VirtualBox

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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
4<chapter id="vboxmanage">
5 <title>VBoxManage</title>
6
7 <sect1>
8 <title>Introduction</title>
9
10 <para>As briefly mentioned in <xref linkend="frontends" />, VBoxManage is
11 the command-line interface to VirtualBox. With it, you can completely
12 control VirtualBox from the command line of your host operating system.
13 VBoxManage supports all the features that the graphical user interface
14 gives you access to, but it supports a lot more than that. It exposes
15 really all the features of the virtualization engine, even those that
16 cannot (yet) be accessed from the GUI.</para>
17
18 <para>You will need to use the command line if you want to</para>
19
20 <para><itemizedlist>
21 <listitem>
22 <para>use a different user interface than the main GUI (for example,
23 VBoxSDL or the VBoxHeadless server);</para>
24 </listitem>
25
26 <listitem>
27 <para>control some of the more advanced and experimental
28 configuration settings for a VM.</para>
29 </listitem>
30 </itemizedlist></para>
31
32 <para>There are two main things to keep in mind when using
33 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>: First,
34 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> must always be used with a
35 specific "subcommand", such as "list" or "createvm" or "startvm". All the
36 subcommands that <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> supports are
37 described in detail in <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>
38
39 <para>Second, most of these subcommands require that you specify a
40 particular virtual machine after the subcommand. There are two ways you
41 can do this:</para>
42
43 <itemizedlist>
44 <listitem>
45 <para>You can specify the VM name, as it is shown in the VirtualBox
46 GUI. Note that if that name contains spaces, then you must enclose the
47 entire name in double quotes (as it is always required with command
48 line arguments that contain spaces).</para>
49
50 <para>For example:<screen>VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"</screen></para>
51 </listitem>
52
53 <listitem>
54 <para>You can specify the UUID, which is the internal unique
55 identifier that VirtualBox uses to refer to the virtual machine.
56 Assuming that the aforementioned VM called "Windows XP" has the UUID
57 shown below, the following command has the same effect as the
58 previous:<screen>VBoxManage startvm 670e746d-abea-4ba6-ad02-2a3b043810a5</screen></para>
59 </listitem>
60 </itemizedlist>
61
62 <para>You can type <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms</computeroutput> to
63 have all currently registered VMs listed with all their settings,
64 including their respective names and UUIDs.</para>
65
66 <para>Some typical examples of how to control VirtualBox from the command
67 line are listed below:</para>
68
69 <itemizedlist>
70 <listitem>
71 <para>To create a new virtual machine from the command line and
72 immediately register it with VirtualBox, use
73 <computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> with the
74 <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option,<footnote>
75 <para>For details, see <xref
76 linkend="vboxmanage-createvm" />.</para>
77 </footnote> like this:</para>
78
79 <screen>$ VBoxManage createvm --name "SUSE 10.2" --register
80VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
81(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
82All rights reserved.
83
84Virtual machine 'SUSE 10.2' is created.
85UUID: c89fc351-8ec6-4f02-a048-57f4d25288e5
86Settings file: '/home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/SUSE 10.2/SUSE 10.2.xml'
87</screen>
88
89 <para>As can be seen from the above output, a new virtual machine has
90 been created with a new UUID and a new XML settings file.</para>
91 </listitem>
92
93 <listitem>
94 <para>To show the configuration of a particular VM, use
95 <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see <xref
96 linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" /> for details and an example.</para>
97 </listitem>
98
99 <listitem>
100 <para>To change settings while a VM is powered off, use
101 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>, e.g. as
102 follows:<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows XP" --memory "512MB"</screen></para>
103
104 <para>For details, see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
105 </listitem>
106
107 <listitem>
108 <para>To change the storage configuration (e.g. to add a storage
109 controller and then a virtual disk), use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
110 storagectl</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>VBoxManage
111 storageattach</computeroutput>; see <xref
112 linkend="vboxmanage-storage" /> for details.</para>
113 </listitem>
114
115 <listitem>
116 <para>To control VM operation, use one of the following:<itemizedlist>
117 <listitem>
118 <para>To start a VM that is currently powered off, use
119 <computeroutput>VBoxManage startvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
120 linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
121 </listitem>
122
123 <listitem>
124 <para>To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change
125 some of its settings, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
126 controlvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
127 linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" /> for details.</para>
128 </listitem>
129 </itemizedlist></para>
130 </listitem>
131 </itemizedlist>
132 </sect1>
133
134 <sect1>
135 <title>Commands overview</title>
136
137 <para>When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an
138 invalid command line, the below syntax diagram will be shown. Note that
139 the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform; when
140 in doubt, check the output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>
141 for the commands available on your particular host.</para>
142
143 <screen>$VBOX_MANAGE_OUTPUT</screen>
144
145 <para>Each time VBoxManage is invoked, only one command can be executed.
146 However, a command might support several subcommands which then can be
147 invoked in one single call. The following sections provide detailed
148 reference information on the different commands.</para>
149 </sect1>
150
151 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
152 <title>VBoxManage list</title>
153
154 <para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
155 information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
156 settings.</para>
157
158 <para>The following subcommands are available with
159 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
160 <listitem>
161 <para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
162 machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
163 displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
164 specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
165 <computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
166 with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
167 below).</para>
168 </listitem>
169
170 <listitem>
171 <para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
172 currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
173 (UUIDs) in the same format as with
174 <computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
175 </listitem>
176
177 <listitem>
178 <para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
179 <computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
180 <computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
181 about virtual disk images currently registered in VirtualBox,
182 including all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs)
183 associated with them by VirtualBox and all files associated with
184 them.</para>
185 </listitem>
186
187 <listitem>
188 <para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
189 operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
190 identifiers used to refer to them with the
191 <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
192 </listitem>
193
194 <listitem>
195 <para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
196 <computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput> and
197 <computeroutput>hostifs</computeroutput>, respectively, list DVD,
198 floppy and host networking interfaces on the host, along with the
199 name used to access them from within VirtualBox.</para>
200 </listitem>
201
202 <listitem>
203 <para><computeroutput>hostusb</computeroutput> supplies information
204 about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
205 for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
206 by the host.</para>
207 </listitem>
208
209 <listitem>
210 <para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
211 USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
212 devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
213 the filter parameters.</para>
214 </listitem>
215
216 <listitem>
217 <para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
218 some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
219 RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
220 authentication library in use.</para>
221 </listitem>
222
223 <listitem>
224 <para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
225 hdd backends of VirtualBox. Beside the name of the backend itself,
226 descriptions about the capabilities, configuration and other useful
227 informations are displayed.</para>
228 </listitem>
229 </itemizedlist></para>
230 </sect1>
231
232 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
233 <title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
234
235 <para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
236 information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
237 information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
238 would show for all virtual machines.</para>
239
240 <para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
241
242 <para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
243VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
244(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
245All rights reserved.
246
247Name: Windows XP
248Guest OS: Other/Unknown
249UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
250Config file: /home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
251Memory size: 512MB
252VRAM size: 12MB
253Number of CPUs: 2
254Synthetic Cpu: off
255Boot menu mode: message and menu
256Boot Device (1): DVD
257Boot Device (2): HardDisk
258Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
259Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
260ACPI: on
261IOAPIC: on
262PAE: on
263Time offset: 0 ms
264Hardw. virt.ext: on
265Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
266Nested Paging: on
267VT-x VPID: off
268State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
269Monitor count: 1
2703D Acceleration: off
2712D Video Acceleration: off
272Teleporter Enabled: off
273Teleporter Port: 0
274Teleporter Address:
275Teleporter Password:
276Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
277Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
278Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
279Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
280IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
281IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
282Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
283NIC 1: disabled
284NIC 2: disabled
285NIC 3: disabled
286NIC 4: disabled
287NIC 5: disabled
288NIC 6: disabled
289NIC 7: disabled
290NIC 8: disabled
291UART 1: disabled
292UART 2: disabled
293Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
294Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
295VRDP: disabled
296USB: disabled
297
298USB Device Filters:
299&lt;none&gt;
300
301Shared folders:
302&lt;none&gt;
303
304Statistics update: disabled
305</screen></para>
306 </sect1>
307
308 <sect1>
309 <title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
310
311 <para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
312 to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
313 machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
314 may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
315 place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
316 it.<note>
317 <para>When creating a new virtual machine with
318 <computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
319 can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
320 option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
321 </note></para>
322
323 <para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
324 unregisters a virtual machine. If
325 <computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
326 files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
327 <listitem>
328 <para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
329 are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
330 </listitem>
331
332 <listitem>
333 <para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
334 machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
335 snapshot);</para>
336 </listitem>
337
338 <listitem>
339 <para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
340 </listitem>
341
342 <listitem>
343 <para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
344 </listitem>
345
346 <listitem>
347 <para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
348 the above.</para>
349 </listitem>
350 </orderedlist></para>
351 </sect1>
352
353 <sect1>
354 <title id="vboxmanage-createvm">VBoxManage createvm</title>
355
356 <para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
357 file.</para>
358
359 <para>The <computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput> parameter
360 is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
361 used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
362 <computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
363 of the <computeroutput>.VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder), it
364 must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
365 specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
366 change automatically.</para>
367
368 <para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
369 &lt;path&gt;</computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
370 named <computeroutput>&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>. In this case, the
371 names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
372 renamed.</para>
373
374 <para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
375 automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
376 register the VM instantly, use the optional
377 <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
378 <computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
379 afterwards.</para>
380 </sect1>
381
382 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
383 <title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
384
385 <para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
386 which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
387 available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
388 interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
389 <xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
390 however, are only available through the
391 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
392
393 <para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
394 running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
395 while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
396 subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
397 subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
398
399 <sect2>
400 <title>General settings</title>
401
402 <para>The following general settings are available through
403 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
404 <listitem>
405 <para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This
406 changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
407 machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
408 createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
409 </listitem>
410
411 <listitem>
412 <para><computeroutput>--ostype &lt;ostype&gt;</computeroutput>:
413 This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
414 the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
415 here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
416 ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
417 </listitem>
418
419 <listitem>
420 <para><computeroutput>--memory
421 &lt;memorysize&gt;</computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
422 in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
423 the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
424 more information.</para>
425 </listitem>
426
427 <listitem>
428 <para><computeroutput>--vram &lt;vramsize&gt;</computeroutput>:
429 This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
430 have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
431 </listitem>
432
433 <listitem>
434 <para><computeroutput>--acpi on|off</computeroutput>;
435 <computeroutput>--ioapic on|off</computeroutput>: These two
436 determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
437 respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
438 details.</para>
439 </listitem>
440
441 <listitem>
442 <para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
443 &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
444 memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
445 default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
446 Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
447 </listitem>
448
449 <listitem>
450 <para><computeroutput>--cpus &lt;cpucount&gt;</computeroutput>:
451 This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
452 <xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
453 enabled (see below), this then sets the
454 <emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
455 plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
456 </listitem>
457
458 <listitem>
459 <para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on|off</computeroutput>: This
460 option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
461 <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
462 </listitem>
463
464 <listitem>
465 <para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on|off</computeroutput>: This
466 enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
467 to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
468 <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
469 </listitem>
470
471 <listitem>
472 <para><computeroutput>--plugcpu|unplugcpu
473 &lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
474 above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
475 removes one). <computeroutput>&lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>
476 specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
477 must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
478 the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
479 never be removed.</para>
480 </listitem>
481
482 <listitem>
483 <para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on|off</computeroutput>: This
484 setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
485 to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
486 differ significantly.</para>
487 </listitem>
488
489 <listitem>
490 <para><computeroutput>--pae on|off</computeroutput>: This
491 enables/disables PAE (see <xref
492 linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
493 </listitem>
494
495 <listitem>
496 <para><computeroutput>--hpet on|off</computeroutput>: This
497 enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
498 replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
499 Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
500 </listitem>
501
502 <listitem>
503 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on|off</computeroutput>: This
504 enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
505 (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
506 <xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
507 </listitem>
508
509 <listitem>
510 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on|off</computeroutput>: This
511 specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the
512 hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the
513 processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If
514 you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other
515 hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has
516 negative performance implications.</para>
517 </listitem>
518
519 <listitem>
520 <para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on|off</computeroutput>: If
521 hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
522 enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
523 processor of your host system; see <xref
524 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
525 </listitem>
526
527 <listitem>
528 <para><computeroutput>--largepages on|off</computeroutput>: If
529 hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
530 enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
531 improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
532 This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
533 and overhead.</para>
534 </listitem>
535
536 <listitem>
537 <para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on|off</computeroutput>: If
538 hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
539 additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
540 (VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
541 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
542 </listitem>
543
544 <listitem>
545 <para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on|off</computeroutput>: This
546 enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
547 acceleration should be available; see <xref
548 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
549 </listitem>
550
551 <listitem>
552 <para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
553 virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
554 a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
555
556 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
557 on|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
558 on|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
559 fade in and out, respectively.</para>
560
561 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
562 &lt;msec&gt;</computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
563 be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
564
565 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
566 &lt;imagepath&gt;</computeroutput> you can, if you are so
567 inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
568 image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file.</para>
569 </listitem>
570
571 <listitem>
572 <para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
573 disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
574 whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
575 device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
576 message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
577 boot device.</para>
578 </listitem>
579
580 <listitem>
581 <para><computeroutput>--boot&lt;1-4&gt;
582 none|floppy|dvd|disk|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
583 order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
584 VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
585 set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
586 </listitem>
587
588 <listitem>
589 <para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
590 default|&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
591 the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
592 machine.</para>
593 </listitem>
594
595 <listitem>
596 <para><computeroutput>--firmware efi|bios</computeroutput>:
597 Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
598 machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
599 you're doing.</para>
600 </listitem>
601
602 <listitem>
603 <para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
604 &lt;size&gt;</computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
605 memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
606 Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
607 hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. &lt;size&gt; must
608 be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
609 details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
610 </listitem>
611 </itemizedlist></para>
612 </sect2>
613
614 <sect2>
615 <title>Networking settings</title>
616
617 <para>The following networking settings are available through
618 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
619 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
620 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
621 should be changed.<itemizedlist>
622 <listitem>
623 <para><computeroutput>--nic&lt;1-N&gt;
624 none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|vde</computeroutput>: With
625 this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
626 what type of networking should be available. They can be not
627 present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
628 the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
629 address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
630 bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
631 communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
632 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
633 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or on Linux and
634 FreeBSD hosts a Virtual Distributed Ethernet switch
635 (<computeroutput>vde</computeroutput>). These options correspond
636 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
637 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
638 </listitem>
639
640 <listitem>
641 <para><computeroutput>--nictype&lt;1-N&gt;
642 Am79C970A|Am79C973|82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|virtio</computeroutput>:
643 This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
644 specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
645 guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
646 </listitem>
647
648 <listitem>
649 <para><computeroutput>--cableconnected&lt;1-N&gt;
650 on|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
651 a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
652 from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
653 certain software components in the VM.</para>
654 </listitem>
655
656 <listitem>
657 <para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
658 network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
659 purposes.</para>
660
661 <para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace&lt;1-N&gt;
662 on|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
663 particular virtual network card.</para>
664
665 <para>If enabled, you must specify with
666 <computeroutput>--nictracefile&lt;1-N&gt;
667 &lt;filename&gt;</computeroutput> what file the trace should be
668 logged to.</para>
669 </listitem>
670
671 <listitem>
672 <para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
673 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If bridged networking
674 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
675 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
676 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
677 interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
678 details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
679 </listitem>
680
681 <listitem>
682 <para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
683 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If host-only networking
684 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
685 above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
686 specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
687 network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
688 linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
689 </listitem>
690
691 <listitem>
692 <para><computeroutput>--intnet&lt;1-N&gt;
693 network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
694 for a virtual network card (see the
695 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
696 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
697 of the internal network (see <xref
698 linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
699 </listitem>
700
701 <listitem>
702 <para><computeroutput>--macaddress&lt;1-N&gt;
703 auto|&lt;mac&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can set
704 the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
705 virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
706 VM creation.</para>
707 </listitem>
708
709 <listitem>
710 <para><computeroutput>--vdenet&lt;1-N&gt;
711 network</computeroutput>: If Virtual Distributed Ethernet is
712 available on the host and has been enabled for a virtual network
713 card (see the <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above;
714 otherwise this setting has no effect). Use this option to specify
715 the name of a VDE network for the interface to connect to (see
716 <xref linkend="networkingmodes" /> and the VDE
717 documentation).</para>
718 </listitem>
719 </itemizedlist></para>
720
721 <sect3>
722 <title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
723
724 <para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
725 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
726 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
727 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
728 settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
729 <listitem>
730 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt;
731 [&lt;name&gt;],tcp|udp,[&lt;hostip&gt;],&lt;hostport&gt;,[&lt;guestip&gt;],
732 &lt;guestport&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
733 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
734 for details).</para>
735 </listitem>
736
737 <listitem>
738 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt; delete
739 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
740 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
741 for details).</para>
742 </listitem>
743
744 <listitem>
745 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix&lt;1-N&gt;
746 &lt;prefix&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
747 for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
748 located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
749 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
750 </listitem>
751
752 <listitem>
753 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile&lt;1-N&gt;
754 &lt;bootfile&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
755 boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
756 details).</para>
757 </listitem>
758
759 <listitem>
760 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver&lt;1-N&gt;
761 &lt;tftpserver&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the
762 TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
763 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
764 </listitem>
765
766 <listitem>
767 <para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain&lt;1-N&gt;
768 on|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
769 built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
770 resolution.</para>
771 </listitem>
772
773 <listitem>
774 <para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy&lt;1-N&gt;
775 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
776 all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
777 <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
778 </listitem>
779
780 <listitem>
781 <para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver&lt;1-N&gt;
782 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
783 the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
784 see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
785 </listitem>
786
787 <listitem>
788 <para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings&lt;1-N&gt;
789 [&lt;mtu&gt;],[&lt;socksnd&gt;],[&lt;sockrcv&gt;],[&lt;tcpsnd&gt;],
790 [&lt;tcprcv&gt;]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
791 NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
792 details).</para>
793 </listitem>
794
795 <listitem>
796 <para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode&lt;1-N&gt;
797 default|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
798 option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
799 logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
800 transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
801 the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
802 mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
803 linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
804 </listitem>
805 </itemizedlist></para>
806 </sect3>
807 </sect2>
808
809 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
810 <title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, VRDP and USB settings</title>
811
812 <para>The following other hardware settings are available through
813 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
814 <listitem>
815 <para><computeroutput>--uart&lt;1-N&gt; off|&lt;I/O base&gt;
816 &lt;IRQ&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
817 virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
818 linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
819 </listitem>
820
821 <listitem>
822 <para><computeroutput>--uartmode&lt;1-N&gt;
823 &lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
824 connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
825 the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
826 to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
827 in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
828 you can specify <computeroutput>&lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput> as
829 one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
830 <listitem>
831 <para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
832 though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
833 "other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
834 </listitem>
835
836 <listitem>
837 <para><computeroutput>server
838 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
839 tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
840 <computeroutput>&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput> and
841 connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
842 requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
843 <computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
844
845 <para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
846 domain socket is used.</para>
847 </listitem>
848
849 <listitem>
850 <para><computeroutput>client
851 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: This operates just like
852 <computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
853 pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
854 but assumed to exist already.</para>
855 </listitem>
856
857 <listitem>
858 <para><computeroutput>&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>:
859 If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
860 hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
861 serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
862 host, the device name will be a COM port such as
863 <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
864 device name will look like
865 <computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
866 to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
867 </listitem>
868 </itemizedlist></para>
869 </listitem>
870
871 <listitem>
872 <para><computeroutput>--audio none|null|oss</computeroutput>: With
873 this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
874 support.</para>
875 </listitem>
876
877 <listitem>
878 <para><computeroutput>--clipboard
879 disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
880 With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
881 system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
882 linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
883 Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
884 </listitem>
885
886 <listitem>
887 <para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
888 &lt;count&gt;</computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
889 support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
890 </listitem>
891
892 <listitem>
893 <para><computeroutput>--usb on|off</computeroutput>: This option
894 enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
895 linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
896 </listitem>
897
898 <listitem>
899 <para><computeroutput>--usbehci on|off</computeroutput>: This
900 option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
901 see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
902 </listitem>
903 </itemizedlist></para>
904 </sect2>
905
906 <sect2>
907 <title>Remote machine settings</title>
908
909 <para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
910 available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
911 modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
912 <listitem>
913 <para><computeroutput>--vrdp on|off</computeroutput>: With the
914 VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
915 built-in VRDP server. Note that if you are using
916 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see <xref
917 linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDP output is always enabled.</para>
918 </listitem>
919
920 <listitem>
921 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpport
922 default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
923 the VRDP server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
924 standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
925 ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
926 specify a range. The VRDP server will bind to <emphasis
927 role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
928 list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
929 example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdpport
930 5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
931 one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
932 </listitem>
933
934 <listitem>
935 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpaddress &lt;IP
936 address&gt;</computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
937 interface the VRDP server will bind to. If specified, the VRDP
938 server will accept connections only on the specified host network
939 interface.</para>
940 </listitem>
941
942 <listitem>
943 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpauthtype
944 null|external|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
945 whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
946 linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
947 </listitem>
948
949 <listitem>
950 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpmulticon on|off</computeroutput>: This
951 enables multiple VRDP connections to the same VRDP server; see
952 <xref lang="" linkend="vrdp-multiconnection" />.</para>
953 </listitem>
954
955 <listitem>
956 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpreusecon on|off</computeroutput>: This
957 specifies the VRDP server behavior when multiple connections are
958 disabled. When this option is enabled, the VRDP server will allow
959 a new client to connect and drop the existing connection. When
960 this option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new
961 connection will not be accepted if there is already a client
962 connected to the server.</para>
963 </listitem>
964
965 <listitem>
966 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpvideochannel on|off</computeroutput>:
967 This enables VRDP video acceleration; see <xref lang=""
968 linkend="vrdp-videochannel" />.</para>
969 </listitem>
970
971 <listitem>
972 <para><computeroutput>--vrdpvideochannelquality
973 &lt;percent&gt;</computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for VRDP
974 video acceleration; see <xref lang=""
975 linkend="vrdp-videochannel" />.</para>
976 </listitem>
977 </itemizedlist></para>
978 </sect2>
979
980 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
981 <title>Teleporting settings</title>
982
983 <para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
984 modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
985 teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
986 introduction.<itemizedlist>
987 <listitem>
988 <para><computeroutput>--teleporter on|off</computeroutput>: With
989 this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
990 teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
991 If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
992 machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
993 teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
994 the next two parameters.</para>
995 </listitem>
996
997 <listitem>
998 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
999 &lt;port&gt;</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1000 &lt;address&gt;</computeroutput>: these must be used with
1001 --teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1002 address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1003 virtual machine. <computeroutput>&lt;port&gt;</computeroutput> can
1004 be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1005 <computeroutput>&lt;address&gt;</computeroutput> can be any IP
1006 address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1007 The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1008 </listitem>
1009
1010 <listitem>
1011 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1012 &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1013 given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1014 source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1015 this command.</para>
1016 </listitem>
1017
1018 <listitem>
1019 <para><computeroutput>--cpuid &lt;leaf&gt; &lt;eax&gt; &lt;ebx&gt;
1020 &lt;ecx&gt; &lt;edx&gt;</computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1021 this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1022 virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1023 operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1024 target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1025 what the guest sees when it executes the
1026 <computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1027 might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1028 certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1029 parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1030 processor manuals.</para>
1031 </listitem>
1032 </itemizedlist></para>
1033 </sect2>
1034 </sect1>
1035
1036 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1037 <title>VBoxManage import</title>
1038
1039 <para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1040 the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1041 <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1042
1043 <para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1044 least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1045 if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1046 command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1047 imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1048 content of the OVF file.</para>
1049
1050 <para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1051 the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1052 <computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1053 description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1054 imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1055 to influence the import behavior.</para>
1056
1057 <para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1058 containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1059Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1060OK.
1061Virtual system 0:
1062 0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1063 (change with "--vsys 0 --ostype &lt;type&gt;"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1064 1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1065 (change with "--vsys 0 --vmname &lt;name&gt;")
1066 3: Number of CPUs: 1
1067 (change with "--vsys 0 --cpus &lt;n&gt;")
1068 4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory &lt;MB&gt;")
1069 5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1070 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1071 6: USB controller
1072 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1073 7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1074 8: Floppy
1075 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1076 9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1077 (change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic|LsiLogic}";
1078 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
107910: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1080 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
108111: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1082 target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1083 (change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller &lt;id&gt;";
1084 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1085
1086 <para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1087 depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1088 subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1089 <computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1090 X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1091 virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1092 printed on the screen.</para>
1093
1094 <para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1095 machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1096 respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1097 additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1098 which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1099 from the OVF file.</para>
1100
1101 <para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1102 same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1103 import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1104 without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1105 controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1106 --vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1107 </sect1>
1108
1109 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1110 <title>VBoxManage export</title>
1111
1112 <para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1113 into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1114 disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1115 introduction to appliances.</para>
1116
1117 <para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1118 use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1119 the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1120 <computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1121 <computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1122 target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1123 compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1124 enough disk space left for them.</para>
1125
1126 <para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1127 several product information to the appliance file. Use
1128 <computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1129 <computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1130 <computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1131 <computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1132 <computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1133 information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1134 of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1135 <computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1136 OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1137 option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1138 machine.</para>
1139
1140 <para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1141 OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1142 <computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1143 </sect1>
1144
1145 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1146 <title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1147
1148 <para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1149 "Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1150
1151 <note>
1152 <para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to
1153 start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as
1154 you might otherwise miss important error and state information that
1155 VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for
1156 front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our
1157 graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in
1158 a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1159 information.</para>
1160 </note>
1161
1162 <para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1163 determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,
1164 which is the default) or whether the output should go through
1165 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDP enabled or not;
1166 see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of
1167 types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are
1168 accepted by any product variant.</para>
1169
1170 <para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1171
1172 <glosslist>
1173 <glossentry>
1174 <glossterm>gui</glossterm>
1175
1176 <glossdef>
1177 <para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1178 </glossdef>
1179 </glossentry>
1180
1181 <glossentry>
1182 <glossterm>vrdp</glossterm>
1183
1184 <glossdef>
1185 <para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window, with its graphics card
1186 output accessible by an RDP client.</para>
1187 </glossdef>
1188 </glossentry>
1189
1190 <glossentry>
1191 <glossterm>headless</glossterm>
1192
1193 <glossdef>
1194 <para>Starts a VM without a window for remote RDP display
1195 only.</para>
1196 </glossdef>
1197 </glossentry>
1198 </glosslist>
1199 </sect1>
1200
1201 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1202 <title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1203
1204 <para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1205 to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1206 following can be specified:</para>
1207
1208 <para><itemizedlist>
1209 <listitem>
1210 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1211 pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1212 without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1213 in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1214 equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1215 the GUI.)</para>
1216 </listitem>
1217
1218 <listitem>
1219 <para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1220 resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1221 <computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1222 to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1223 GUI.)</para>
1224 </listitem>
1225
1226 <listitem>
1227 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1228 reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1229 pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1230 virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1231 system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1232 beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1233 the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1234 </listitem>
1235
1236 <listitem>
1237 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1238 poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1239 as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1240 the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1241 equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1242 the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1243 "Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1244
1245 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1246 it can be started again; see <xref
1247 linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1248 </listitem>
1249
1250 <listitem>
1251 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1252 savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1253 disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1254 "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1255 window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1256 in the dialog.)</para>
1257
1258 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1259 be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1260 </listitem>
1261
1262 <listitem>
1263 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt; teleport
1264 --hostname &lt;name&gt; --port &lt;port&gt; [--password
1265 &lt;password&gt;]</computeroutput> makes the machine the source of a
1266 teleporting operation and initiates a teleport to the given target.
1267 See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an introduction. If the
1268 optional password is specified, it must match the password that was
1269 given to the <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for
1270 the target machine; see <xref
1271 linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for details.</para>
1272 </listitem>
1273 </itemizedlist></para>
1274
1275 <para>A few extra options are available with
1276 <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1277 VM's running state:</para>
1278
1279 <itemizedlist>
1280 <listitem>
1281 <para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate&lt;1-N&gt;</computeroutput>
1282 operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1283 network interfaces.</para>
1284 </listitem>
1285
1286 <listitem>
1287 <para><computeroutput>nic&lt;1-N&gt;
1288 null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1289 set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1290 networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1291 (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1292 translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1293 (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1294 virtual machines using internal networking
1295 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1296 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1297 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1298 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1299 </listitem>
1300
1301 <listitem>
1302 <para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1303 <computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1304 visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1305 creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1306 (unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1307
1308 <para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1309 usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1310 </listitem>
1311
1312 <listitem>
1313 <para><computeroutput>vrdp on|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1314 disable the built-in VRDP server.</para>
1315 </listitem>
1316
1317 <listitem>
1318 <para><computeroutput>vrdpport default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>
1319 changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDP server can bind to;
1320 "default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1321 details, see the description for the
1322 <computeroutput>--vrdpport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1323 linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1324 </listitem>
1325
1326 <listitem>
1327 <para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1328 the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1329 the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1330 systems.</para>
1331 </listitem>
1332
1333 <listitem>
1334 <para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1335 used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1336 <xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1337 </listitem>
1338
1339 <listitem>
1340 <para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1341 operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1342 memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1343 operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1344 virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1345 see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1346 </listitem>
1347 </itemizedlist>
1348 </sect1>
1349
1350 <sect1>
1351 <title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1352
1353 <para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1354 not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1355 next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1356 cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1357 </sect1>
1358
1359 <sect1>
1360 <title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1361
1362 <para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1363 snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1364 copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1365 machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1366 running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1367 hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1368 when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1369 hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1370 differencing files.</para>
1371
1372 <para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1373 of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1374 the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1375 inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1376 then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1377
1378 <para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1379 snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1380 since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1381 be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1382
1383 <para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1384 the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1385 machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1386 current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1387 becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1388 inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1389
1390 <para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1391 shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1392 current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1393 "restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1394 that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1395
1396 <para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1397 change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1398
1399 <para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1400 can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1401 snapshot.</para>
1402 </sect1>
1403
1404 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-storage">
1405 <title>VBoxManage storagectl / storageattach</title>
1406
1407 <para>These commands allow to attach new storage controllers to a VM,
1408 modify or remove the existing ones and also allows the user to change the
1409 hard disk, DVD or floppy images attached to them. The list of the storage
1410 controllers attached to the VM can be found by the command:</para>
1411
1412 <screen>VBoxManage showvminfo &lt;vmname&gt;</screen>
1413
1414 <para>See also <xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1415
1416 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1417 <title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1418
1419 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. The
1420 syntax is as follows:</para>
1421
1422 <screen>VBoxManage storagectl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1423 --name &lt;name&gt;
1424 [--add &lt;ide/sata/scsi/floppy&gt;]
1425 [--controller &lt;LsiLogic/BusLogic/IntelAhci/PIIX3/
1426 PIIX4/ICH6/I8207&gt;]
1427 [--sataideemulation&lt;1-4&gt; &lt;1-30&gt;]
1428 [--sataportcount &lt;1-30&gt;]
1429 [--hostiocache on|off]
1430 [--remove]</screen>
1431
1432 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1433 <glossentry>
1434 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
1435
1436 <glossdef>
1437 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1438 </glossdef>
1439 </glossentry>
1440
1441 <glossentry>
1442 <glossterm>name</glossterm>
1443
1444 <glossdef>
1445 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1446 </glossdef>
1447 </glossentry>
1448
1449 <glossentry>
1450 <glossterm>add</glossterm>
1451
1452 <glossdef>
1453 <para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
1454 controller must be connected.</para>
1455 </glossdef>
1456 </glossentry>
1457
1458 <glossentry>
1459 <glossterm>controller</glossterm>
1460
1461 <glossdef>
1462 <para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for
1463 the given storage controller.</para>
1464 </glossdef>
1465 </glossentry>
1466
1467 <glossentry>
1468 <glossterm>sataideemulation</glossterm>
1469
1470 <glossdef>
1471 <para>This specifies which SATA ports should operate in IDE
1472 emulation mode. As explained in <xref
1473 linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />, by default, this is the case
1474 for SATA ports 1-4; with this command, you can map four IDE
1475 channels to any of the 30 supported SATA ports.</para>
1476 </glossdef>
1477 </glossentry>
1478
1479 <glossentry>
1480 <glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>
1481
1482 <glossdef>
1483 <para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
1484 support.</para>
1485 </glossdef>
1486 </glossentry>
1487
1488 <glossentry>
1489 <glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>
1490
1491 <glossdef>
1492 <para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk
1493 images attached to this storage controller. For details, please
1494 see <xref linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
1495 </glossdef>
1496 </glossentry>
1497
1498 <glossentry>
1499 <glossterm>remove</glossterm>
1500
1501 <glossdef>
1502 <para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
1503 </glossdef>
1504 </glossentry>
1505 </glosslist></para>
1506 </sect2>
1507
1508 <sect2>
1509 <title>VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1510
1511 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected
1512 to the storage controller named by --storagectl. The syntax is as
1513 follows:</para>
1514
1515 <screen>VBoxManage storageattach &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1516 --storagectl &lt;name&gt;
1517 --port &lt;number&gt;
1518 --device &lt;number&gt;
1519 [--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd
1520 --medium none|emptydrive|uuid|filename|host:&lt;drive&gt;]
1521 [--passthrough on|off]
1522 [--forceunmount]</screen>
1523
1524 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1525 <glossentry>
1526 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
1527
1528 <glossdef>
1529 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1530 </glossdef>
1531 </glossentry>
1532
1533 <glossentry>
1534 <glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>
1535
1536 <glossdef>
1537 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1538 </glossdef>
1539 </glossentry>
1540
1541 <glossentry>
1542 <glossterm>port</glossterm>
1543
1544 <glossdef>
1545 <para>Port number to which the medium has to be
1546 attached/detached/modified. Mandatory.</para>
1547 </glossdef>
1548 </glossentry>
1549
1550 <glossentry>
1551 <glossterm>device</glossterm>
1552
1553 <glossdef>
1554 <para>Device Number to which the medium has to be
1555 attached/detached/modified. Mandatory.</para>
1556 </glossdef>
1557 </glossentry>
1558
1559 <glossentry>
1560 <glossterm>type</glossterm>
1561
1562 <glossdef>
1563 <para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1564 attached/detached/modified.</para>
1565 </glossdef>
1566 </glossentry>
1567
1568 <glossentry>
1569 <glossterm>medium</glossterm>
1570
1571 <glossdef>
1572 <para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1573 supported:<itemizedlist>
1574 <listitem>
1575 <para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from
1576 the given slot.</para>
1577
1578 <note>
1579 <para>DVD/floppy drives or harddisks cannot be removed
1580 while the VM is running.</para>
1581 </note>
1582 </listitem>
1583
1584 <listitem>
1585 <para>"emptydrive": This is only allowed if the given slot
1586 is a DVD or floppy drive. In this case, the slot behaves
1587 like a removeable drive into which no media has been
1588 inserted.</para>
1589 </listitem>
1590
1591 <listitem>
1592 <para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1593 storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1594 because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1595 This medium is then attached to the given device
1596 slot.</para>
1597 </listitem>
1598
1599 <listitem>
1600 <para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1601 of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1602 which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1603 </listitem>
1604
1605 <listitem>
1606 <para>"host:&lt;drive&gt;: This is only allowed if the
1607 given slot is a DVD or floppy drive, in which case the
1608 device slot is attached to the specified DVD or floppy
1609 drive on the host computer.</para>
1610 </listitem>
1611 </itemizedlist></para>
1612 </glossdef>
1613 </glossentry>
1614
1615 <glossentry>
1616 <glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>
1617
1618 <glossdef>
1619 <para>With this, you can enable DVD writing support (currently
1620 experimental; see <xref linkend="storage-write-cds" />).</para>
1621 </glossdef>
1622 </glossentry>
1623
1624 <glossentry>
1625 <glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>
1626
1627 <glossdef>
1628 <para>If this option is specified then you can unmount the
1629 DVD/CD/Floppy or mount a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if the previous
1630 one is locked down by the guest for reading.</para>
1631 </glossdef>
1632 </glossentry>
1633 </glosslist></para>
1634 </sect2>
1635 </sect1>
1636
1637 <sect1>
1638 <title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
1639
1640 <para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
1641 notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the VM it is in use
1642 by.<note>
1643 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
1644 "showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
1645 "showhdinfo" command.</para>
1646 </note></para>
1647 </sect1>
1648
1649 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
1650 <title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
1651
1652 <para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
1653 follows:</para>
1654
1655 <screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename &lt;filename&gt;
1656 --size &lt;megabytes&gt;
1657 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
1658 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
1659 [--type normal|writethrough] (default: normal)
1660 [--comment &lt;comment&gt;]
1661 [--remember]</screen>
1662
1663 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
1664 <glossentry>
1665 <glossterm>filename</glossterm>
1666
1667 <glossdef>
1668 <para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
1669 </glossdef>
1670 </glossentry>
1671
1672 <glossentry>
1673 <glossterm>size</glossterm>
1674
1675 <glossdef>
1676 <para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
1677 Mandatory.</para>
1678 </glossdef>
1679 </glossentry>
1680
1681 <glossentry>
1682 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
1683
1684 <glossdef>
1685 <para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
1686 from the file format of the input file.</para>
1687 </glossdef>
1688 </glossentry>
1689
1690 <glossentry>
1691 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
1692
1693 <glossdef>
1694 <para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
1695 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
1696 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
1697 result in an error message.</para>
1698 </glossdef>
1699 </glossentry>
1700
1701 <glossentry>
1702 <glossterm>type</glossterm>
1703
1704 <glossdef>
1705 <para>Only honored if --remember is also specified. Defines what
1706 kind of hard disk type this image should be.</para>
1707 </glossdef>
1708 </glossentry>
1709
1710 <glossentry>
1711 <glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1712
1713 <glossdef>
1714 <para>Allows to attach a comment to the image.</para>
1715 </glossdef>
1716 </glossentry>
1717
1718 <glossentry>
1719 <glossterm>remember</glossterm>
1720
1721 <glossdef>
1722 <para>Keep the destination image registered after it was
1723 successfully written.</para>
1724 </glossdef>
1725 </glossentry>
1726 </glosslist> <note>
1727 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
1728 "createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
1729 "createhd" command.</para>
1730 </note></para>
1731 </sect1>
1732
1733 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
1734 <title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
1735
1736 <para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
1737 change the type of an existing image between the normal, immutable and
1738 write-through modes; see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1739 details.<note>
1740 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
1741 "modifyvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
1742 "modifyhd" command.</para>
1743 </note></para>
1744
1745 <para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
1746 <computeroutput>modifyhd autoreset on|off</computeroutput> command
1747 determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM startup
1748 (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default is "on".</para>
1749
1750 <para>In addition, the <computeroutput>modifyhd --compact</computeroutput>
1751 command can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
1752 contains zeroes. For this operation to be effective, it is required to
1753 zero out free space in the guest system using a suitable software tool.
1754 Microsoft provides the <computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool for
1755 Windows guests. Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -c</computeroutput> in the
1756 guest to zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
1757 image. Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created
1758 as part of a snapshot.</para>
1759 </sect1>
1760
1761 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
1762 <title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
1763
1764 <para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
1765 new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
1766 transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
1767 the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
1768 linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
1769
1770 <screen>VBoxManage clonehd &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;
1771 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|&lt;other&gt;]
1772 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
1773 [--type normal|writethrough|immutable]
1774 [--remember]</screen>
1775
1776 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
1777 <glossentry>
1778 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
1779
1780 <glossdef>
1781 <para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
1782 from the file format of the input file.</para>
1783 </glossdef>
1784 </glossentry>
1785
1786 <glossentry>
1787 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
1788
1789 <glossdef>
1790 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
1791 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
1792 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
1793 result in an error message.</para>
1794 </glossdef>
1795 </glossentry>
1796
1797 <glossentry>
1798 <glossterm>type</glossterm>
1799
1800 <glossdef>
1801 <para>Only honored if --remember is also specified. Defines what
1802 kind of hard disk type this image should be.</para>
1803 </glossdef>
1804 </glossentry>
1805
1806 <glossentry>
1807 <glossterm>remember</glossterm>
1808
1809 <glossdef>
1810 <para>Keep the destination image registered after it was
1811 successfully written.</para>
1812 </glossdef>
1813 </glossentry>
1814 </glosslist> <note>
1815 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
1816 "clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
1817 "clonehd" command.</para>
1818 </note></para>
1819 </sect1>
1820
1821 <sect1>
1822 <title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
1823
1824 <para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
1825 (VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
1826
1827 <screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw &lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;
1828 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
1829 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
1830VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin &lt;outputfile&gt; &lt;bytes&gt;
1831 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
1832 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
1833
1834 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
1835 <glossentry>
1836 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
1837
1838 <glossdef>
1839 <para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
1840 VDI.</para>
1841 </glossdef>
1842 </glossentry>
1843
1844 <glossentry>
1845 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
1846
1847 <glossdef>
1848 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
1849 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
1850 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
1851 result in an error message.</para>
1852 </glossdef>
1853 </glossentry>
1854 </glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
1855 the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
1856 pipe).</para>
1857
1858 <para><note>
1859 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
1860 "convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
1861 "convertfromraw" command.</para>
1862 </note></para>
1863 </sect1>
1864
1865 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-addiscsidisk">
1866 <title>VBoxManage addiscsidisk</title>
1867
1868 <para>The <computeroutput>addiscsidisk</computeroutput> command attaches
1869 an iSCSI network storage unit to VirtualBox. The iSCSI target can then be
1870 made available to and used by a virtual machine as though it were a
1871 standard write-through virtual disk image.</para>
1872
1873 <para>This command has the following syntax:<screen>VBoxManage addiscsidisk --server &lt;name&gt;|&lt;ip&gt;
1874 --target &lt;target&gt;
1875 [--port &lt;port&gt;]
1876 [--lun &lt;lun&gt;]
1877 [--username &lt;username&gt;]
1878 [--password &lt;password&gt;]
1879 [--type normal|writethrough|immutable]
1880 [--comment &lt;comment&gt;]
1881 [--intnet]</screen></para>
1882
1883 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
1884 <glossentry>
1885 <glossterm>server</glossterm>
1886
1887 <glossdef>
1888 <para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target.</para>
1889 </glossdef>
1890 </glossentry>
1891
1892 <glossentry>
1893 <glossterm>target</glossterm>
1894
1895 <glossdef>
1896 <para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1897 and used to identify the storage resource.</para>
1898 </glossdef>
1899 </glossentry>
1900
1901 <glossentry>
1902 <glossterm>port</glossterm>
1903
1904 <glossdef>
1905 <para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1906 (optional).</para>
1907 </glossdef>
1908 </glossentry>
1909
1910 <glossentry>
1911 <glossterm>lun</glossterm>
1912
1913 <glossdef>
1914 <para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1915 Often, this value is zero.</para>
1916 </glossdef>
1917 </glossentry>
1918
1919 <glossentry>
1920 <glossterm>username, password</glossterm>
1921
1922 <glossdef>
1923 <para>Username and password for target authentication, if required
1924 (optional).<note>
1925 <para>Currently, username and password are stored without
1926 encryption (i.e. in cleartext) in the machine configuration
1927 file.</para>
1928 </note></para>
1929 </glossdef>
1930 </glossentry>
1931
1932 <glossentry>
1933 <glossterm>type</glossterm>
1934
1935 <glossdef>
1936 <para>Defines what kind of hard disk type this image should
1937 be.</para>
1938 </glossdef>
1939 </glossentry>
1940
1941 <glossentry>
1942 <glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1943
1944 <glossdef>
1945 <para>Any description that you want to have stored with this item
1946 (optional; e.g. "Big storage server downstairs"). This is stored
1947 internally only and not needed for operation.</para>
1948 </glossdef>
1949 </glossentry>
1950
1951 <glossentry>
1952 <glossterm>intnet</glossterm>
1953
1954 <glossdef>
1955 <para>Connect to the iSCSI target via Internal Networking. This
1956 needs further configuration which is described in <xref
1957 linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1958 </glossdef>
1959 </glossentry>
1960 </glosslist></para>
1961 </sect1>
1962
1963 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1964 <title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1965
1966 <para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1967 VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1968 <para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1969 openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1970 that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1971 registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1972 added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1973 been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1974 a registry.</para>
1975 </footnote></para>
1976
1977 <para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1978 appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1979 become unregistered in any case.</para>
1980 </sect1>
1981
1982 <sect1>
1983 <title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
1984
1985 <para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
1986 machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
1987 <computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
1988 name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
1989 with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
1990
1991 <screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
1992VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
1993
1994 <para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
1995 the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
1996 could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
1997
1998 <screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
1999
2000 <para>which would return</para>
2001
2002 <screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2003(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2004All rights reserved.
2005
2006Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2007 </sect1>
2008
2009 <sect1>
2010 <title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2011
2012 <para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2013 entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2014 in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2015 following properties are available:<glosslist>
2016 <glossentry>
2017 <glossterm>hdfolder</glossterm>
2018
2019 <glossdef>
2020 <para>This specifies the default folder that is used to keep disk
2021 image files (.vdi, .vmdk, .vhd).</para>
2022 </glossdef>
2023 </glossentry>
2024
2025 <glossentry>
2026 <glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>
2027
2028 <glossdef>
2029 <para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2030 definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2031 details.</para>
2032 </glossdef>
2033 </glossentry>
2034
2035 <glossentry>
2036 <glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>
2037
2038 <glossdef>
2039 <para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2040 authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2041 see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2042 </glossdef>
2043 </glossentry>
2044
2045 <glossentry>
2046 <glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>
2047
2048 <glossdef>
2049 <para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2050 authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2051 please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2052 linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2053 </glossdef>
2054 </glossentry>
2055
2056 <glossentry>
2057 <glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>
2058
2059 <glossdef>
2060 <para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2061 Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2062 </glossdef>
2063 </glossentry>
2064
2065 <glossentry>
2066 <glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>
2067
2068 <glossdef>
2069 <para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support
2070 is enabled by default.</para>
2071 </glossdef>
2072 </glossentry>
2073 </glosslist></para>
2074 </sect1>
2075
2076 <sect1>
2077 <title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2078
2079 <para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2080 working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2081 affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2082 machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2083 captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2084 particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2085 applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2086 available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2087 ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2088 machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2089 will.</para>
2090
2091 <para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2092 add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2093 The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2094 placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2095 following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2096 will be added onto the end of the list. The
2097 <computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2098 machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2099 to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2100 for the new filter and for global filters,
2101 <computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2102 access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2103 them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2104 filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2105 using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2106 you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2107 filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2108 connection) or either.</para>
2109
2110 <para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2111 modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2112 output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2113 find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2114 showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2115 by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2116 which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2117 add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2118 remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2119 </sect1>
2120
2121 <sect1>
2122 <title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2123
2124 <para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2125 guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2126 of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2127 functionality.</para>
2128
2129 <para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2130 linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2131 </sect1>
2132
2133 <sect1>
2134 <title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>
2135
2136 <para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
2137 Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
2138 system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
2139 <computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
2140 percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
2141 sampling period.</para>
2142
2143 <para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
2144 retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
2145 query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
2146 background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
2147 process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
2148 closed.</para>
2149
2150 <para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
2151 not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
2152 is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
2153 retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
2154 collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
2155 keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
2156 used:</para>
2157
2158 <screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
2159
2160 <para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
2161 data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
2162 it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
2163 </computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
2164 You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
2165 subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
2166 affected.</para>
2167
2168 <para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
2169 setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
2170 previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
2171
2172 <para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
2173 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
2174 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
2175 can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
2176 like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
2177 other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
2178 <code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
2179
2180 <para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
2181 Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
2182 list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
2183
2184 <para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
2185 has the following form:
2186 <computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
2187 For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
2188 for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
2189 applied to the host object.</para>
2190
2191 <para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
2192 to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
2193 in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
2194 all objects. You may use an asterisk
2195 ("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
2196 command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
2197 object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
2198 limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
2199 separated by commas.</para>
2200
2201 <para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
2202 kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
2203 following command:</para>
2204
2205 <screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
2206
2207 <para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
2208
2209 <glosslist>
2210 <glossentry>
2211 <glossterm>list</glossterm>
2212
2213 <glossdef>
2214 <para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
2215 metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
2216 particular VM is running.</para>
2217 </glossdef>
2218 </glossentry>
2219
2220 <glossentry>
2221 <glossterm>setup</glossterm>
2222
2223 <glossdef>
2224 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
2225 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
2226 retained data is available for displaying with the
2227 <code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
2228 </computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
2229 the result of the command execution.</para>
2230 </glossdef>
2231 </glossentry>
2232
2233 <glossentry>
2234 <glossterm>enable</glossterm>
2235
2236 <glossdef>
2237 <para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
2238 stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
2239 submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
2240 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
2241 did what was expected.</para>
2242 </glossdef>
2243 </glossentry>
2244
2245 <glossentry>
2246 <glossterm>disable</glossterm>
2247
2248 <glossdef>
2249 <para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
2250 collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
2251 submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
2252 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
2253 did what was expected.</para>
2254 </glossdef>
2255 </glossentry>
2256
2257 <glossentry>
2258 <glossterm>query</glossterm>
2259
2260 <glossdef>
2261 <para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
2262 metric data.<note>
2263 <para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
2264 "flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
2265 how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
2266 samples.</para>
2267 </note></para>
2268 </glossdef>
2269 </glossentry>
2270
2271 <glossentry>
2272 <glossterm>collect</glossterm>
2273
2274 <glossdef>
2275 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
2276 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
2277 collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
2278 unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
2279 specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
2280 option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
2281 does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
2282 metrics match the specified filter.</para>
2283 </glossdef>
2284 </glossentry>
2285 </glosslist>
2286 </sect1>
2287
2288 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2289 <title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2290
2291 <para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2292 running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2293 for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2294 key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2295 guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2296 channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2297 Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2298 "/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2299 Additions.</para>
2300
2301 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2302 <computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2303 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2304 <listitem>
2305 <para><computeroutput>enumerate &lt;vm&gt; [-patterns
2306 &lt;pattern&gt;]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2307 properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2308 This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2309 be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2310 Additions are not installed.</para>
2311
2312 <para>If <computeroutput>--patterns &lt;pattern&gt;</computeroutput>
2313 is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2314 the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2315 characters:<itemizedlist>
2316 <listitem>
2317 <para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2318 represents any number of characters; for example,
2319 "<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2320 all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2321 </listitem>
2322
2323 <listitem>
2324 <para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2325 represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2326 "<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2327 and "for".</para>
2328 </listitem>
2329
2330 <listitem>
2331 <para><computeroutput>|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2332 used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2333 "<computeroutput>s*|t*</computeroutput>" would match anything
2334 starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2335 </listitem>
2336 </itemizedlist></para>
2337 </listitem>
2338
2339 <listitem>
2340 <para><computeroutput>get &lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>: This
2341 retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2342 cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2343 print "No value set!".</para>
2344 </listitem>
2345
2346 <listitem>
2347 <para><computeroutput>set &lt;vm&gt; &lt;property&gt; [&lt;value&gt;
2348 [-flags &lt;flags&gt;]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2349 guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2350 <computeroutput>&lt;value&gt;</computeroutput> is omitted, the
2351 property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2352 you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2353 several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2354 <listitem>
2355 <para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2356 will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2357 </listitem>
2358
2359 <listitem>
2360 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2361 can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2362 it;</para>
2363 </listitem>
2364
2365 <listitem>
2366 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2367 the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2368 only read it;</para>
2369 </listitem>
2370
2371 <listitem>
2372 <para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2373 of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2374 </listitem>
2375 </itemizedlist></para>
2376 </listitem>
2377
2378 <listitem>
2379 <para><computeroutput>wait &lt;vm&gt; &lt;pattern&gt; --timeout
2380 &lt;timeout&gt;</computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2381 described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2382 pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2383 above.</para>
2384 </listitem>
2385 </itemizedlist></para>
2386 </sect1>
2387
2388 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2389 <title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2390
2391 <para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2392 inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2393 linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2394
2395 <para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2396
2397 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;command&gt;</screen>
2398
2399 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2400 <computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2401 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2402 <listitem>
2403 <para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which
2404 allows for executing a program/script (process) which is already installed
2405 and runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2406 running and has the following syntax:</para>
2407
2408 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol execute &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt;
2409 &lt;path to program&gt;
2410 --username &lt;name&gt; --password &lt;password&gt;
2411 [--arguments "&lt;arguments&gt;"]
2412 [--environment "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt; [&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;]"]
2413 [--flags &lt;flags&gt;] [--timeout &lt;msec&gt;]
2414 [--verbose] [--wait-for exit,stdout,stderr||]</screen>
2415
2416 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2417 <glossentry>
2418 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2419
2420 <glossdef>
2421 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2422 </glossdef>
2423 </glossentry>
2424
2425 <glossentry>
2426 <glossterm>path to program</glossterm>
2427
2428 <glossdef>
2429 <para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute in the
2430 guest, e.g.
2431 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2432 </glossdef>
2433 </glossentry>
2434
2435 <glossentry>
2436 <glossterm>--arguments "&lt;arguments&gt;"</glossterm>
2437
2438 <glossdef>
2439 <para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2440 executed.</para>
2441
2442 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in quotation
2443 marks. More than one <computeroutput>--arguments</computeroutput>
2444 at a time can be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2445 </glossdef>
2446 </glossentry>
2447
2448 <glossentry>
2449 <glossterm>--environment "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;"</glossterm>
2450
2451 <glossdef>
2452 <para>One or more environment variables to be set or unset.</para>
2453
2454 <para>By default, the new process in the guest will be created
2455 with the the standard environment of the guest OS. This option
2456 allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify a variable, a
2457 pair of <computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2458 specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no value
2459 must set, e.g. <computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2460
2461 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in quotation
2462 marks. More than one
2463 <computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can be
2464 specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2465 </glossdef>
2466 </glossentry>
2467
2468 <glossentry>
2469 <glossterm>--flags &lt;flags&gt;</glossterm>
2470
2471 <glossdef>
2472 <para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2473 moment.</para>
2474 </glossdef>
2475 </glossentry>
2476
2477 <glossentry>
2478 <glossterm>--timeout &lt;msec&gt;</glossterm>
2479
2480 <glossdef>
2481 <para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how long the
2482 started process is allowed to run and how long VBoxManage waits
2483 for getting output from that process. If no timeout is specified,
2484 VBoxManage will wait forever until the started process ends or an
2485 error occured.</para>
2486 </glossdef>
2487 </glossentry>
2488
2489 <glossentry>
2490 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2491
2492 <glossdef>
2493 <para>Name of the user the process should run under. This user
2494 must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2495 </glossdef>
2496 </glossentry>
2497
2498 <glossentry>
2499 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2500
2501 <glossdef>
2502 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2503 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given, an
2504 empty password is assumed.</para>
2505 </glossdef>
2506 </glossentry>
2507
2508 <glossentry>
2509 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2510
2511 <glossdef>
2512 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose during the
2513 execution.</para>
2514 </glossdef>
2515 </glossentry>
2516
2517 <glossentry>
2518 <glossterm>--wait-for &lt;action&gt;</glossterm>
2519
2520 <glossdef>
2521 <para>Tells VBoxManage to wait for a certain action to happen and
2522 react to it. The following actions are available: <glosslist>
2523 <glossentry>
2524 <glossterm>exit</glossterm>
2525
2526 <glossdef>
2527 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its exit
2528 code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2529 </glossdef>
2530 </glossentry>
2531
2532 <glossentry>
2533 <glossterm>stdout or stderr</glossterm>
2534
2535 <glossdef>
2536 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its exit
2537 code along with the exit reason/flags. After that
2538 VBoxManage retrieves the output collected from the guest
2539 process's stdout and stderr.</para>
2540 </glossdef>
2541 </glossentry>
2542 </glosslist></para>
2543 </glossdef>
2544 </glossentry>
2545 </glosslist>
2546 </para>
2547
2548 <para>
2549 <note>
2550 <para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2551 applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2552 information.
2553 </para>
2554 </note>
2555 Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol execute "My VM" "/bin/ls" --arguments "-l /usr"
2556 --username foo --password bar --wait-for stdout</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol execute "My VM" "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
2557 --username foo --password bar --wait-for stdout</screen> Note that
2558 the double backslashes in the second example are only required on Unix
2559 hosts.
2560 </para>
2561 </listitem>
2562
2563 <listitem>
2564 <para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which
2565 allows copying files from the host to the guest
2566 (only with installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2567
2568 <screen>VBoxManage copyto &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt;
2569 &lt;source on host&gt; &lt;destination on guest&gt;
2570 [--username "&lt;name&gt;"] [--password "&lt;password&gt;"]
2571 [--dryrun] [--recursive] [--verbose] [--flags &lt;flags&gt;]</screen>
2572
2573 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2574 <glossentry>
2575 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2576
2577 <glossdef>
2578 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2579 </glossdef>
2580 </glossentry>
2581
2582 <glossentry>
2583 <glossterm>source on host</glossterm>
2584
2585 <glossdef>
2586 <para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over to
2587 the guest, e.g.
2588 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>. This also
2589 can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2590 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput>
2591 </para>
2592 </glossdef>
2593 </glossentry>
2594
2595 <glossentry>
2596 <glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>
2597
2598 <glossdef>
2599 <para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2600 <computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2601 </glossdef>
2602 </glossentry>
2603
2604 <glossentry>
2605 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2606
2607 <glossdef>
2608 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under. This user
2609 must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2610 </glossdef>
2611 </glossentry>
2612
2613 <glossentry>
2614 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2615
2616 <glossdef>
2617 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2618 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given, an
2619 empty password is assumed.</para>
2620 </glossdef>
2621 </glossentry>
2622
2623 <glossentry>
2624 <glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>
2625
2626 <glossdef>
2627 <para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
2628 really copying files to the guest.</para>
2629 </glossdef>
2630 </glossentry>
2631
2632 <glossentry>
2633 <glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>
2634
2635 <glossdef>
2636 <para>Recursively copies files/directories.</para>
2637 </glossdef>
2638 </glossentry>
2639
2640 <glossentry>
2641 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2642
2643 <glossdef>
2644 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose during the
2645 copy operation.</para>
2646 </glossdef>
2647 </glossentry>
2648
2649 <glossentry>
2650 <glossterm>--flags &lt;flags&gt;</glossterm>
2651
2652 <glossdef>
2653 <para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2654 moment.</para>
2655 </glossdef>
2656 </glossentry>
2657
2658 </glosslist>
2659 </para>
2660 </listitem>
2661
2662 <listitem>
2663 <para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which
2664 allows for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on
2665 the guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2666
2667 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol updateadditions &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt;
2668 [--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to use&gt;"] [--verbose]</screen>
2669
2670 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2671 <glossentry>
2672 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2673
2674 <glossdef>
2675 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2676 </glossdef>
2677 </glossentry>
2678
2679 <glossentry>
2680 <glossterm>--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to use&gt;"</glossterm>
2681
2682 <glossdef>
2683 <para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions .ISO file to use
2684 for the Guest Additions update.</para>
2685 </glossdef>
2686 </glossentry>
2687
2688 <glossentry>
2689 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2690
2691 <glossdef>
2692 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose during the
2693 update.</para>
2694 </glossdef>
2695 </glossentry>
2696
2697 </glosslist>
2698 </para>
2699 </listitem>
2700
2701 </itemizedlist></para>
2702 </sect1>
2703
2704 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
2705 <title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
2706
2707 <para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
2708 is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
2709 host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
2710 network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
2711 servers in your physical network.)</para>
2712
2713 <para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
2714 <listitem>
2715 <para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
2716 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
2717 --netname &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>, where
2718 <computeroutput>&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the same
2719 network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
2720 &lt;vmname&gt; --intnet&lt;X&gt;
2721 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
2722 </listitem>
2723
2724 <listitem>
2725 <para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
2726 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
2727 --ifname &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> instead, where
2728 <computeroutput>&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the
2729 same host-only interface name you used with
2730 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm &lt;vmname&gt;
2731 --hostonlyadapter&lt;X&gt;
2732 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
2733
2734 <para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
2735 internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
2736 see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
2737 hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2738 above).</para>
2739 </listitem>
2740 </itemizedlist></para>
2741
2742 <para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
2743 DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
2744 <listitem>
2745 <para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
2746 address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
2747 </listitem>
2748
2749 <listitem>
2750 <para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
2751 netmask of the network.</para>
2752 </listitem>
2753
2754 <listitem>
2755 <para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
2756 <computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
2757 lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
2758 will hand out to clients.</para>
2759 </listitem>
2760 </itemizedlist></para>
2761
2762 <para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
2763 or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
2764 nothing.</para>
2765
2766 <para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
2767 given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
2768 which uses that network is started.</para>
2769
2770 <para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
2771 remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
2772 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
2773 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
2774 for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
2775
2776 <para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
2777 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
2778 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
2779 network or host-only interface name.</para>
2780 </sect1>
2781</chapter>
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