Add OPEN function

[Lior.Albaz]

I want to open a new machine from a different location as the defualt so I change it in the General setting but it didn't work. It can't find the machine from the new location.

Why there is no OPEN function ? only NEW ? With Open function I can point to my machine folder location.

[Frank Mehnert]

VBoxManage registervm should help in that case.

[MrX1980]

Yes, this is a realy missing (GUI) feature!
To export it to .ovf and then import it takes too long.
And to create a new machine with the existing vdi could be not the goal.
And to edit manualy the .xml file too.

VM's with snapshots are more complex and seams not to work with the "VBoxManage registervm" command.

Please all people who wants it make an entry here!
Thx

[MrX1980]

Or if all files are copied to the "Machines" and "HardDisks" folders, VirtualBox should automatically add it to the GUI if this is started.

[gimel]

<quote>Or if all files are copied to the "Machines" and "HardDisks?" folders, VirtualBox should automatically add it to the GUI if this is started.</quote>

True! I don't see why we need complicated stuff. Just copy the file, open the GUI and the VM should appear.

Or at the very least, an "open" menu item can do it. Just select the VM xml file and it is inserted in the GUI.

[Lio]

This is a must have feature. I don't know why this simple feature is not implemented yet. Today moving virtual machines including related virtual hardisk and snapshots, from one PC to another is too complicated.

[Frank Mehnert]

For moving a VM from one PC to another OVF is the intended mechanism. There are still bugs with OVF but these are being working on.

[R Phillips]

Exporting and Importing OVF is illogical in some cases and is overkill in others. Virtualbox SHOULD have a simple "Add VM" function. The fact that it doesnt is a pretty silly oversight.

[Lio]

I agree with 'rphillips', and also OVF is very slow, need extra space and do not support snapshots.

With OVF I must wait for the ovf file to be created (for large HD is quite slow), I must have extra space on the host for the ovf file, than I copy the ovf to the new host and import the ovf but I loose all snapshots.

With the requested OPEN function I should copy the VM files (the base harddisk file, all snapshot files and the virtual machine xml)to the new host (no extra time or extra space for the ovf), and open/import the virtual machine settings (xml) so that VirtualBox can see the added virtual machine and all harddisk files (all snapshots).

I do not see much complexity implementing this essential functionality (especially if compared to the complexity of VirtualBox itself).

I hope this feature will be implemented as soon as possible.
Without it VirtualBox is much less useful.

[Achim Hasenmueller]

OVF is indeed designed to package and transport a VM.

We are working on allowing you to attach a VirtualBox .xml file to your installation. It might sound trivial, but it is quite complicated. We are shooting for the version after next, i.e. around summer.

[Lio]

Thank you achimha, for the big effort you (and the whole team) will spend on supporting our request. I appreciate it so much. I would like to have the knowledge and more time to help you on this issue.

[ZioNemo]

Summer has gone.

Any update?

This is really a show-stopper for me and keeps me nailed to ancient VMWare server.

I use virtualization to test programs I develop in a plethora of different environments, so I need to have a lot of different VMs and I archive them with my sources for future reference.

Some of this may be done via OVF, but (as someone already stated) that is too slow and dosn't support snapshots (I need snapshots because I take one before I install my programs an one after, so I'm able to replay everything).

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IMNSHO there was a bad architectural decision at project startup and I dunno if You are too late to revert it:

Essentialy I think there should be two kinds of snapshots: Disk snapshots and VM snapshots.

I mean:

• A disk (vdi, vmdk, ...) belongs to a machine and should live in the machine folder (possibly in a dedicated subfolder).
• A disk anapshot belongs to the disk and lives wherever the disk is.
• Only detached disks can be in a drawer (e.g.: .../.VirtualBox/HardDisks/) not in the machine cabinet (e.g.: .../.VirtualBox/Machines/MyMachine/), after all a move (ren/mv) operation is quite cheap.
• A machine snaphot should imply one or more disk snapshots and, possibly, some other machine-related info.
• Detatching a disk that is part of some machine snapshot should move it to the "drawer" as-is and copy the affected snapshot to some kind of "attic" (in the VM folder).
• All references in the various folders should ve relative.
• All references to components should be to the corresponding folder.
• Any consistency need can be fulfilled with checksums (e.g.: md5)

Such a structure would make much easier to just copy folders around and expect the code to pick up what's available.

Did I forget anything?

Thanks for Your patience ;)

[umoeller]

The new code is already in the public SVN repository and will be in the next major release. Essentially every newly created machine has its own media registry now so that there is no dependency between the machine XML and the global VirtualBox.xml file any more, other than the latter contains a list of the machine XML files. Not all the bits are there yet but the goal is that in the next version, a newly created machine will have all of its files in its own directory and can thus be transported more easily.

[Frank Mehnert]

This was implemented in VBox 4.0.

[Roger Pack]

Thanks for implementing this. Works like a champ (you can use either import/export appliance, or just Machine menu -> add machine and open the .vbox file within any machine's folder.