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