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<chapter id="vboxmanage">

<title>VBoxManage</title>

<sect1>

<title>Introduction</title>

<para>As briefly mentioned in <xref linkend="frontends" />, VBoxManage is

the command-line interface to VirtualBox. With it, you can completely

control 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

really all the features of the virtualization engine, even those that

cannot (yet) be accessed from the GUI.</para>

<para>You will need to use the command line if you want to</para>

<para><itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>use a different user interface than the main GUI (for example,

VBoxSDL or the VBoxHeadless server);</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>control some of the more advanced and experimental

configuration settings for a VM.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<para>There are two main things to keep in mind when using

<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>: First,

<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> must always be used with a

specific "subcommand", such as "list" or "createvm" or "startvm". All the

subcommands that <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> supports are

described in detail in <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>

<para>Second, most of these subcommands require that you specify a

particular virtual machine after the subcommand. There are two ways you

can do this:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>You can specify the VM name, as it is shown in the VirtualBox

GUI. Note that if that name contains spaces, then you must enclose the

entire name in double quotes (as it is always required with command

line arguments that contain spaces).</para>

<para>For example:<screen>VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"</screen></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>You can specify the UUID, which is the internal unique

identifier that VirtualBox uses to refer to the virtual machine.

Assuming that the aforementioned VM called "Windows XP" has the UUID

shown below, the following command has the same effect as the

previous:<screen>VBoxManage startvm 670e746d-abea-4ba6-ad02-2a3b043810a5</screen></para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>You can type <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms</computeroutput> to

have all currently registered VMs listed with all their settings,

including their respective names and UUIDs.</para>

<para>Some typical examples of how to control VirtualBox from the command

line are listed below:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>To create a new virtual machine from the command line and

immediately register it with VirtualBox, use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> with the

<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option,<footnote>

<para>For details, see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-createvm" />.</para>

</footnote> like this:</para>

<screen>$ VBoxManage createvm --name "SUSE 10.2" --register

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD

(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR

All rights reserved.

Virtual machine 'SUSE 10.2' is created.

UUID: c89fc351-8ec6-4f02-a048-57f4d25288e5

Settings file: '/home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/SUSE 10.2/SUSE 10.2.xml'

</screen>

<para>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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To show the configuration of a particular VM, use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" /> for details and an example.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To change settings while a VM is powered off, use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>, e.g. as

follows:<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows XP" --memory "512MB"</screen></para>

<para>For details, see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To change the storage configuration (e.g. to add a storage

controller and then a virtual disk), use <computeroutput>VBoxManage

storagectl</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>VBoxManage

storageattach</computeroutput>; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-storagectl" /> and <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To control VM operation, use one of the following:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>To start a VM that is currently powered off, use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage startvm</computeroutput>; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change

some of its settings, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage

controlvm</computeroutput>; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>Commands overview</title>

<para>When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an

invalid command line, the below syntax diagram will be shown. Note that

the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform; when

in doubt, check the output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>

for the commands available on your particular host.</para>

<screen>$VBOX_MANAGE_OUTPUT</screen>

<para>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.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">

<title>VBoxManage list</title>

<para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant

information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current

settings.</para>

<para>The following subcommands are available with

<computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual

machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this

displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also

specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or

<computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as

with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see

below).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all

currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers

(UUIDs) in the same format as with

<computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest

operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the

identifiers used to refer to them with the

<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list

DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces

on the host, along with the name used to access them from within

VirtualBox.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list

bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP

servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref

linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information

about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating

system version.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID

parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine

grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known

virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as

VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and

configuration.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information

about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including

all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with

them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the

command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref

linkend="vdis" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information

about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful

for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use

by the host.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global

USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for

devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays

the filter parameters.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays

some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest

RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current

authentication library in use.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all

VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref

linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">

<title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>

<para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows

information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same

information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>

would show for all virtual machines.</para>

<para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>

<para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD

(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR

All rights reserved.

Name: Windows XP

Guest OS: Other/Unknown

UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7

Config file: /home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml

Memory size: 512MB

VRAM size: 12MB

Number of CPUs: 2

Synthetic Cpu: off

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

PAE: on

Time offset: 0 ms

Hardw. virt.ext: on

Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on

Nested Paging: on

VT-x VPID: off

State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)

Monitor count: 1

3D Acceleration: off

2D Video Acceleration: off

Teleporter Enabled: off

Teleporter Port: 0

Teleporter Address:

Teleporter Password:

Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller

Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4

Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1

Storage Controller Type (1): I82078

IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)

IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)

Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)

NIC 1: disabled

NIC 2: disabled

NIC 3: disabled

NIC 4: disabled

NIC 5: disabled

NIC 6: disabled

NIC 7: disabled

NIC 8: disabled

UART 1: disabled

UART 2: disabled

Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)

Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional

VRDE: disabled

USB: disabled

USB Device Filters:

&lt;none&gt;

Shared folders:

&lt;none&gt;

Statistics update: disabled

</screen></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">

<title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>

<para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you

to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The

machine must not conflict with one already registered in 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.<note>

<para>When creating a new virtual machine with

<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you

can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>

option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>

</note></para>

<para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command

unregisters a virtual machine. If

<computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following

files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>

<listitem>

<para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which

are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the

machine was in "saved" state and one for each online

snapshot);</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>the machine log files, if any;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all

the above.</para>

</listitem>

</orderedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title id="vboxmanage-createvm">VBoxManage createvm</title>

<para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition

file.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput> parameter

is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is

used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension

<computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder

of the <computeroutput>.VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder), it

must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name

specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will

change automatically.</para>

<para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder

&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be

named <computeroutput>&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>. In this case, the

names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is

renamed.</para>

<para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without

automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To

register the VM instantly, use the optional

<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run

<computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately

afterwards.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">

<title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>

<para>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 VirtualBox graphical user

interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in

<xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,

however, are only available through the

<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>

<para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither

running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed

while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding

subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>

subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>

<sect2>

<title>General settings</title>

<para>The following general settings are available through

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This

changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual

machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage

createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--ostype &lt;ostype&gt;</computeroutput>:

This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in

the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used

here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list

ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--memory

&lt;memorysize&gt;</computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,

in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from

the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for

more information.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vram &lt;vramsize&gt;</computeroutput>:

This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should

have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--acpi on|off</computeroutput>;

<computeroutput>--ioapic on|off</computeroutput>: These two

determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,

respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for

details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid

&lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via

memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By

default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.

Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--cpus &lt;cpucount&gt;</computeroutput>:

This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see

<xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is

enabled (see below), this then sets the

<emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be

plugged into the virtual machines.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on|off</computeroutput>: This

option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see

<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added

to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See

<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu|unplugcpu

&lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see

above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or

removes one). <computeroutput>&lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>

specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and

must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with

the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can

never be removed.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap

&lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on|off</computeroutput>: This

setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU

to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that

differ significantly.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--pae on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables/disables PAE (see <xref

linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--hpet on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables/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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions

(Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see

<xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on|off</computeroutput>: This

specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the

hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the

processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If

you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other

hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has

negative performance implications.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on|off</computeroutput>: 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 <xref

linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--largepages on|off</computeroutput>: If

hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on|off</computeroutput>: 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 <xref

linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D

acceleration should be available; see <xref

linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a

virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,

a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>

<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein

on|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout

on|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should

fade in and out, respectively.</para>

<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime

&lt;msec&gt;</computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should

be visible, in milliseconds.</para>

<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath

&lt;imagepath&gt;</computeroutput> you can, if you are so

inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The

image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu

disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies

whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot

device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the

message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary

boot device.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--boot&lt;1-4&gt;

none|floppy|dvd|disk|net</computeroutput>: This 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder

default|&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>: This allows you to specify

the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual

machine.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--firmware efi|bios</computeroutput>:

Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual

machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what

you're doing.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon

&lt;size&gt;</computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest

memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest

Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the

hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. &lt;size&gt; must

be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For

details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect2>

<sect2>

<title>Networking settings</title>

<para>The following networking settings are available through

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. 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.<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nic&lt;1-N&gt;

none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic

</computeroutput>: With

this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,

what type of networking should be available. They can be not

present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to

the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network

address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),

bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or

communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking

(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking

(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used

sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).

These options correspond

to the modes which are described in detail in <xref

linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nictype&lt;1-N&gt;

Am79C970A|Am79C973|82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|virtio</computeroutput>:

This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to

specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the

guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected&lt;1-N&gt;

on|off</computeroutput>: This allows 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 resetting

certain software components in the VM.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace

network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging

purposes.</para>

<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace&lt;1-N&gt;

on|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a

particular virtual network card.</para>

<para>If enabled, you must specify with

<computeroutput>--nictracefile&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;filename&gt;</computeroutput> what file the trace should be

logged to.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter&lt;1-N&gt;

none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If bridged networking

has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the

<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise

this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host

interface the given virtual network interface will use. For

details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter&lt;1-N&gt;

none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If host-only networking

has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option

above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to

specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual

network interface will use. For details, please see <xref

linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--intnet&lt;1-N&gt;

network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled

for a virtual network card (see the

<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise

this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name

of the internal network (see <xref

linkend="network_internal" />).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--macaddress&lt;1-N&gt;

auto|&lt;mac&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can set

the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each

virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at

VM creation.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;backend driver&gt;</computeroutput>: If generic networking has been

enabled for a virtual network card (see the

<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise

this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access

rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;paramname&gt;="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:

This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to

pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>

Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different

between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,

please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.

</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<sect3>

<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>

<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. 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.<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt;

[&lt;name&gt;],tcp|udp,[&lt;hostip&gt;],&lt;hostport&gt;,[&lt;guestip&gt;],

&lt;guestport&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT

port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />

for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt; delete

&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT

port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />

for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;prefix&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix

for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is

located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref

linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;bootfile&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT

boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for

details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;tftpserver&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the

TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref

linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain&lt;1-N&gt;

on|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the

built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name

resolution.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy&lt;1-N&gt;

on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy

all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see

<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver&lt;1-N&gt;

on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use

the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please

see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings&lt;1-N&gt;

[&lt;mtu&gt;],[&lt;socksnd&gt;],[&lt;sockrcv&gt;],[&lt;tcpsnd&gt;],

[&lt;tcprcv&gt;]</computeroutput>: This option controls several

NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for

details).</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode&lt;1-N&gt;

default|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This

option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables

logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT

transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via

the same port as they originated on, default - disable all

mentioned modes above . (please see <xref

linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect3>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">

<title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB

settings</title>

<para>The following other hardware settings are available through

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--uart&lt;1-N&gt; off|&lt;I/O base&gt;

&lt;IRQ&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can configure

virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref

linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--uartmode&lt;1-N&gt;

&lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox

connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with

the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)

to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described

in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,

you can specify <computeroutput>&lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput> as

one of the following options:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even

though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no

"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>server

&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this

tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named

<computeroutput>&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput> and

connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows

requires that the name of a named pipe begin with

<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>

<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local

domain socket is used.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>client

&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: This operates just like

<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the

pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,

but assumed to exist already.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>:

If, instead of the above, 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

<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the

device name will look like

<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you

to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--audio none|null|oss</computeroutput>: With

this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio

support.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--clipboard

disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional</computeroutput>:

With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating

system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref

linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest

Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount

&lt;count&gt;</computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor

support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--usb on|off</computeroutput>: This option

enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref

linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on|off</computeroutput>: This

option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;

see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect2>

<sect2>

<title>Remote machine settings</title>

<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are

available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage

modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrde on|off</computeroutput>: With the

VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the

VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if

you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see

<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by

default.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport

default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>: 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 <emphasis

role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified

list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For

example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport

5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to

one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress &lt;IP

address&gt;</computeroutput>: 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype

null|external|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose

whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref

linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on|off</computeroutput>: This

enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the

server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""

linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on|off</computeroutput>: 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 (this is the default setting), a new connection

will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the

server.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on|off</computeroutput>:

This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE

server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality

&lt;percent&gt;</computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video

redirection; see <xref lang=""

linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">

<title>Teleporting settings</title>

<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage

modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for

teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an

introduction.<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on|off</computeroutput>: With

this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a

teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.

If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual

machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a

teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with

the next two parameters.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport

&lt;port&gt;</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress

&lt;address&gt;</computeroutput>: these must be used with

--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and

address it should listen for a teleporting request from another

virtual machine. <computeroutput>&lt;port&gt;</computeroutput> can

be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);

<computeroutput>&lt;address&gt;</computeroutput> 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword

&lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is

given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the

source machine specifies the same password as the one given with

this command.<note>

<para>Currently, the password is stored without encryption

(i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine configuration

file.</para>

</note></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--cpuid &lt;leaf&gt; &lt;eax&gt; &lt;ebx&gt;

&lt;ecx&gt; &lt;edx&gt;</computeroutput>: Advanced users can use

this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the

virtual CPU capabilities that 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

<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> 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; please refer to the AMD or Intel

processor manuals.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">

<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>

<para>This command creates a full copy of an existing virtual

machine.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at

least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following

additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM

operation:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--snapshot &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>:

Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer

to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--mode machine|machineandchilds|all</computeroutput>:

Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If

<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),

the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the

<computeroutput>machineandchilds</computeroutput> mode the snapshot

provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all

child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>

is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--options keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:

Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first two

options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual

network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized

(the default), leaved unchanged

(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or leaved unchanged

when the network type is NAT

(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add

<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images

are called like the original once, otherwise they are

renamed.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: Select a

new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name

Clone".</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--basefolder &lt;basefolder&gt;</computeroutput>:

Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should

be saved in.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>:

Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in

the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is

creating a new UUID.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:

Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox

installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see

<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do

so.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">

<title>VBoxManage import</title>

<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying

the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See

<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> 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.</para>

<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with

the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or

<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a

description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be

imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options

to influence the import behavior.</para>

<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance

containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run

Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...

OK.

Virtual system 0:

0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"

(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype &lt;type&gt;"; use "list ostypes" to list all)

1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"

(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname &lt;name&gt;")

3: Number of CPUs: 1

(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus &lt;n&gt;")

4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory &lt;MB&gt;")

5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)

(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")

6: USB controller

(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")

7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged

8: Floppy

(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")

9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic

(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic|LsiLogic}";

disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")

10: IDE controller, type PIIX4

(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")

11: 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 &lt;id&gt;";

disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>

<para>As you can see, 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

<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where

X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several

virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as

printed on the screen.</para>

<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target

machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,

respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the

additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates

which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming

from the OVF file.</para>

<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the

same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> 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 this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf

--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">

<title>VBoxManage export</title>

<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox

into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual

disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an

introduction to appliances.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to

use: 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

<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or

<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> 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.</para>

<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append

several product information to the appliance file. Use

<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,

<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional

information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content

of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with

OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>

option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual

machine.</para>

<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the

OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the

<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">

<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>

<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the

"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>

<note>

<para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to

start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as

you might otherwise miss important error and state information that

VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for

front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our

graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in

a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more

information.</para>

</note>

<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier

determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,

which is the default) or whether the output should go through

<computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDE enabled or not;

see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of

types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are

accepted by any product variant.</para>

<para>The following values are allowed:</para>

<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>gui</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>headless</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">

<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>

<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you

to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The

following can be specified:</para>

<para><itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;

pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,

without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted

in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is

equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of

the GUI.)</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;

resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous

<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent

to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the

GUI.)</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;

reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as

pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the

virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating

system again immediately. 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.)</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;

poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine

as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, 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 pressing the window's close button, and then selecting

"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>

<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,

it can be started again; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;

savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to

disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the

"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the

window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"

in the dialog.)</para>

<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can

be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt; teleport

--hostname &lt;name&gt; --port &lt;port&gt; [--password

&lt;password&gt;]</computeroutput> makes the machine the source of a

teleporting operation and initiates a teleport to the given target.

See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an introduction. If the

optional password is specified, it must match the password that was

given to the <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for

the target machine; see <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<para>A few extra options are available with

<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the

VM's running state:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate&lt;1-N&gt;</computeroutput>

operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their

network interfaces.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>nic&lt;1-N&gt;

null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can

set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of

networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host

(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address

translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking

(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other

virtual machines using internal networking

(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking

(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used

sub-modes

(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond

to the modes which are described in detail in <xref

linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices

visible 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.</para>

<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list

usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>vrde on|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or

disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>

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. For

details, see the description for the

<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref

linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot

of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is

used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to

<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>

operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,

memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest

operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other

virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,

see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap

&lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This operation 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.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>

<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is

not currently running, which will cause its 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.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>

<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)

that is seperate 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, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file

you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>

<para>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, VirtualBox creates 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 pre-existing

differencing files.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> 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.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> 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.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> 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.</para>

<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a

shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. 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.</para>

<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can

change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>

<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you

can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing

snapshot.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">

<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>

<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a

VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>

<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage

openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;

that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media

registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are

added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has

been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from

a registry.</para>

</footnote></para>

<para>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.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title id="vboxmanage-storageattach">VBoxManage storageattach</title>

<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to

a storage controller that was previously added with the

<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous

section). The syntax is as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage storageattach &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;

--storagectl &lt;name&gt;

--port &lt;number&gt;

[--device &lt;number&gt;]

[--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd]

[--medium none|emptydrive|

&lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt;|host:&lt;drive&gt;|iscsi]

[--mtype normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable]

[--comment &lt;text&gt;]

[--setuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]

[--setparentuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]

[--passthrough on|off]

[--tempeject on|off]

[--bandwidthgroup name|none]

[--forceunmount]

[--server &lt;name&gt;|&lt;ip&gt;]

[--target &lt;target&gt;]

[--port &lt;port&gt;]

[--lun &lt;lun&gt;]

[--encodedlun &lt;lun&gt;]

[--username &lt;username&gt;]

[--password &lt;password&gt;]

[--intnet]

</screen>

<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of

the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>

<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the

storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained

with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see

<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>port</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be

modified. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>device</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.

Optional. Default value is 0.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>type</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being

attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if

the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given

with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or

from a previous medium attachment.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>medium</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are

supported:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the

given slot.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,

this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive

into which no media has been inserted.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a

storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.

because it has been attached to another virtual machine).

See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known

media. This medium is then attached to the given device

slot.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path

of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),

which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>"host:&lt;drive&gt;": 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for

specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters

must be given; see below.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable

media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is

running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device

slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>mtype</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots

and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for

details.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>comment</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this

medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage

server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for

the medium to function correctly.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>setuuid, setparentuuid</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>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 <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns

a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the

duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy

utilities.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing

support (currently experimental; see <xref

linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>tempeject</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>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 temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted

the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>bandwidthgroup</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see

<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>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. Again,

see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

<para>When "iscsi" is used with the

<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --

see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can

be used:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>server</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;

required.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>target</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target

and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>port</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target

(optional).</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>lun</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).

Often, this value is zero.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>username, password</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Username and password for target authentication, if required

(optional).<note>

<para>Currently, username and password are stored without

encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine

configuration file.</para>

</note></para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>intnet</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal

Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in

<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">

<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>

<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After

this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the

<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next

section).</para>

<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage storagectl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;

--name &lt;name&gt;

[--add &lt;ide/sata/scsi/floppy&gt;]

[--controller &lt;LsiLogic|LSILogicSAS|BusLogic|

IntelAhci|PIIX3|PIIX4|ICH6|I82078&gt;]

[--sataideemulation&lt;1-4&gt; &lt;1-30&gt;]

[--sataportcount &lt;1-30&gt;]

[--hostiocache on|off]

[--bootable on|off]

[--remove]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>name</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>add</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage

controller must be connected.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>controller</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the

given storage controller.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>sataideemulation</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This specifies which SATA ports should operate in IDE

emulation mode. As explained in <xref

linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />, by default, this is the case for

SATA ports 1-4; with this command, you can map four IDE channels

to any of the 30 supported SATA ports.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should

support.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images

attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref

linkend="iocaching" />.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>bootable</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>remove</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>

<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies bandwidth groups of the given

virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;

--name &lt;name&gt;

[--add disk

[--delete]

[--limit MB/s]</screen></para>

<para>See <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> for an introduction

to bandwidth limits. The parameters mean:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>name</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>add</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Creates a new bandwdith group with the given type.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>delete</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Deletes a bandwdith group if it isn't used anymore.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>limit</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Sets the limit for the given group to the specified amount.

Can be changed while the VM is running.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>

<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,

notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines

which use it.<note>

<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the

"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the

"showhdinfo" command.</para>

</note></para>

<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium

is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by

<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />

for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either

as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current

directory.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">

<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>

<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as

follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename &lt;filename&gt;

--size &lt;megabytes&gt;

[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)

[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>filename</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>size</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.

Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>format</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different

from the file format of the input file.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>variant</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.

It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all

combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will

result in an error message.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist> <note>

<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the

"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the

"createhd" command.</para>

</note></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">

<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>

<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can

change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been

created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt;

[--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|

readonly|multiattach]

[--autoreset on|off]

[--compact]

[--resize &lt;megabytes&gt;|--resizebyte &lt;bytes&gt;]</screen><note>

<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with

all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier

versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and

mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>

</note></para>

<para>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 by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>

(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).

A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path

or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>

<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you

can change the type of an existing image between the normal,

immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref

linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the

<computeroutput>--autoreset on|off</computeroutput> option

determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM

startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default

is "on".</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,

can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only

contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image

again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the

image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.

Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as

part of a snapshot.</para>

<para>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

<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.

Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -c</computeroutput> in the guest to

zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk

image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which

supports ext2/ext3 filesystems.</para>

<para>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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>--resize</computeroutput> option allows you

to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the

<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting

the physical size much.<footnote>

<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>

</footnote> This currently works only for expanding the capacity of

VDI and VHD formats, and only for the dynamically allocated variants.

For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,

you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>

command to add 5 GByte more space to the virtual disk without

having to create a new image and copy all data from within a virtual

machine.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">

<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>

<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a

new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be

transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using

the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref

linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage clonehd &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;

[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|&lt;other&gt;]

[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]

[--existing]</screen>

<para>The disk image 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 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>

(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).

A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or

as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>

<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>format</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different

from the file format of the input file.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>variant</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.

It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all

combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will

result in an error message.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>existing</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>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.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist> <note>

<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the

"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the

"clonehd" command.</para>

</note></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>

<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image

(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw &lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;

[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]

[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]

VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin &lt;outputfile&gt; &lt;bytes&gt;

[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]

[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>format</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is

VDI.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>variant</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.

It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all

combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will

result in an error message.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for

the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a

pipe).</para>

<para><note>

<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the

"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the

"convertfromraw" command.</para>

</note></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>

<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual

machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying

<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine

name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data

with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01

VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>

<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for

the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You

could retrieve the information as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>

<para>which would return</para>

<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD

(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR

All rights reserved.

Value: 2006.01.01</screen>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">

<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>

<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the

entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings

in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The

following properties are available:<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine

definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for

details.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"

authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;

see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to

authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,

please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref

linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox

Remote Desktop Extension.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support

is enabled by default.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>

<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for

working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which

affect the whole 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. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make

available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to

ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any

machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device

will.</para>

<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter

add</computeroutput>, 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

<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual

machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it

to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name

for the new filter and for global filters,

<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines

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 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,

you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local

filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP

connection) or either.</para>

<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter

modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the

output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to

find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage

showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and

by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties

which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter

add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter

remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">

<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>

<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with

guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version

of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this

functionality.</para>

<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref

linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">

<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>

<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a

running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />

for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary

key/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 keys begin with

"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest

Additions.</para>

<para>The following subcommands are available (where

<computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a

VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>enumerate &lt;vm&gt; [--patterns

&lt;pattern&gt;]</computeroutput>: This 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, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest

Additions are not installed.</para>

<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns &lt;pattern&gt;</computeroutput>

is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match

the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard

characters:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):

represents any number of characters; for example,

"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match

all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):

represents a single arbitrary character; for example,

"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"

and "for".</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be

used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,

"<computeroutput>s*|t*</computeroutput>" would match anything

starting with either "s" or "t".</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>get &lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>: This

retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property

cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will

print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>set &lt;vm&gt; &lt;property&gt; [&lt;value&gt;

[--flags &lt;flags&gt;]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a

guest property by specifying the key and value. If

<computeroutput>&lt;value&gt;</computeroutput> is omitted, the

property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>

you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine

several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value

will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value

will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value

can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read

it;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,

the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can

only read it;</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination

of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>wait &lt;vm&gt; &lt;pattern&gt; --timeout

&lt;timeout&gt;</computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value

described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The

pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand

above.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">

<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>

<para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things

inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref

linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>

<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;command&gt;</screen>

<para>The following subcommands are available (where

<computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a

VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which allows for

executing a program/script (process) which is already installed and

runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and

running and has the following syntax:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; exec[ute]

--image &lt;path to program&gt;

--username &lt;name&gt; --password &lt;password&gt;

[--dos2unix]

[--environment "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt; [&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;]"]

[--timeout &lt;msec&gt;] [--unix2dos] [--verbose]

[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]

-- [[&lt;argument1&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentN&gt;]]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--image "&lt;path to program&gt;"</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute

in the guest, e.g.

<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This

user must exist on the guest OS.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Password of the user account specified with

<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,

an empty password is assumed.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--dos2unix</glossterm>

<glossdef>

Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible

line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--environment

"&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;"</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>One or more environment variables to be set or

unset.</para>

<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be

created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This

option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify

a variable, a pair of

<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be

specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no

value must set, e.g.

<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>

<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in

quotation marks. More than one

<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can

be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--timeout &lt;msec&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how

long the started process is allowed to run and how long

VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no

timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the

started process ends or an error occured.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--unix2dos</glossterm>

<glossdef>

Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible

line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--wait-exit</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its

exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--wait-stdout</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its

exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting

VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--wait-stderr</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its

exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting

VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>[-- [&lt;argument1s&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentNs&gt;]]</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being

executed.</para>

<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in

quotation marks.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

<para><note>

<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical

applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more

information.</para>

</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"

--username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usr</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"

--username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that

the double backslashes in the second example are only required on

Unix hosts.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which allows copying

files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest

Additions 4.0 and later).</para>

<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; copyto|cp

&lt;source on host&gt; &lt;destination on guest&gt;

--username &lt;name&gt; --password &lt;password&gt;

[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>source on host</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over

to the guest, e.g.

<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.

This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.

<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.

<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.

This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Password of the user account specified with

<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,

an empty password is assumed.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of

really copying files to the guest.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--follow</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's

source.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified

source.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--flags &lt;flags&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the

moment.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput>, which allows

copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest

Additions 4.0 and later).</para>

<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; createdir[ectory]|mkdir|md

&lt;directory to create on guest&gt;

[--username "&lt;name&gt;"] [--password "&lt;password&gt;"]

[--parents] [--mode &lt;mode&gt;] [--verbose]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>directory to create on guest</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on

guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.

Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example

<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch

<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The

specified user must have appropriate rights to create the

specified directory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.

This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Password of the user account specified with

<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,

an empty password is assumed.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--parents</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of

the specified directory, e.g. if the directory

<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of

<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist

yet it will be created. Without specifying

<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would

have failed.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--mode &lt;mode&gt;</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.

Only octal modes (e.g.

<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right

now.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which allows

for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the

guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>

<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol updateadditions &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt;

[--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to use&gt;"] [--verbose]</screen>

<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to

use&gt;"</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions

.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist></para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">

<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>

<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the

exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described

in <xref linkend="debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are

very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug

software.</para>

<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual

machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename

&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the

running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file

will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see

<xref linkend="guestcoreformat" />.</para>

<para>This corresponds to the

<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to

display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and

associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the

name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing

arguments specific to the info item.

The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a

listning of the available items and hints about any optional

arguments.</para>

<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>

command in the debugger.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes

a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which 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.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the

VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation

system.</para>

<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>

command in the debugger.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to

display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's

debugger facility.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is

used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list

of registers, each having one of the following forms:

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all

registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are

case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set

can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the

<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).

</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is

used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list

of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>

<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

The value format should be in the same style as what

<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the

exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of

hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set

are handled the same way as with the

<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be

used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The

<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset

statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the

<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts

DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>

<para>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

<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the

percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific

sampling period.</para>

<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be

retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics

query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the

background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That

process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been

closed.</para>

<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does

not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>

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 5 most current samples, the following command can be

used:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>

<para>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 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list

</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.

You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any

subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were

affected.</para>

<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics

setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been

previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>

<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data

<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands

can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,

like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In

other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling

<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>

<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.

Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics

list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>

<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name

has the following form:

<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.

For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands

for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if

applied to the host object.</para>

<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited

to one object or/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

("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") 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.</para>

<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and

kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the

following command:</para>

<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>

<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>

<glosslist>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>list</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing

metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a

particular VM is running.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>setup</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand 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

<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list

</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as

the result of the command execution.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>enable</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been

stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying

submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use

<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command

did what was expected.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>disable</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting

collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying

submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use

<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command

did what was expected.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>query</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained

metric data.<note>

<para>The <code>query</code> 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.</para>

</note></para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

<glossentry>

<glossterm>collect</glossterm>

<glossdef>

<para>This subcommand 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 <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is

specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>

option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>

does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which

metrics match the specified filter.</para>

</glossdef>

</glossentry>

</glosslist>

</sect1>

<sect1>

<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>

<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only

network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please

refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. 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).</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">

<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>

<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that

is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or

host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged

network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP

servers in your physical network.)</para>

<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter

of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add

--netname &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>, where

<computeroutput>&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the same

network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm

&lt;vmname&gt; --intnet&lt;X&gt;

&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter

of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add

--ifname &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> instead, where

<computeroutput>&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the

same host-only interface name you used with

<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm &lt;vmname&gt;

--hostonlyadapter&lt;X&gt;

&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>

<para>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 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list

hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />

above).</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a

DHCP server:<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP

address of the DHCP server itself.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the

netmask of the network.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and

<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the

lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server

will hand out to clients.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>

or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing

nothing.</para>

<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for

given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine

which uses that network is started.</para>

<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver

remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname

&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname

&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again

for the given internal or host-only network.</para>

<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with

<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given

network or host-only interface name.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">

<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>

<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox

extension packs, as described in <xref

linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage

extpack install &lt;tarball&gt;</computeroutput>. This command

will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already

installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>

parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new

package is installed.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall

&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>. You can use

<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show

the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;

please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional

<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to

override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack

cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary

files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous

install or uninstall command failed.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist></para>

</sect1>

</chapter>