| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
|
|---|
| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
|
|---|
| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="vboxheadless">
|
|---|
| 4 | <title>VBoxHeadless, the Remote Desktop Server</title>
|
|---|
| 5 |
|
|---|
| 6 | <body>
|
|---|
| 7 | <p>
|
|---|
| 8 | While any VM started from <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> is capable of running
|
|---|
| 9 | virtual machines remotely, it is not convenient to have to run
|
|---|
| 10 | the full GUI if you never want to have VMs displayed locally in
|
|---|
| 11 | the first place. In particular, if you are running server
|
|---|
| 12 | hardware whose only purpose is to host VMs, and all your VMs are
|
|---|
| 13 | supposed to run remotely over VRDP, then it is pointless to have
|
|---|
| 14 | a graphical user interface on the server at all. This is
|
|---|
| 15 | especially true for Linux or Oracle Solaris hosts, as the
|
|---|
| 16 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> comes with dependencies on the Qt and SDL libraries.
|
|---|
| 17 | This is inconvenient if you would rather not have the X Window
|
|---|
| 18 | system on your server at all.
|
|---|
| 19 | </p>
|
|---|
| 20 | <p>
|
|---|
| 21 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> therefore comes with a front end called
|
|---|
| 22 | <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput>, which produces no visible
|
|---|
| 23 | output on the host at all, but still can optionally deliver VRDP
|
|---|
| 24 | data. This front end has no dependencies on the X Window system
|
|---|
| 25 | on Linux and Oracle Solaris hosts.
|
|---|
| 26 | </p>
|
|---|
| 27 | <note>
|
|---|
| 28 | <p> In legacy releases of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>, the headless
|
|---|
| 29 | server was called <userinput>VBoxVRDP</userinput>. For backward compatibility, the <ph
|
|---|
| 30 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> installation still includes an
|
|---|
| 31 | executable with that name. </p>
|
|---|
| 32 | </note>
|
|---|
| 33 | <p>
|
|---|
| 34 | To start a virtual machine with <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput>,
|
|---|
| 35 | you have the following options:
|
|---|
| 36 | </p>
|
|---|
| 37 | <ul>
|
|---|
| 38 | <li>
|
|---|
| 39 | <p>
|
|---|
| 40 | Use the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput> command, as follows:
|
|---|
| 41 | </p>
|
|---|
| 42 | <pre xml:space="preserve">$ VBoxManage startvm <varname>VM-name</varname> --type headless</pre>
|
|---|
| 43 | <p>
|
|---|
| 44 | The <codeph>--type</codeph> option causes <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> to
|
|---|
| 45 | use <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput> as the front end to the
|
|---|
| 46 | internal virtualization engine, instead of the Qt front end.
|
|---|
| 47 | </p>
|
|---|
| 48 | </li>
|
|---|
| 49 | <li>
|
|---|
| 50 | <p>
|
|---|
| 51 | Use the <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput> command, as follows:
|
|---|
| 52 | </p>
|
|---|
| 53 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxHeadless --startvm <varname>uuid</varname>|<varname>vmname</varname>
|
|---|
| 54 | </pre>
|
|---|
| 55 | <p>
|
|---|
| 56 | This way of starting the VM helps troubleshooting problems
|
|---|
| 57 | reported by <userinput>VBoxManage startvm</userinput>, because
|
|---|
| 58 | you can sometimes see more detailed error messages,
|
|---|
| 59 | especially for early failures before the VM execution is
|
|---|
| 60 | started. In normal situations <userinput>VBoxManage
|
|---|
| 61 | startvm</userinput> is preferred, since it runs the VM
|
|---|
| 62 | directly as a background process which has to be done
|
|---|
| 63 | explicitly when directly starting with
|
|---|
| 64 | <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput>.
|
|---|
| 65 | </p>
|
|---|
| 66 | </li>
|
|---|
| 67 | <li>
|
|---|
| 68 | <p>
|
|---|
| 69 | Start <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput> from <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>, by
|
|---|
| 70 | pressing the Shift key when starting a virtual machine or by
|
|---|
| 71 | selecting <b outputclass="bold">Headless Start</b>
|
|---|
| 72 | from the <b outputclass="bold">Machine</b> menu.
|
|---|
| 73 | </p>
|
|---|
| 74 | </li>
|
|---|
| 75 | </ul>
|
|---|
| 76 | <p>
|
|---|
| 77 | When you use the <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput> command to
|
|---|
| 78 | start a VM, the VRDP server will be enabled according to the VM
|
|---|
| 79 | configuration. You can override the VM's setting using
|
|---|
| 80 | <codeph>--vrde</codeph> command line parameter. To enable the
|
|---|
| 81 | VRDP server, start the VM as follows:
|
|---|
| 82 | </p>
|
|---|
| 83 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxHeadless --startvm <varname>uuid</varname>|<varname>vmname</varname> --vrde on</pre>
|
|---|
| 84 | <p>
|
|---|
| 85 | To disable the VRDP server:
|
|---|
| 86 | </p>
|
|---|
| 87 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxHeadless --startvm <varname>uuid</varname>|<varname>vmname</varname> --vrde off</pre>
|
|---|
| 88 | <p>
|
|---|
| 89 | To have the VRDP server enabled depending on the VM
|
|---|
| 90 | configuration, as for other front ends:
|
|---|
| 91 | </p>
|
|---|
| 92 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxHeadless --startvm <varname>uuid</varname>|<varname>vmname</varname> --vrde config</pre>
|
|---|
| 93 | <p>
|
|---|
| 94 | This command is the same as the following:
|
|---|
| 95 | </p>
|
|---|
| 96 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxHeadless --startvm <varname>uuid</varname>|<varname>vmname</varname>
|
|---|
| 97 | </pre>
|
|---|
| 98 | <p>
|
|---|
| 99 | If you start the VM with <userinput>VBoxManage startvm</userinput>
|
|---|
| 100 | then the configuration settings of the VM are always used.
|
|---|
| 101 | </p>
|
|---|
| 102 | </body>
|
|---|
| 103 |
|
|---|
| 104 | </topic>
|
|---|
