[vbox-dev] VM state change

[Klaus Espenlaub]

ravikanth at ravichaganti.com wrote:
> Hi Achim,
> 
> OpenExistingConnection() works fine. However, I would like to find out if
> it is possible to power ON a VM in the GUI session without opening the
> console. This is important for me since I am not creating a front-end. I
> would still use the GUI as the front-end and only create/manage virtual
> machines from the commandline.

The only way to start a VM via the API is 
IVirtualBox::openRemoteSession. There are no intentions to change this. 
I think you described pretty much everything by now except the real 
problem you're trying to solve.

Klaus

> I have not looked at XIDL. So, I am unsure on how to autogenerate PS
> scripts from that. I will look in to that sson.
> 
> Thanks
> Ravi
> 
>> If you want to do something on an already running VM, you have to do
> OpenExistingSession. Check the VBoxManage source code.
>> PowerShell integration is a good idea, best would be to auto-generate
> the
>> integration based on our XIDL, the way we do it for all the other APIs.
>>
>> Achim.
>>
>> On Mar 5, 2010, at 11:19 , ravikanth at ravichaganti.com wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I am new to VirtualBox and exploring the COM interfaces to see how I
> can
>>> manage vBox VM from PowerShell cmdline. So far, I am able to CreateVM,
> RegisterVM, UnregisterVM and List virtual machines. Also, I could open
> a
>>> remote session using OpenRemoteSession. However, I would like to be
> able
>>> to change the state of VM without opening a remote session. Using
> openRemoteSession brings up the console window and I do not want to do
> that.
>>> Here is a set of commands I am currently running
>>> #Initialize COM
>>> $vBox = New-Object -ComObject VirtualBox.VirtualBox
>>> $vBoxSession = New-Object -ComObject VirtualBox.Session
>>> #Get VM1 in to $vm
>>> $vm = $vBox.Machines[0]
>>> #Open a remote session
>>> $vBox.OpenRemoteSession($vBoxSession,$vm.Id,"gui",$null)
>>> I can use now use the "$vBoxSession.Console" (PowerDown, etc) to change
> the PowerState. Is there a way I can just Power on/off, Pause and
> resume
>>> a
>>> virtual machine in the remote session (GUI) without opening the
> console?
>>> Thanks for your time,
>>> Ravi
>>> PS: I am aware of vBoxManage.exe but my idea of creating a PowerShell
> library is to make it easy to manage VB guests over PowerShell remoting
> channel.