows-compatible line endings, LF to CR + LF. Not yet implemented. Optional.
[-- <program/arg0>
[<argument1>] ...
[<argumentN>]]
Specifies the program name, followed by one or more arguments to pass to the program. Optional.
Any spaces in arguments should be enclosed by quotes.
On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical applications. See Chapter 14, Known Limitations.
Examples of using the guestcontrol run command are as follows:
VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" run --exe "/bin/ls"
--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usrVBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" run --exe "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdoutNote that the double backslashes in the second example are only required on UNIX hosts.
For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest must be specified. Anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might apply and therefore cannot be changed.
Starting at Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited to serve up to five guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all five guest processes are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an appropriate error message.
To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either
use the guest property
/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept
or VBoxService command line by specifying
--control-procs-max-kept
needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required
afterwards. To serve unlimited guest processes, a value of
0 needs to be set, but this
is not recommended.
start: Executes a guest
program until it completes.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> start [common-options]
[--exe <path to executable>] [--timeout <msec>]
[-E|--putenv <NAME>[=<VALUE>]] [--unquoted-args]
[--ignore-operhaned-processes] [--profile]
-- <program/arg0> [argument1] ... [argumentN]]
Where the options are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--exe <path to
executable>
Specifies the absolute path of the executable on the
guest OS file system. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe
--timeout <msec>
Specifies the maximum time, in microseconds, that the executable can run. Optional. If unspecified, VBoxManage waits indefinitely for the process to end, or an error occurs.
-E|--putenv
<NAME>=<VALUE>
Sets, modifies, and unsets environment variables in the environment in which the program will run. Optional.
The guest process is created with the standard default
guest OS environment. Use this option to modify that
default environment. To set or modify a variable use:
<NAME>=<VALUE>.
To unset a variable use:
<NAME>=
Any spaces in names and values should be enclosed by quotes.
To set, modify, or unset multiple variables, use
multiple instances of the
--E|--putenv option.
--unquoted-args
Disables escaped double quoting, such as \"fred\", on arguments passed to the executed program. Optional.
--ignore-operhaned-processes
Ignores orphaned processes. Not yet implemented. Optional.
--profile
Use a profile. Not yet implemented. Optional.
[-- <program/arg0>
[<argument1>] ...
[<argumentN>]]
Specifies the program name, followed by one or more arguments to pass to the program. Optional.
Any spaces in arguments should be enclosed by quotes.
On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical applications. See Chapter 14, Known Limitations.
Examples of using the guestcontrol start command are as follows:
VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" start --exe "/bin/ls"
--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usrVBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" start --exe "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdoutNote that the double backslashes in the second example are only required on UNIX hosts.
For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest must be specified. Anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might apply and therefore cannot be changed.
Starting at Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited to serve up to five guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all five guest processes are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an appropriate error message.
To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either
use the guest property
/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept
or VBoxService command line by specifying
--control-procs-max-kept
needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required
afterwards. To serve unlimited guest processes, a value of
0 needs to be set, but this
is not recommended.
copyfrom: Copies files from
the guest to the host file system. Only available with Guest
Additions 4.0 or later installed.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> copyfrom [common-options]
[--follow] [--R|recursive]
--target-directory <host-dst-dir>
<guest-src0> [<guest-src1> [...]] Where the parameters are as follows:
<uid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--follow
Enables symlink following on the guest file system. Optional.
-R|--recursive
Enables recursive copying of files and directories from the specified guest file system directory. Optional.
--target-directory
<host-dst-dir>
Specifies the absolute path of the host file system
destination directory. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Temp.
<guest-src0> [<guest-src1>
[...]]
Specifies the absolute paths of guest file system files
to be copied. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe.
Wildcards can be used in the expressions. For example:
C:\Windows\System*\*.dll.
copyto: Copies files from the
host to the guest file system. Only available with Guest
Additions 4.0 or later installed.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> copyto [common-options]
[--follow] [--R|recursive]
--target-directory <guest-dst>
<host-src0> [<host-src1> [...]] Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--follow
Enables symlink following on the host file system. Optional.
-R|--recursive
Enables recursive copying of files and directories from the specified host file system directory. Optional.
--target-directory
<guest-dst>
Specifies the absolute path of the guest file system
destination directory. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Temp.
<host-src0> [<host-src1>
[...]]
Specifies the absolute paths of host file system files
to be copied. Mandatory. For example:
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe.
Wildcards can be used in the expressions. For example:
C:\Windows\System*\*.dll.
md|mkdir|createdir|createdirectory:
Creates one or more directories on the guest file system. Only
available with Guest Additions 4.0 or later installed.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> md|mkdir|createdir|createdirectory [common-options]
[--parents] [--mode <mode>]
<guest-dir0> [<guest-dir1> [...]] Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--parents
Creates any absent parent directories of the specified directory. Optional.
For example: If specified directory is
D:\Foo\Bar and
D:\Foo is absent, it
will be created. In such a case, had the
--parents option not
been used, this command would have failed.
--mode <mode>
Specifies the permission mode on the specified
directories, and any parents, if the
--parents option is
used. Currently octal modes only, such as.
0755, are supported.
<guest-dir0> [<guest-dir1>
[...]]
Specifies a list of absolute paths of directories to be
created on guest file system. Mandatory. For example:
D:\Foo\Bar.
All parent directories must already exist unless the
switch --parents is
used. For example, in the above example
D:\Foo. The specified
user must have sufficient rights to create the specified
directories, and any parents that need to be created.
rmdir|removedir|removedirectory:
Deletes specified guest file system directories. Only
available with installed Guest Additions 4.3.2 and later.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> rmdir|removedir|removedirectory [common-options]
[--recursive|-R]
<guest-dir0> [<guest-dir1> [...]]
Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--recursive
Recursively removes directories and contents. Optional.
<guest-dir0> [<guest-dir1>
[...]]
Specifies a list of the absolute paths of directories to
be deleted on guest file system. Mandatory. Wildcards
are allowed. For example:
D:\Foo\*Bar. The
specified user must have sufficient rights to delete the
specified directories.
rm|removefile: Deletes
specified files on the guest file system. Only available with
installed Guest Additions 4.3.2 and later.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> rm|removefile [common-options]
[-f|--force]
<guest-file0> [<guest-file1> [...]] Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
-f|--force
Enforce operation and override any requests for confirmations. Optional.
<guest-file0> [<guest-file1>
[...]]
Specifies a list of absolute paths of files to be
deleted on guest file system. Mandatory. Wildcards are
allowed. For example:
D:\Foo\Bar\text*.txt.
The specified user should have sufficient rights to
delete the specified files.
mv|move|ren|rename: Renames
files and/or directories on the guest file system. Only
available with installed Guest Additions 4.3.2 and later.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> mv|move|ren|rename [common-options]
<guest-source0> [<guest-source1> [...]] <guest-dest>Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
<guest-source0>
[<guest-source1> [...]]
Specifies absolute paths of files or a single directory to be moved and renamed on guest file system. Mandatory. Wildcards are allowed in file names. The specified user should have sufficient rights to access the specified files.
<dest>
Specifies the absolute path of the destination file or directory to which the files are to be moved. Mandatory. If only one file to be moved, <dest> can be file or directory, else it must be a directory. The specified user must have sufficient rights to access the destination file or directory.
mktemp|createtemp|createtemporary:
Creates a temporary file or directory on the guest file
system, to assist subsequent copying of files from the host to
the guest file systems. By default, the file or directory is
created in the guest's platform specific temp directory. Not
currently supported. Only available with installed Guest
Additions 4.2 and later.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> mktemp|createtemp|createtemporary [common-options]
[--directory] [--secure] [--mode <mode>] [--tmpdir <directory>]
<template>
The parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--directory
Creates a temporary directory instead of a file, specified by the <template> parameter. Optional.
--secure
Enforces secure file and directory creation. Optional.
The permission mode is set to
0755. Operation fails
if it cannot be performed securely.
--mode <mode>
Specifies the permission mode of the specified
directory. Optional. Currently only octal modes, such as
0755, are supported.
--tmpdir
<directory>
Specifies the absolute path of the directory on the guest file system where the file or directory specified will be created. Optional. If unspecified, the platform-specific temp directory is used.
<template>
Specifies a file name without a directory path, containing at least one sequence of three consecutive X characters, or ending in X. Mandatory.
stat: Displays file or file
system statuses on the guest.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> stat [common-options]
<file0> [<file1> [...]]Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
<file0> [<file1>
[...]]
Specifies absolute paths of files or file systems on the
guest file system. Mandatory. For example:
/home/foo/a.out. The
specified user should have sufficient rights to access
the specified files or file systems.
The second set of subcommands is of the form:
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> <sub-command>
[-v|--verbose] [-q|quiet] ...
The common options are as follows:
[-v|--verbose] [-q|--quiet]
Details of the common options for the second set of subcommands are as follows:
-v|--verbose
Makes the subcommand execution more verbose. Optional.
-q|--quiet
Makes the subcommand execution quieter. Optional.
The second set of subcommands are as follows:
list: Lists guest control
configuration and status data. For example: open guest
sessions, guest processes, and files.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> list [common-opts]
<all|sessions|processes|files> Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
all|sessions|processes|files
Indicates whether to list all available data or guest sessions, processes or files. Mandatory.
closeprocess: Terminates
guest processes specified by PIDs running in a guest session,
specified by the session ID or name.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> closeprocess [common-options]
--session-id <ID> | --session-name <name or pattern>
<PID0> [<PID1> [...]] Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--session-id <ID>
Specifies the guest session by its ID. Optional.
--session-name <name or
pattern>
Specifies the guest session by its name, or multiple sessions using a pattern containing wildcards. Optional.
<PID0> [<PID1>
[...]]
Specifies a list of process identifiers (PIDs) of guest processes to be terminated. Mandatory.
closesession: Closes
specified guest sessions, specified either by session ID or
name.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> closesession [common-options]
--session-id <ID> | --session-name <name or pattern> | --all Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--session-id <ID>
Specifies the guest session to be closed by ID. Optional.
--session-name <name or
pattern>
Specifies the guest session to be closed by name. Optional. Multiple sessions can be specified by using a pattern containing wildcards.
--all
Close all guest sessions. Optional.
updatega|updateadditions|updateguestadditions:
Ugrades Guest Additions already installed on the guest. Only
available for already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> updatega|updateadditions|updateguestadditions
[common-options]
[--source <New .ISO path>]
[--wait-start]
[-- <argument0> [<argument1> [...]]]Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
--source <New .ISO
path>
Specifies the absolute path on the guest file system of the .ISO file for the Guest Additions update. Mandatory.
--wait-start
Indicates that VBoxManage starts the usual updating process on the guest and then waits until the actual Guest Additions updating begins, at which point VBoxManage self-terminates. Optional.
Default behavior is that VBoxManage waits for completion of the Guest Additions update before terminating. Use of this option is sometimes necessary, as a running VBoxManage can affect the interaction between the installer and the guest OS.
[-- <argument0> [<argument1>
[...]]]
Specifies optional command line arguments to be supplied to the Guest Additions updater. Useful for retrofitting features which are not currently installed.
Arguments containing spaces should be enclosed by quotes.
watch: Prints current guest
control activity.
VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid|vmname> watch [common-options]
Where the parameters are as follows:
<uuid|vmname>
Specifies the VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.
This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the
host system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
CPU/Load/User metric that shows
the percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a
specific sampling period.
Metric data is collected and retained internally. It may be
retrieved at any time with the VBoxManage metrics
query subcommand. The data is available as long as the
background VBoxSVC process is
alive. That process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends
have been closed.
By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does not start until VBoxManage metrics setup is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and keeping the five most current samples, the following command can be used:
VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage
Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as
soon as it shuts down. Use the VBoxManage metrics
list subcommand to see which metrics are currently
available. You can also use the --list option
with any subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out
which metrics were affected.
Note that the VBoxManage metrics setup subcommand discards all samples that may have been previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.
To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the
data, VBoxManage metrics enable and
VBoxManage metrics disable subcommands can be
used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics as parameters,
not submetrics such as CPU/Load
or RAM/Usage. In other words
enabling CPU/Load/User while
disabling CPU/Load/Kernel is not
supported.
The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics. Available metrics can be listed with VBoxManage metrics list subcommand.
A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
has the following form:
Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate].
For example, RAM/Usage/Free:min
stands for the minimum amount of available memory over all
retained data if applied to the host object.
Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
to one object and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are
given in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all
available metrics of all objects. You may use an asterisk
"*" to explicitly specify that
the command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use
host as the object name to limit
the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To limit the
scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
separated by commas.
For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user
and kernel modes by the virtual machine named
test, use the following command:
VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel
The following list summarizes the available subcommands:
list
Shows the parameters of the currently existing metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a particular VM is running.
setup
Sets the interval between taking two samples of metric data
and the number of samples retained internally. The retained
data is available for displaying with the
query subcommand. The
--list option shows which
metrics have been modified as the result of the command
execution.
enable
Resumes data collection after it has been stopped with the
disable subcommand. Note that specifying
submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics.
Use --list to find out if
the command worked as expected.
disable
Suspends data collection without affecting collection
parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying
metrics. Use --list to find
out if the command worked as expected.
query
Retrieves and displays the currently retained metric data.
The query subcommand does not remove or flush retained data. If you query often enough you will see how old samples are gradually being phased out by new samples.
collect
Sets the interval between taking two samples of metric data
and the number of samples retained internally. The collected
data is displayed periodically until Ctrl+C is pressed,
unless the --detach option
is specified. With the
--detach option, this
subcommand operates the same way as
setup does. The
--list option shows which
metrics match the specified filter.
NAT networks use the Network Address Translation (NAT) service, which works in a similar way to a home router. It groups systems using it into a network and prevents outside systems from directly accessing those inside, while letting systems inside communicate with each other and outside systems using TCP and UDP over IPv4 and IPv6.
A NAT service is attached to an internal network. Virtual machines to make use of one should be attached to it. The name of an internal network is chosen when the NAT service is created, and the internal network will be created if it does not already exist. The following is an example command to create a NAT network:
VBoxManage natnetwork add --netname natnet1 --network "192.168.15.0/24" --enable
Here, natnet1 is the name of the
internal network to be used and
192.168.15.0/24 is the network
address and mask of the NAT service interface. By default, in this
static configuration the gateway will be assigned the address
192.168.15.1, the address after the interface address, though this
is subject to change.
To add a DHCP server to the NAT network after creation, run the following command:
VBoxManage natnetwork modify --netname natnet1 --dhcp on
The subcommands for VBoxManage natnetwork are as follows:
VBoxManage natnetwork add --netname <name>
[--network <network>]
[--enable|--disable]
[--dhcp on|off]
[--port-forward-4 <rule>]
[--loopback-4 <rule>]
[--ipv6 on|off]
[--port-forward-6 <rule>]
[--loopback-6 <rule>]
VBoxManage natnetwork add: Creates a new internal network interface, and adds a NAT network service. This command is a prerequisite for enabling attachment of VMs to the NAT network. Parameters are as follows:
--netname <name>
Where <name> is the name of the new internal network interface on the host OS.
--network <network>
Where <network> specifies the static or DHCP network address and mask of the NAT service interface. The default is a static network address.
--enable|--disable
Enables and disables the NAT network service.
--dhcp on|off
Enables and disables a DHCP server specified by
--netname. Use of this
option also indicates that it is a DHCP server.
--port-forward-4 <rule>
Enables IPv4 port forwarding, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--loopback-4 <rule>
Enables the IPv4 loopback interface, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--ipv6 on|off
Enables and disables IPv6. The default setting is IPv4, disabling IPv6 enables IPv4.
--port-forward-6 <rule>
Enables IPv6 port forwarding, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--loopback-6 <rule>
Enables the IPv6 loopback interface, with a rule specified by <rule>.
VBoxManage natnetwork remove --netname <name>
VBoxManage natnetwork remove: Removes a NAT network service. Parameters are as follows:
--netname <name>
Where <name> specifies an existing NAT network service. Does not remove any DHCP server enabled on the network.
VBoxManage natnetwork modify --netname <name>
[--network <network>]
[--enable|--disable]
[--dhcp on|off]
[--port-forward-4 <rule>]
[--loopback-4 <rule>]
[--ipv6 on|off]
[--port-forward-6 <rule>]
[--loopback-6 <rule>]
VBoxManage natnetwork modify: Modifies an existing NAT network service. Parameters are as follows:
--netname <name>
Where <name> specifies an existing NAT network service.
--network <network>
Where <network> specifies the new static or DHCP network address and mask of the NAT service interface. The default is a static network address.
--enable|--disable
Enables and disables the NAT network service.
--dhcp on|off
Enables and disables a DHCP server. If a DHCP server is not present, using enable adds a new DHCP server.
--port-forward-4 <rule>
Enables IPv4 port forwarding, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--loopback-4 <rule>
Enables the IPv4 loopback interface, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--ipv6 on|off
Enables and disables IPv6. The default setting is IPv4, disabling IPv6 enables IPv4.
--port-forward-6 <rule>
Enables IPv6 port forwarding, with a rule specified by <rule>.
--loopback-6 <rule>
Enables IPv6 loopback interface, with a rule specified by <rule>.
VBoxManage natnetwork start --netname <name>
VBoxManage natnetwork start: Starts the specified NAT network service and any associated DHCP server. Parameters are as follows:
--netname <name>
Where <name> specifies an existing NAT network service.
VBoxManage natnetwork stop --netname <name>
VBoxManage natnetwork stop: Stops the specified NAT network service and any DHCP server. Parameters are as follows:
--netname <name>
Where <name> specifies an existing NAT network service.
VBoxManage natnetwork list [<pattern>]
VBoxManage natnetwork list: Lists all NAT network services, with optional filtering. Parameters are as follows:
[<pattern>]
Where <pattern> is an optional filtering pattern.
The hostonlyif command enables you to change the IP configuration of a host-only network interface. For a description of host-only networking, see Section 6.7, “Host-Only Networking”. Each host-only interface is identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a manual IP configuration, both IP4 and IP6.
The following list summarizes the available subcommands:
ipconfig "<name>"
Configures a host-only interface.
create
Creates a new vboxnet<N> interface on the host OS. This command is essential before you can attach VMs to a host-only network.
remove vboxnet<N>
Removes a vboxnet<N> interface from the host OS.
The dhcpserver commands enable you to control the DHCP server that is built into Oracle VM VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or host-only networking. Theoretically, you can also enable it for a bridged network, but that may cause conflicts with other DHCP servers in your physical network.
Use the following command line options:
If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
of a virtual machine, use VBoxManage
dhcpserver add --netname
<network_name>, where
<network_name> is the
same network name you used with VBoxManage
modifyvm <vmname> --intnet<X>
<network_name>.
If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
of a virtual machine, use VBoxManage
dhcpserver add --ifname
<hostonly_if_name> instead, where
<hostonly_if_name> is
the same host-only interface name you used with
VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
--hostonlyadapter<X>
<hostonly_if_name>.
Alternatively, you can also use the --netname
option as with internal networks if you know the host-only
network's name. You can see the names with VBoxManage
list hostonlyifs. See
Section 8.4, “VBoxManage list”.
The following additional parameters are required when first adding a DHCP server:
With --ip, specify the IP
address of the DHCP server.
With --netmask, specify the
netmask of the network.
With --lowerip and
--upperip, you can specify
the lowest and highest IP address that the DHCP server will
assign to clients.
You can specify additional DHCP options with the
--options command option. Use
--id and
--value to configure a number and
string pair corresponding to the DHCP option. Use
--remove to remove a DHCP option.
The --vm and
--nic settings enable you to
configure DHCP options for a specific network adapter used by the
named VM.
Finally, you must specify
--enable or the DHCP server will
be created in the disabled state and will not be running.
After this, Oracle VM VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for the specified internal network or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine which uses that network is started.
Use VBoxManage dhcpserver remove with the given
--netname <network_name> or
--ifname <hostonly_if_name>
to remove the DHCP server for the specified internal network or
host-only network.
To modify the settings of a DHCP server created using VBoxManage dhcpserver add, you can use VBoxManage dhcpserver modify for a given network or host-only interface name. This has the same parameters as VBoxManage dhcpserver add.
The usbdevsource commands enable you to add and remove USB devices globally.
The following command adds a USB device.
VBoxManage usbdevsource add <source name>
--backend <backend>
--address <address>
Where the command line options are as follows:
<source name>:
Specifies the ID of the source USB device to be added.
Mandatory.
--backend <backend>:
Specifies the USB proxy service backend to use. Mandatory.
--address <address>:
Specifies the backend specific address. Mandatory.
The following command removes a USB device.
VBoxManage usbdevsource remove <source name>
Where the command line options are as follows:
<source name>:
Specifies the ID of the source USB device to be removed.
Mandatory.
Medium content access.
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] formatfat [--quick]
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] cat [--hex] [--offset=byte-offset] [--size=bytes] [--output=-|filename]
The subcommands of mediumio all operate on a medium which need to be specified, optionally with an encryption password. The following common options can be placed before or after the sub-command:
uuid|filenameEither the UUID or filename of a harddisk image, e.g. VDI, VMDK, VHD, ++.
uuid|filenameEither the UUID or filename of a DVD image, e.g. ISO, DMG, CUE.
uuid|filenameEither the UUID or filename of a floppy image, e.g. IMG.
-|filenameThe name of a file containing the medium encryption password. If -
is specified, the password will be read from stdin.
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] cat [--hex] [--offset=byte-offset] [--size=bytes] [--output=-|filename]
Dumps the medium content to stdout or the specified file.
--hex
Dump as hex bytes.
--offset
The byte offset in the medium to start.
--size
The number of bytes to dump.
--output
The output filename. As usual - is take to mean stdout.
VBoxManage mediumio <[--disk=uuid|filename] | [--dvd=uuid|filename] | [--floppy=uuid|filename]> [--password-file-|filename] stream [--format=image-format] [--variant=image-variant] [--output=-|filename]
Converts the medium to a streamable format and dumps it to the given output.
--format
The format of the destination image.
--variant
The medium variant for the destination.
--output
The output filename. As usual - is take to mean stdout.
Introspection and guest debugging.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> show [[--human-readable] | [--sh-export] | [--sh-eval] | [--cmd-set]] [settings-item...]
The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described in Section 12.1.3, “The Built-In VM Debugger”, these commands are only useful if you are very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug software.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> dumpvmcore [--filename=name]
Creates a system dump file of the specified VM. This file will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see Section 12.1.4, “VM Core Format”.
This corresponds to the writecore command in the debugger.
--filename=filename
The name of the output file.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> info <item> [args...]
Displays info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and associated drivers.
This corresponds to the info command in the debugger.
info
Name of the info item to display. The special name
help will list all the available info items and
hints about optional arguments.
args
Optional argument string for the info item handler. Most info items does not take any extra arguments. Arguments not recognized are generally ignored.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> injectnmi
Causes a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) to be injected into the guest. This might be useful for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're doing.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> log [[--release] | [--debug]] [group-settings...]
Changes the group settings for either debug (--debug)
or release (--release) logger of the VM process.
The group-settings are typically strings on the form
em.e.f.l, hm=~0
and -em.f. Basic wildcards are supported for
group matching. The all group is an alias for
all the groups.
Please do keep in mind that the group settings are applied as modifications to the current ones.
This corresponds to the log command in the debugger.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> logdest [[--release] | [--debug]] [destinations...]
Changes the destination settings for either debug (--debug)
or release (--release) logger of the VM process. For details
on the destination format, the best source is src/VBox/Runtime/common/log/log.cpp.
The destinations is one or more mnemonics, optionally
prefixed by "no" to disable them. Some of them take values after a ":" or "="
separator. Multiple mnemonics can be separated by space or given as separate
arguments on the command line.
List of available destination:
file[=file], nofile
Specifies a log file. It no filname is given, one will be generated based on the current UTC time and VM process name and placed in the current directory of the VM process. Note that this will currently not have any effect if the log file has already been opened.
dir=directory, nodir
Specifies the output directory for log files. Note that this will currently not have any effect if the log file has already been opened.
history=count, nohistory
A non-zero value enables log historization, with the value specifying how many old log files to keep.
histsize=bytes
The max size of a log file before it is historized. Default is infinite.
histtime=seconds
The max age (in seconds) of a log file before it is historized. Default is infinite.
ringbuffer, noringbuffer
Only log to the log buffer until an explicit flush (e.g. via an assertion) occurs. This is fast and saves diskspace.
stdout, nostdout
Write the log content to standard output.
stdout, nostdout
Write the log content to standard error.
debugger, nodebugger
Write the log content to the debugger, if supported by the host OS.
com, nocom
Writes logging to the COM port. This is only applicable for raw-mode and ring-0 logging.
user, nouser
Custom destination which has no meaning to VM processes..
This corresponds to the logdest command in the debugger.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> logflags [[--release] | [--debug]] [flags...]
Changes the flags on either debug (--debug) or release
(--release) logger of the VM process. Please note that the
modifications are applied onto the existing changes, they are not replacing them.
The flags are a list of flag mnemonics, optionally
prefixed by a "no", "!", "~" or "-" to negate their meaning. The "+" prefix
can be used to undo previous negation or use as a separator, though better use
whitespace or separate arguments for that.
List of log flag mnemonics, with their counter form where applicable (asterisk indicates defaults):
enabled*, disabled
Enables or disables logging.
buffered, unbuffered*
Enabling buffering of log output before it hits the destinations.
writethrough(/writethru)
Whether to open the destination file with writethru buffering settings or not.
flush
Enables flushing of the output file (to disk) after each log statement.
lockcnts
Prefix each log line with lock counts for the current thread.
cpuid
Prefix each log line with the ID of the current CPU.
pid
Prefix each log line with the current process ID.
flagno
Prefix each log line with the numberic flags corresponding to the log statement.
flag
Prefix each log line with the flag mnemonics corresponding to the log statement.
groupno
Prefix each log line with the log group number for the log statement producing it.
group
Prefix each log line with the log group name for the log statement producing it.
tid
Prefix each log line with the current thread identifier.
thread
Prefix each log line with the current thread name.
time
Prefix each log line with the current UTC wall time.
timeprog
Prefix each log line with the current monotonic time since the start of the program.
msprog
Prefix each log line with the current monotonic timestamp value in milliseconds since the start of the program.
ts
Prefix each log line with the current monotonic timestamp value in nanoseconds.
tsc
Prefix each log line with the current CPU timestamp counter (TSC) value.
rel, abs*
Selects the whether ts and
tsc prefixes should be displayed as relative to the
previous log line or as absolute time.
hex*, dec
Selects the whether the ts and
tsc prefixes should be formatted as hexadecimal
or decimal.
custom
Custom log prefix, has by default no meaning for VM processes.
usecrlf, uself*
Output with DOS style (CRLF) or just UNIX style (LF) line endings.
overwrite*, append
Overwrite the destination file or append to it.
This corresponds to the logflags command in the debugger.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> getregisters [--cpu=id] [reg-set.reg-name...]
Retrieves register values for guest CPUs and emulated devices.
reg-set.reg-name
One of more registers, each having one of the following forms:
register-set.register-name.sub-field
register-set.register-name
cpu-register-name.sub-field
cpu-register-name
all
The all form will cause all registers
to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are case-insensitive.
--cpu=id
Selects the CPU register set when specifying just a CPU register (3rd and 4th form). The default is 0.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> setregisters [--cpu=id] [reg-set.reg-name=value...]
Changes register values for guest CPUs and emulated devices.
reg-set.reg-name=value
One of more register assignment, each having one of the following forms:
register-set.register-name.sub-field=value
register-set.register-name=value
cpu-register-name.sub-field=value
cpu-register-name=value
The value format should be in the same style as what getregisters displays, with the exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of hexadecimal.
--cpu=id
Selects the CPU register set when specifying just a CPU register (3rd and 4th form). The default is 0.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> show [[--human-readable] | [--sh-export] | [--sh-eval] | [--cmd-set]] [settings-item...]
Shows logging settings for the VM.
--human-readable
Selects human readable output.
--sh-export
Selects output format as bourne shell style export commands.
--sh-eval
Selects output format as bourne shell style eval command input.
--cmd-set
Selects output format as DOS style SET commands.
settings-item
What to display. One or more of the following:
logdbg-settings - debug log settings.
logrel-settings - release log settings.
log-settings - alias for both debug and release log settings.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> stack [--cpu=id]
Unwinds the guest CPU stacks to the best of our ability. It is recommended to first run the osdetect command, as this gives both symbols and perhaps unwind information.
--cpu=id
Selects a single guest CPU to display the stack for. The default is all CPUs.
VBoxManage debugvm <uuid|vmname> statistics [--reset] [--descriptions] [--pattern=pattern]
Displays or resets VMM statistics.
Retrieves register values for guest CPUs and emulated devices.
--pattern=pattern
DOS/NT-style wildcards patterns for selecting statistics. Multiple patterns can be specified by using the '|' (pipe) character as separator.
--reset
Select reset instead of display mode.
Extension package management.
VBoxManage extpack install [--replace] <tarball>
Installs a new extension pack on the system. This command will fail if an older
version of the same extension pack is already installed. The
--replace option can be used to uninstall any
old package before the new one is installed.
--replace
Uninstall existing extension pack version.
tarball
The file containing the extension pack to be installed.
VBoxManage extpack uninstall [--force] <name>
Uninstalls an extension pack from the system. The subcommand will also succeed
in the case where the specified extension pack is not present on the system.
You can use VBoxManage list extpacks to show
the names of the extension packs which are currently installed.
--force
Overrides most refusals to uninstall an extension pack
name
The name of the extension pack to be uninstalled.
How to list extension packs:
$ VBoxManage list extpacks Extension Packs: 1 Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack Version: 4.1.12 Revision: 77218 Edition: Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support. VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP Usable: true Why unusable:
How to remove an extension pack:
$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack" 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100% Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".
Unattended guest OS installation.
VBoxManage unattended install <uuid|vmname> <--iso=install-iso> [--user=login] [--password=password] [--password-file=file] [--full-user-name=name] [--key=product-key] [--install-additions] [--no-install-additions] [--additions-iso=add-iso] [--install-txs] [--no-install-txs] [--validation-kit-iso=testing-iso] [--locale=ll_CC] [--country=CC] [--time-zone=tz] [--hostname=fqdn] [--package-selection-adjustment=keyword] [--dry-run] [--auxiliary-base-path=path] [--image-index=number] [--script-template=file] [--post-install-template=file] [--post-install-command=command] [--extra-install-kernel-parameters=params] [--language=lang] [--start-vm=session-type]
VBoxManage unattended detect <--iso=install-iso> [--machine-readable]
Detects the guest operating system (OS) on the specified installation ISO and displays the result. This can be used as input when creating a VM for the ISO to be installed in.
--iso=install-iso
The installation ISO to run the detection on.
--machine-readable
Produce output that is simpler to parse from a script.
VBoxManage unattended install <uuid|vmname> <--iso=install-iso> [--user=login] [--password=password] [--password-file=file] [--full-user-name=name] [--key=product-key] [--install-additions] [--no-install-additions] [--additions-iso=add-iso] [--install-txs] [--no-install-txs] [--validation-kit-iso=testing-iso] [--locale=ll_CC] [--country=CC] [--time-zone=tz] [--hostname=fqdn] [--package-selection-adjustment=keyword] [--dry-run] [--auxiliary-base-path=path] [--image-index=number] [--script-template=file] [--post-install-template=file] [--post-install-command=command] [--extra-install-kernel-parameters=params] [--language=lang] [--start-vm=session-type]
Reconfigures the specified VM for installation and optionally starts it up.
uuid|vmname
Either the UUID or the name (case sensitive) of a VM.
--iso=install-iso
The installation ISO to run the detection on.
--user=login
The login name. (default: vboxuser)
--password=password
The login password. This is used for the user given by --user as well as the
root/administrator user. (default: changeme)
--password-file=file
Alternative to --password for providing the password. Special filename
stdin can be used to read the password from standard input.
--full-user-name=name
The full user name. (default: --user)
--key=product-key
The guest OS product key. Not all guest OSes requires this.
--install-additions, --no-install-additionsWhether to install the VirtualBox guest additions. (default: --no-install-addations)
--additions-iso=add-iso
Path to the VirtualBox guest additions ISO. (default: installed/downloaded GAs)
--install-txs, --no-install-txsWhether to install the test execution service (TXS) from the VirtualBox ValidationKit. This is useful when preparing VMs for testing or similar. (default: --no-install-txs)
--validation-kit-iso=testing-iso
Path to the VirtualBox ValidationKit ISO. This is required if --install-txs
is specified.
--locale=ll_CC
The base locale specification for the guest, like en_US, de_CH, or nn_NO. (default: host or en_US)
--country=CC
The two letter country code if it differs from the specified by --location.
--time-zone=tz
The time zone to set up the guest OS with. (default: host time zone or UTC)
--hostname=fqdn
The fully qualified domain name of the guest machine.
(default: vmname.myguest.virtualbox.org)
--package-selection-adjustment=keyword
Adjustments to the guest OS packages/components selection. This can be specfied more than once. Currently
the only recognized keyword is minimal which triggers a minimal installation for
some of the guest OSes.
--dry-run
Do not create any files or make any changes to the VM configuration.
--start-vm=session-type
Start the VM using the front end given by session-type. This is the same as
the --type option for the startvm command, but we have add
none for indicating that the VM should not be started.
(default: none)
Advanced options:
--auxiliary-base-path=path
The path prefix to the media related files generated for the installation.
(default: vm-config-dir/Unattended-vm-uuid-)
--image-index=number
Windows installation image index. (default: 1)
--script-template=file
The unattended installation script template. (default: IMachine::OSTypeId dependent)
--post-install-template=file
The post installation script template. (default: IMachine::OSTypeId dependent)
--post-install-command=command
A single command to run after the installation is completed. The exact format and exactly when this is run is guest OS installer dependent.
--extra-install-kernel-parameters=params
List of extra linux kernel parameters to use during the installation. (default: IMachine::OSTypeId dependent)
--language=lang
Specifies the UI language for a Windows installation. The lang is
generally on the form {ll}-{CC}. See detectedOSLanguages results from VBoxManage unattended detect.
(default: detectedOSLanguages[0])