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-storagectl" /> and <xref
113 linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details.</para>
114 </listitem>
115
116 <listitem>
117 <para>To control VM operation, use one of the following:<itemizedlist>
118 <listitem>
119 <para>To start a VM that is currently powered off, use
120 <computeroutput>VBoxManage startvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
121 linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
122 </listitem>
123
124 <listitem>
125 <para>To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change
126 some of its settings, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
127 controlvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
128 linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" /> for details.</para>
129 </listitem>
130 </itemizedlist></para>
131 </listitem>
132 </itemizedlist>
133 </sect1>
134
135 <sect1>
136 <title>Commands overview</title>
137
138 <para>When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an
139 invalid command line, the below syntax diagram will be shown. Note that
140 the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform; when
141 in doubt, check the output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>
142 for the commands available on your particular host.</para>
143
144 <screen>$VBOX_MANAGE_OUTPUT</screen>
145
146 <para>Each time VBoxManage is invoked, only one command can be executed.
147 However, a command might support several subcommands which then can be
148 invoked in one single call. The following sections provide detailed
149 reference information on the different commands.</para>
150 </sect1>
151
152 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
153 <title>VBoxManage list</title>
154
155 <para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
156 information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
157 settings.</para>
158
159 <para>The following subcommands are available with
160 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
161 <listitem>
162 <para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
163 machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
164 displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
165 specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
166 <computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
167 with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
168 below).</para>
169 </listitem>
170
171 <listitem>
172 <para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
173 currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
174 (UUIDs) in the same format as with
175 <computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
176 </listitem>
177
178 <listitem>
179 <para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
180 operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
181 identifiers used to refer to them with the
182 <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
183 </listitem>
184
185 <listitem>
186 <para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
187 <computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list
188 DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces
189 on the host, along with the name used to access them from within
190 VirtualBox.</para>
191 </listitem>
192
193 <listitem>
194 <para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,
195 <computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and
196 <computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list
197 bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP
198 servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref
199 linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>
200 </listitem>
201
202 <listitem>
203 <para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information
204 about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating
205 system version.</para>
206 </listitem>
207
208 <listitem>
209 <para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID
210 parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine
211 grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>
212 </listitem>
213
214 <listitem>
215 <para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
216 virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as
217 VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and
218 configuration.</para>
219 </listitem>
220
221 <listitem>
222 <para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
223 <computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
224 <computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
225 about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including
226 all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with
227 them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the
228 command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
229 linkend="vdis" />.</para>
230 </listitem>
231
232 <listitem>
233 <para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information
234 about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
235 for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
236 by the host.</para>
237 </listitem>
238
239 <listitem>
240 <para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
241 USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
242 devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
243 the filter parameters.</para>
244 </listitem>
245
246 <listitem>
247 <para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
248 some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
249 RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
250 authentication library in use.</para>
251 </listitem>
252
253 <listitem>
254 <para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all
255 VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref
256 linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref
257 linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>
258 </listitem>
259 </itemizedlist></para>
260 </sect1>
261
262 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
263 <title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
264
265 <para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
266 information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
267 information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
268 would show for all virtual machines.</para>
269
270 <para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
271
272 <para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
273VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
274(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
275All rights reserved.
276
277Name: Windows XP
278Guest OS: Other/Unknown
279UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
280Config file: /home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
281Memory size: 512MB
282VRAM size: 12MB
283Number of CPUs: 2
284Synthetic Cpu: off
285Boot menu mode: message and menu
286Boot Device (1): DVD
287Boot Device (2): HardDisk
288Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
289Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
290ACPI: on
291IOAPIC: on
292PAE: on
293Time offset: 0 ms
294Hardw. virt.ext: on
295Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
296Nested Paging: on
297VT-x VPID: off
298State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
299Monitor count: 1
3003D Acceleration: off
3012D Video Acceleration: off
302Teleporter Enabled: off
303Teleporter Port: 0
304Teleporter Address:
305Teleporter Password:
306Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
307Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
308Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
309Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
310IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
311IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
312Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
313NIC 1: disabled
314NIC 2: disabled
315NIC 3: disabled
316NIC 4: disabled
317NIC 5: disabled
318NIC 6: disabled
319NIC 7: disabled
320NIC 8: disabled
321UART 1: disabled
322UART 2: disabled
323Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
324Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
325VRDE: disabled
326USB: disabled
327
328USB Device Filters:
329&lt;none&gt;
330
331Shared folders:
332&lt;none&gt;
333
334Statistics update: disabled
335</screen></para>
336 </sect1>
337
338 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">
339 <title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
340
341 <para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
342 to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
343 machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
344 may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
345 place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
346 it.<note>
347 <para>When creating a new virtual machine with
348 <computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
349 can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
350 option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
351 </note></para>
352
353 <para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
354 unregisters a virtual machine. If
355 <computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
356 files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
357 <listitem>
358 <para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
359 are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
360 </listitem>
361
362 <listitem>
363 <para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
364 machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
365 snapshot);</para>
366 </listitem>
367
368 <listitem>
369 <para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
370 </listitem>
371
372 <listitem>
373 <para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
374 </listitem>
375
376 <listitem>
377 <para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
378 the above.</para>
379 </listitem>
380 </orderedlist></para>
381 </sect1>
382
383 <sect1>
384 <title id="vboxmanage-createvm">VBoxManage createvm</title>
385
386 <para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
387 file.</para>
388
389 <para>The <computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput> parameter
390 is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
391 used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
392 <computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
393 of the <computeroutput>.VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder), it
394 must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
395 specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
396 change automatically.</para>
397
398 <para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
399 &lt;path&gt;</computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
400 named <computeroutput>&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>. In this case, the
401 names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
402 renamed.</para>
403
404 <para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
405 automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
406 register the VM instantly, use the optional
407 <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
408 <computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
409 afterwards.</para>
410 </sect1>
411
412 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
413 <title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
414
415 <para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
416 which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
417 available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
418 interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
419 <xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
420 however, are only available through the
421 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
422
423 <para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
424 running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
425 while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
426 subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
427 subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
428
429 <sect2>
430 <title>General settings</title>
431
432 <para>The following general settings are available through
433 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
434 <listitem>
435 <para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This
436 changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
437 machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
438 createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
439 </listitem>
440
441 <listitem>
442 <para><computeroutput>--ostype &lt;ostype&gt;</computeroutput>:
443 This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
444 the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
445 here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
446 ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
447 </listitem>
448
449 <listitem>
450 <para><computeroutput>--memory
451 &lt;memorysize&gt;</computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
452 in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
453 the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
454 more information.</para>
455 </listitem>
456
457 <listitem>
458 <para><computeroutput>--vram &lt;vramsize&gt;</computeroutput>:
459 This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
460 have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
461 </listitem>
462
463 <listitem>
464 <para><computeroutput>--acpi on|off</computeroutput>;
465 <computeroutput>--ioapic on|off</computeroutput>: These two
466 determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
467 respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
468 details.</para>
469 </listitem>
470
471 <listitem>
472 <para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
473 &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
474 memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
475 default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
476 Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
477 </listitem>
478
479 <listitem>
480 <para><computeroutput>--cpus &lt;cpucount&gt;</computeroutput>:
481 This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
482 <xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
483 enabled (see below), this then sets the
484 <emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
485 plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
486 </listitem>
487
488 <listitem>
489 <para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on|off</computeroutput>: This
490 option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
491 <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
492 </listitem>
493
494 <listitem>
495 <para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on|off</computeroutput>: This
496 enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
497 to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
498 <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
499 </listitem>
500
501 <listitem>
502 <para><computeroutput>--plugcpu|unplugcpu
503 &lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
504 above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
505 removes one). <computeroutput>&lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>
506 specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
507 must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
508 the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
509 never be removed.</para>
510 </listitem>
511
512 <listitem>
513 <para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
514 &lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
515 time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
516 CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
517 </listitem>
518
519 <listitem>
520 <para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on|off</computeroutput>: This
521 setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
522 to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
523 differ significantly.</para>
524 </listitem>
525
526 <listitem>
527 <para><computeroutput>--pae on|off</computeroutput>: This
528 enables/disables PAE (see <xref
529 linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
530 </listitem>
531
532 <listitem>
533 <para><computeroutput>--hpet on|off</computeroutput>: This
534 enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
535 replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
536 Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
537 </listitem>
538
539 <listitem>
540 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on|off</computeroutput>: This
541 enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
542 (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
543 <xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
544 </listitem>
545
546 <listitem>
547 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on|off</computeroutput>: This
548 specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the
549 hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the
550 processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If
551 you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other
552 hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has
553 negative performance implications.</para>
554 </listitem>
555
556 <listitem>
557 <para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on|off</computeroutput>: If
558 hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
559 enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
560 processor of your host system; see <xref
561 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
562 </listitem>
563
564 <listitem>
565 <para><computeroutput>--largepages on|off</computeroutput>: If
566 hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
567 enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
568 improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
569 This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
570 and overhead.</para>
571 </listitem>
572
573 <listitem>
574 <para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on|off</computeroutput>: If
575 hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
576 additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
577 (VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
578 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
579 </listitem>
580
581 <listitem>
582 <para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on|off</computeroutput>: This
583 enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
584 acceleration should be available; see <xref
585 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
586 </listitem>
587
588 <listitem>
589 <para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
590 virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
591 a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
592
593 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
594 on|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
595 on|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
596 fade in and out, respectively.</para>
597
598 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
599 &lt;msec&gt;</computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
600 be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
601
602 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
603 &lt;imagepath&gt;</computeroutput> you can, if you are so
604 inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
605 image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file.</para>
606 </listitem>
607
608 <listitem>
609 <para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
610 disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
611 whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
612 device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
613 message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
614 boot device.</para>
615 </listitem>
616
617 <listitem>
618 <para><computeroutput>--nicbootprio&lt;1-N&gt;
619 &lt;priority&gt;</computeroutput>: This specifies the order in which
620 NICs are tried for booting over the network (using PXE). The
621 priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range. Priority 1 is the
622 highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0, which is the default unless
623 otherwise specified, is the lowest.
624 </para>
625 <para> Note that this option only has effect when the Intel PXE boot
626 ROM is used.
627 </para>
628 </listitem>
629
630 <listitem>
631 <para><computeroutput>--boot&lt;1-4&gt;
632 none|floppy|dvd|disk|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
633 order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
634 VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
635 set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
636 </listitem>
637
638 <listitem>
639 <para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
640 default|&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
641 the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
642 machine.</para>
643 </listitem>
644
645 <listitem>
646 <para><computeroutput>--firmware efi|bios</computeroutput>:
647 Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
648 machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
649 you're doing.</para>
650 </listitem>
651
652 <listitem>
653 <para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
654 &lt;size&gt;</computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
655 memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
656 Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
657 hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. &lt;size&gt; must
658 be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
659 details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
660 </listitem>
661 </itemizedlist></para>
662 </sect2>
663
664 <sect2>
665 <title>Networking settings</title>
666
667 <para>The following networking settings are available through
668 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
669 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
670 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
671 should be changed.<itemizedlist>
672 <listitem>
673 <para><computeroutput>--nic&lt;1-N&gt;
674 none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic
675 </computeroutput>: With
676 this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
677 what type of networking should be available. They can be not
678 present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
679 the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
680 address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
681 bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
682 communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
683 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
684 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
685 sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
686 These options correspond
687 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
688 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
689 </listitem>
690
691 <listitem>
692 <para><computeroutput>--nictype&lt;1-N&gt;
693 Am79C970A|Am79C973|82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|virtio</computeroutput>:
694 This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
695 specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
696 guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
697 </listitem>
698
699 <listitem>
700 <para><computeroutput>--cableconnected&lt;1-N&gt;
701 on|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
702 a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
703 from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
704 certain software components in the VM.</para>
705 </listitem>
706
707 <listitem>
708 <para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
709 network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
710 purposes.</para>
711
712 <para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace&lt;1-N&gt;
713 on|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
714 particular virtual network card.</para>
715
716 <para>If enabled, you must specify with
717 <computeroutput>--nictracefile&lt;1-N&gt;
718 &lt;filename&gt;</computeroutput> what file the trace should be
719 logged to.</para>
720 </listitem>
721
722 <listitem>
723 <para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
724 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If bridged networking
725 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
726 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
727 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
728 interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
729 details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
730 </listitem>
731
732 <listitem>
733 <para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
734 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If host-only networking
735 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
736 above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
737 specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
738 network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
739 linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
740 </listitem>
741
742 <listitem>
743 <para><computeroutput>--intnet&lt;1-N&gt;
744 network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
745 for a virtual network card (see the
746 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
747 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
748 of the internal network (see <xref
749 linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
750 </listitem>
751
752 <listitem>
753 <para><computeroutput>--macaddress&lt;1-N&gt;
754 auto|&lt;mac&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can set
755 the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
756 virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
757 VM creation.</para>
758 </listitem>
759
760 <listitem>
761 <para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv&lt;1-N&gt;
762 &lt;backend driver&gt;</computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
763 enabled for a virtual network card (see the
764 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
765 this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
766 rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
767 </para>
768 </listitem>
769
770 <listitem>
771 <para><computeroutput>--nicproperty&lt;1-N&gt;
772 &lt;paramname&gt;="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
773 This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
774 pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
775 Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
776 between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
777 please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
778 </para>
779 </listitem>
780 </itemizedlist></para>
781
782 <sect3>
783 <title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
784
785 <para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
786 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
787 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
788 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
789 settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
790 <listitem>
791 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt;
792 [&lt;name&gt;],tcp|udp,[&lt;hostip&gt;],&lt;hostport&gt;,[&lt;guestip&gt;],
793 &lt;guestport&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
794 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
795 for details).</para>
796 </listitem>
797
798 <listitem>
799 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt; delete
800 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
801 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
802 for details).</para>
803 </listitem>
804
805 <listitem>
806 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix&lt;1-N&gt;
807 &lt;prefix&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
808 for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
809 located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
810 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
811 </listitem>
812
813 <listitem>
814 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile&lt;1-N&gt;
815 &lt;bootfile&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
816 boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
817 details).</para>
818 </listitem>
819
820 <listitem>
821 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver&lt;1-N&gt;
822 &lt;tftpserver&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the
823 TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
824 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
825 </listitem>
826
827 <listitem>
828 <para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain&lt;1-N&gt;
829 on|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
830 built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
831 resolution.</para>
832 </listitem>
833
834 <listitem>
835 <para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy&lt;1-N&gt;
836 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
837 all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
838 <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
839 </listitem>
840
841 <listitem>
842 <para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver&lt;1-N&gt;
843 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
844 the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
845 see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
846 </listitem>
847
848 <listitem>
849 <para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings&lt;1-N&gt;
850 [&lt;mtu&gt;],[&lt;socksnd&gt;],[&lt;sockrcv&gt;],[&lt;tcpsnd&gt;],
851 [&lt;tcprcv&gt;]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
852 NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
853 details).</para>
854 </listitem>
855
856 <listitem>
857 <para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode&lt;1-N&gt;
858 default|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
859 option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
860 logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
861 transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
862 the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
863 mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
864 linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
865 </listitem>
866 </itemizedlist></para>
867 </sect3>
868 </sect2>
869
870 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
871 <title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB
872 settings</title>
873
874 <para>The following other hardware settings are available through
875 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
876 <listitem>
877 <para><computeroutput>--uart&lt;1-N&gt; off|&lt;I/O base&gt;
878 &lt;IRQ&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
879 virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
880 linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
881 </listitem>
882
883 <listitem>
884 <para><computeroutput>--uartmode&lt;1-N&gt;
885 &lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
886 connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
887 the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
888 to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
889 in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
890 you can specify <computeroutput>&lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput> as
891 one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
892 <listitem>
893 <para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
894 though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
895 "other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
896 </listitem>
897
898 <listitem>
899 <para><computeroutput>server
900 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
901 tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
902 <computeroutput>&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput> and
903 connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
904 requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
905 <computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
906
907 <para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
908 domain socket is used.</para>
909 </listitem>
910
911 <listitem>
912 <para><computeroutput>client
913 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: This operates just like
914 <computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
915 pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
916 but assumed to exist already.</para>
917 </listitem>
918
919 <listitem>
920 <para><computeroutput>&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>:
921 If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
922 hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
923 serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
924 host, the device name will be a COM port such as
925 <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
926 device name will look like
927 <computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
928 to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
929 </listitem>
930 </itemizedlist></para>
931 </listitem>
932
933 <listitem>
934 <para><computeroutput>--audio none|null|oss</computeroutput>: With
935 this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
936 support.</para>
937 </listitem>
938
939 <listitem>
940 <para><computeroutput>--clipboard
941 disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
942 With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
943 system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
944 linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
945 Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
946 </listitem>
947
948 <listitem>
949 <para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
950 &lt;count&gt;</computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
951 support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
952 </listitem>
953
954 <listitem>
955 <para><computeroutput>--usb on|off</computeroutput>: This option
956 enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
957 linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
958 </listitem>
959
960 <listitem>
961 <para><computeroutput>--usbehci on|off</computeroutput>: This
962 option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
963 see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
964 </listitem>
965 </itemizedlist></para>
966 </sect2>
967
968 <sect2>
969 <title>Remote machine settings</title>
970
971 <para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
972 available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
973 modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
974 <listitem>
975 <para><computeroutput>--vrde on|off</computeroutput>: With the
976 VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
977 VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
978 you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
979 <xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
980 default.</para>
981 </listitem>
982
983 <listitem>
984 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
985 default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
986 the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
987 standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
988 ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
989 specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
990 role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
991 list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
992 example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
993 5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
994 one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
995 </listitem>
996
997 <listitem>
998 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress &lt;IP
999 address&gt;</computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1000 interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1001 will accept connections only on the specified host network
1002 interface.</para>
1003 </listitem>
1004
1005 <listitem>
1006 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1007 null|external|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1008 whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1009 linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1010 </listitem>
1011
1012 <listitem>
1013 <para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on|off</computeroutput>: This
1014 enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1015 server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1016 linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1017 </listitem>
1018
1019 <listitem>
1020 <para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on|off</computeroutput>: This
1021 specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1022 disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1023 client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1024 option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1025 will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1026 server.</para>
1027 </listitem>
1028
1029 <listitem>
1030 <para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on|off</computeroutput>:
1031 This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1032 server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1033 </listitem>
1034
1035 <listitem>
1036 <para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1037 &lt;percent&gt;</computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1038 redirection; see <xref lang=""
1039 linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1040 </listitem>
1041 </itemizedlist></para>
1042 </sect2>
1043
1044 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1045 <title>Teleporting settings</title>
1046
1047 <para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1048 modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1049 teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1050 introduction.<itemizedlist>
1051 <listitem>
1052 <para><computeroutput>--teleporter on|off</computeroutput>: With
1053 this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1054 teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1055 If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1056 machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1057 teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1058 the next two parameters.</para>
1059 </listitem>
1060
1061 <listitem>
1062 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1063 &lt;port&gt;</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1064 &lt;address&gt;</computeroutput>: these must be used with
1065 --teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1066 address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1067 virtual machine. <computeroutput>&lt;port&gt;</computeroutput> can
1068 be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1069 <computeroutput>&lt;address&gt;</computeroutput> can be any IP
1070 address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1071 The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1072 </listitem>
1073
1074 <listitem>
1075 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1076 &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1077 given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1078 source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1079 this command.</para>
1080 </listitem>
1081
1082 <listitem>
1083 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1084 &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1085 given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1086 source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1087 in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1088 to read the password from stdin.</para>
1089 </listitem>
1090
1091 <listitem>
1092 <para><computeroutput>--cpuid &lt;leaf&gt; &lt;eax&gt; &lt;ebx&gt;
1093 &lt;ecx&gt; &lt;edx&gt;</computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1094 this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1095 virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1096 operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1097 target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1098 what the guest sees when it executes the
1099 <computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1100 might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1101 certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1102 parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1103 processor manuals.</para>
1104 </listitem>
1105 </itemizedlist></para>
1106 </sect2>
1107 </sect1>
1108
1109 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1110 <title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1111
1112 <para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1113 machine.</para>
1114
1115 <para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1116 least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1117 additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1118 operation:</para>
1119
1120 <itemizedlist>
1121 <listitem>
1122 <para><computeroutput>--snapshot &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>:
1123 Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1124 to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1125 </listitem>
1126 <listitem>
1127 <para><computeroutput>--mode machine|machineandchildren|all</computeroutput>:
1128 Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1129 <computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1130 the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1131 <computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1132 provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1133 child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1134 is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1135 </para>
1136 </listitem>
1137 <listitem>
1138 <para><computeroutput>--options link|keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1139 Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1140 option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1141 only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1142 options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1143 network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1144 (the default), left unchanged
1145 (<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1146 when the network type is NAT
1147 (<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1148 <computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1149 are called like the original once, otherwise they are
1150 renamed.</para>
1151 </listitem>
1152 <listitem>
1153 <para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: Select a
1154 new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1155 Clone".</para>
1156 </listitem>
1157 <listitem>
1158 <para><computeroutput>--basefolder &lt;basefolder&gt;</computeroutput>:
1159 Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1160 be saved in.</para>
1161 </listitem>
1162 <listitem>
1163 <para><computeroutput>--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>:
1164 Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1165 the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1166 creating a new UUID.</para>
1167 </listitem>
1168 <listitem>
1169 <para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1170 Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1171 installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see
1172 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1173 so.</para>
1174 </listitem>
1175 </itemizedlist>
1176 </sect1>
1177
1178 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1179 <title>VBoxManage import</title>
1180
1181 <para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1182 the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1183 <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1184
1185 <para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1186 least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1187 if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1188 command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1189 imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1190 content of the OVF file.</para>
1191
1192 <para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1193 the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1194 <computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1195 description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1196 imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1197 to influence the import behavior.</para>
1198
1199 <para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1200 containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1201Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1202OK.
1203Virtual system 0:
1204 0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1205 (change with "--vsys 0 --ostype &lt;type&gt;"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1206 1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1207 (change with "--vsys 0 --vmname &lt;name&gt;")
1208 3: Number of CPUs: 1
1209 (change with "--vsys 0 --cpus &lt;n&gt;")
1210 4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory &lt;MB&gt;")
1211 5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1212 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1213 6: USB controller
1214 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1215 7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1216 8: Floppy
1217 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1218 9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1219 (change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic|LsiLogic}";
1220 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
122110: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1222 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
122311: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1224 target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1225 (change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller &lt;id&gt;";
1226 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1227
1228 <para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1229 depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1230 subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1231 <computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1232 X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1233 virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1234 printed on the screen.</para>
1235
1236 <para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1237 machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1238 respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1239 additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1240 which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1241 from the OVF file.</para>
1242
1243 <para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1244 same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1245 import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1246 without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1247 controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1248 --vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1249 </sect1>
1250
1251 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1252 <title>VBoxManage export</title>
1253
1254 <para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1255 into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1256 disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1257 introduction to appliances.</para>
1258
1259 <para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1260 use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1261 the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1262 <computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1263 <computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1264 target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1265 compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1266 enough disk space left for them.</para>
1267
1268 <para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1269 several product information to the appliance file. Use
1270 <computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1271 <computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1272 <computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1273 <computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1274 <computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1275 information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1276 of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1277 <computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1278 OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1279 option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1280 machine.</para>
1281
1282 <para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1283 OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1284 <computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1285 </sect1>
1286
1287 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1288 <title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1289
1290 <para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1291 "Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1292
1293 <note>
1294 <para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to
1295 start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as
1296 you might otherwise miss important error and state information that
1297 VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for
1298 front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our
1299 graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in
1300 a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1301 information.</para>
1302 </note>
1303
1304 <para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1305 determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,
1306 which is the default) or whether the output should go through
1307 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDE enabled or not;
1308 see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of
1309 types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are
1310 accepted by any product variant.</para>
1311
1312 <para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1313
1314 <glosslist>
1315 <glossentry>
1316 <glossterm>gui</glossterm>
1317
1318 <glossdef>
1319 <para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1320 </glossdef>
1321 </glossentry>
1322
1323 <glossentry>
1324 <glossterm>headless</glossterm>
1325
1326 <glossdef>
1327 <para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1328 </glossdef>
1329 </glossentry>
1330 </glosslist>
1331 </sect1>
1332
1333 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1334 <title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1335
1336 <para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1337 to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1338 following can be specified:</para>
1339
1340 <para><itemizedlist>
1341 <listitem>
1342 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1343 pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1344 without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1345 in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1346 equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1347 the GUI.)</para>
1348 </listitem>
1349
1350 <listitem>
1351 <para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1352 resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1353 <computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1354 to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1355 GUI.)</para>
1356 </listitem>
1357
1358 <listitem>
1359 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1360 reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1361 pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1362 virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1363 system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1364 beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1365 the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1366 </listitem>
1367
1368 <listitem>
1369 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1370 poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1371 as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1372 the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1373 equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1374 the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1375 "Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1376
1377 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1378 it can be started again; see <xref
1379 linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1380 </listitem>
1381
1382 <listitem>
1383 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1384 savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1385 disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1386 "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1387 window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1388 in the dialog.)</para>
1389
1390 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1391 be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1392 </listitem>
1393
1394 <listitem>
1395 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt; teleport
1396 --hostname &lt;name&gt; --port &lt;port&gt; [--password
1397 &lt;password&gt;]</computeroutput> makes the machine the source of a
1398 teleporting operation and initiates a teleport to the given target.
1399 See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an introduction. If the
1400 optional password is specified, it must match the password that was
1401 given to the <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for
1402 the target machine; see <xref
1403 linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for details.</para>
1404 </listitem>
1405 </itemizedlist></para>
1406
1407 <para>A few extra options are available with
1408 <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1409 VM's running state:</para>
1410
1411 <itemizedlist>
1412 <listitem>
1413 <para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate&lt;1-N&gt;</computeroutput>
1414 operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1415 network interfaces.</para>
1416 </listitem>
1417
1418 <listitem>
1419 <para><computeroutput>nic&lt;1-N&gt;
1420 null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1421 set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1422 networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1423 (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1424 translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1425 (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1426 virtual machines using internal networking
1427 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1428 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1429 sub-modes
1430 (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1431 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1432 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1433 </listitem>
1434
1435 <listitem>
1436 <para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1437 <computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1438 visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1439 creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1440 (unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1441
1442 <para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1443 usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1444 </listitem>
1445
1446 <listitem>
1447 <para><computeroutput>vrde on|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1448 disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1449 </listitem>
1450
1451 <listitem>
1452 <para><computeroutput>vrdeport default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>
1453 changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1454 "default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1455 details, see the description for the
1456 <computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1457 linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1458 </listitem>
1459
1460 <listitem>
1461 <para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1462 the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1463 the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1464 systems.</para>
1465 </listitem>
1466
1467 <listitem>
1468 <para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1469 of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1470 </listitem>
1471
1472 <listitem>
1473 <para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1474 used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1475 <xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1476 </listitem>
1477
1478 <listitem>
1479 <para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1480 operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1481 memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1482 operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1483 virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1484 see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1485 </listitem>
1486
1487 <listitem>
1488 <para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1489 &lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1490 time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1491 can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1492 </listitem>
1493 </itemizedlist>
1494 </sect1>
1495
1496 <sect1>
1497 <title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1498
1499 <para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1500 not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1501 next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1502 cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1503 </sect1>
1504
1505 <sect1>
1506 <title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1507
1508 <para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1509 that is seperate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1510 "adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1511 start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1512 you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1513 </sect1>
1514
1515 <sect1>
1516 <title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1517
1518 <para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1519 snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1520 copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1521 machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1522 running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1523 hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1524 when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1525 hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1526 differencing files.</para>
1527
1528 <para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1529 of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1530 the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1531 inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1532 then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1533
1534 <para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1535 snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1536 since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1537 be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1538
1539 <para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1540 the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1541 machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1542 current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1543 becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1544 inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1545
1546 <para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1547 shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1548 current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1549 "restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1550 that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1551
1552 <para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1553 change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1554
1555 <para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1556 can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1557 snapshot.</para>
1558 </sect1>
1559
1560 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1561 <title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1562
1563 <para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1564 VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1565 <para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1566 openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1567 that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1568 registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1569 added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1570 been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1571 a registry.</para>
1572 </footnote></para>
1573
1574 <para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1575 appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1576 become unregistered in any case.</para>
1577 </sect1>
1578
1579 <sect1>
1580 <title id="vboxmanage-storageattach">VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1581
1582 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1583 a storage controller that was previously added with the
1584 <computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1585 section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1586
1587 <screen>VBoxManage storageattach &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1588 --storagectl &lt;name&gt;
1589 [--port &lt;number&gt;]
1590 [--device &lt;number&gt;]
1591 [--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd]
1592 [--medium none|emptydrive|
1593 &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt;|host:&lt;drive&gt;|iscsi]
1594 [--mtype normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable]
1595 [--comment &lt;text&gt;]
1596 [--setuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
1597 [--setparentuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
1598 [--passthrough on|off]
1599 [--tempeject on|off]
1600 [--bandwidthgroup name|none]
1601 [--forceunmount]
1602 [--server &lt;name&gt;|&lt;ip&gt;]
1603 [--target &lt;target&gt;]
1604 [--tport &lt;port&gt;]
1605 [--lun &lt;lun&gt;]
1606 [--encodedlun &lt;lun&gt;]
1607 [--username &lt;username&gt;]
1608 [--password &lt;password&gt;]
1609 [--intnet]
1610</screen>
1611
1612 <para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1613 the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1614
1615 <para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1616 <glossentry>
1617 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
1618
1619 <glossdef>
1620 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1621 </glossdef>
1622 </glossentry>
1623
1624 <glossentry>
1625 <glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>
1626
1627 <glossdef>
1628 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1629 storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1630 with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1631 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1632 </glossdef>
1633 </glossentry>
1634
1635 <glossentry>
1636 <glossterm>port</glossterm>
1637
1638 <glossdef>
1639 <para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1640 modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1641 single port.</para>
1642 </glossdef>
1643 </glossentry>
1644
1645 <glossentry>
1646 <glossterm>device</glossterm>
1647
1648 <glossdef>
1649 <para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1650 Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1651 per port.</para>
1652 </glossdef>
1653 </glossentry>
1654
1655 <glossentry>
1656 <glossterm>type</glossterm>
1657
1658 <glossdef>
1659 <para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1660 attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1661 the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1662 with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1663 from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1664 </glossdef>
1665 </glossentry>
1666
1667 <glossentry>
1668 <glossterm>medium</glossterm>
1669
1670 <glossdef>
1671 <para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1672 supported:<itemizedlist>
1673 <listitem>
1674 <para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1675 given slot.</para>
1676 </listitem>
1677
1678 <listitem>
1679 <para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1680 this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1681 into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1682 </listitem>
1683
1684 <listitem>
1685 <para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1686 storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1687 because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1688 See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1689 media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1690 slot.</para>
1691 </listitem>
1692
1693 <listitem>
1694 <para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1695 of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1696 which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1697 </listitem>
1698
1699 <listitem>
1700 <para>"host:&lt;drive&gt;": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1701 drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1702 specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1703 </listitem>
1704
1705 <listitem>
1706 <para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1707 specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1708 must be given; see below.</para>
1709 </listitem>
1710 </itemizedlist></para>
1711
1712 <para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1713 media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1714 running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1715 slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1716 </glossdef>
1717 </glossentry>
1718
1719 <glossentry>
1720 <glossterm>mtype</glossterm>
1721
1722 <glossdef>
1723 <para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1724 and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1725 details.</para>
1726 </glossdef>
1727 </glossentry>
1728
1729 <glossentry>
1730 <glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1731
1732 <glossdef>
1733 <para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1734 medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1735 server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1736 the medium to function correctly.</para>
1737 </glossdef>
1738 </glossentry>
1739
1740 <glossentry>
1741 <glossterm>setuuid, setparentuuid</glossterm>
1742
1743 <glossdef>
1744 <para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1745 attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1746 can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1747 if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1748 frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1749 a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1750 duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1751 utilities.</para>
1752 </glossdef>
1753 </glossentry>
1754
1755 <glossentry>
1756 <glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>
1757
1758 <glossdef>
1759 <para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1760 support (currently experimental; see <xref
1761 linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1762 </glossdef>
1763 </glossentry>
1764
1765 <glossentry>
1766 <glossterm>tempeject</glossterm>
1767
1768 <glossdef>
1769 <para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1770 for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1771 has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1772 the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1773 </glossdef>
1774 </glossentry>
1775
1776 <glossentry>
1777 <glossterm>bandwidthgroup</glossterm>
1778
1779 <glossdef>
1780 <para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1781 <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1782 </glossdef>
1783 </glossentry>
1784
1785 <glossentry>
1786 <glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>
1787
1788 <glossdef>
1789 <para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1790 unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1791 the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1792 see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1793 </glossdef>
1794 </glossentry>
1795 </glosslist></para>
1796
1797 <para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1798 <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1799 see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1800 be used:<glosslist>
1801 <glossentry>
1802 <glossterm>server</glossterm>
1803
1804 <glossdef>
1805 <para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1806 required.</para>
1807 </glossdef>
1808 </glossentry>
1809
1810 <glossentry>
1811 <glossterm>target</glossterm>
1812
1813 <glossdef>
1814 <para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1815 and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1816 </glossdef>
1817 </glossentry>
1818
1819 <glossentry>
1820 <glossterm>tport</glossterm>
1821
1822 <glossdef>
1823 <para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1824 (optional).</para>
1825 </glossdef>
1826 </glossentry>
1827
1828 <glossentry>
1829 <glossterm>lun</glossterm>
1830
1831 <glossdef>
1832 <para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1833 Often, this value is zero.</para>
1834 </glossdef>
1835 </glossentry>
1836
1837 <glossentry>
1838 <glossterm>username, password</glossterm>
1839
1840 <glossdef>
1841 <para>Username and password for target authentication, if required
1842 (optional).<note>
1843 <para>Currently, username and password are stored without
1844 encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1845 configuration file.</para>
1846 </note></para>
1847 </glossdef>
1848 </glossentry>
1849
1850 <glossentry>
1851 <glossterm>intnet</glossterm>
1852
1853 <glossdef>
1854 <para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1855 Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1856 <xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1857 </glossdef>
1858 </glossentry>
1859 </glosslist></para>
1860 </sect1>
1861
1862 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1863 <title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1864
1865 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1866 this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1867 <computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1868 section).</para>
1869
1870 <para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1871
1872 <screen>VBoxManage storagectl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1873 --name &lt;name&gt;
1874 [--add &lt;ide/sata/scsi/floppy&gt;]
1875 [--controller &lt;LsiLogic|LSILogicSAS|BusLogic|
1876 IntelAhci|PIIX3|PIIX4|ICH6|I82078&gt;]
1877 [--sataideemulation&lt;1-4&gt; &lt;1-30&gt;]
1878 [--sataportcount &lt;1-30&gt;]
1879 [--hostiocache on|off]
1880 [--bootable on|off]
1881 [--remove]</screen>
1882
1883 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1884 <glossentry>
1885 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
1886
1887 <glossdef>
1888 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1889 </glossdef>
1890 </glossentry>
1891
1892 <glossentry>
1893 <glossterm>name</glossterm>
1894
1895 <glossdef>
1896 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1897 </glossdef>
1898 </glossentry>
1899
1900 <glossentry>
1901 <glossterm>add</glossterm>
1902
1903 <glossdef>
1904 <para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
1905 controller must be connected.</para>
1906 </glossdef>
1907 </glossentry>
1908
1909 <glossentry>
1910 <glossterm>controller</glossterm>
1911
1912 <glossdef>
1913 <para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
1914 given storage controller.</para>
1915 </glossdef>
1916 </glossentry>
1917
1918 <glossentry>
1919 <glossterm>sataideemulation</glossterm>
1920
1921 <glossdef>
1922 <para>This specifies which SATA ports should operate in IDE
1923 emulation mode. As explained in <xref
1924 linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />, by default, this is the case for
1925 SATA ports 1-4; with this command, you can map four IDE channels
1926 to any of the 30 supported SATA ports.</para>
1927 </glossdef>
1928 </glossentry>
1929
1930 <glossentry>
1931 <glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>
1932
1933 <glossdef>
1934 <para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
1935 support.</para>
1936 </glossdef>
1937 </glossentry>
1938
1939 <glossentry>
1940 <glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>
1941
1942 <glossdef>
1943 <para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
1944 attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
1945 linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
1946 </glossdef>
1947 </glossentry>
1948
1949 <glossentry>
1950 <glossterm>bootable</glossterm>
1951
1952 <glossdef>
1953 <para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
1954 </glossdef>
1955 </glossentry>
1956
1957 <glossentry>
1958 <glossterm>remove</glossterm>
1959
1960 <glossdef>
1961 <para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
1962 </glossdef>
1963 </glossentry>
1964 </glosslist></para>
1965 </sect1>
1966
1967 <sect1>
1968 <title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
1969
1970 <para>This command creates/deletes/modifies bandwidth groups of the given
1971 virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1972 --name &lt;name&gt;
1973 [--add disk
1974 [--delete]
1975 [--limit MB/s]</screen></para>
1976
1977 <para>See <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> for an introduction
1978 to bandwidth limits. The parameters mean:<glosslist>
1979 <glossentry>
1980 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
1981
1982 <glossdef>
1983 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1984 </glossdef>
1985 </glossentry>
1986
1987 <glossentry>
1988 <glossterm>name</glossterm>
1989
1990 <glossdef>
1991 <para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
1992 </glossdef>
1993 </glossentry>
1994
1995 <glossentry>
1996 <glossterm>add</glossterm>
1997
1998 <glossdef>
1999 <para>Creates a new bandwdith group with the given type.</para>
2000 </glossdef>
2001 </glossentry>
2002
2003 <glossentry>
2004 <glossterm>delete</glossterm>
2005
2006 <glossdef>
2007 <para>Deletes a bandwdith group if it isn't used anymore.</para>
2008 </glossdef>
2009 </glossentry>
2010
2011 <glossentry>
2012 <glossterm>limit</glossterm>
2013
2014 <glossdef>
2015 <para>Sets the limit for the given group to the specified amount.
2016 Can be changed while the VM is running.</para>
2017 </glossdef>
2018 </glossentry>
2019 </glosslist></para>
2020 </sect1>
2021
2022 <sect1>
2023 <title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2024
2025 <para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2026 notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2027 which use it.<note>
2028 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2029 "showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2030 "showhdinfo" command.</para>
2031 </note></para>
2032 <para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2033 is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2034 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2035 for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2036 as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2037 directory.</para>
2038 </sect1>
2039
2040 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2041 <title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2042
2043 <para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2044 follows:</para>
2045
2046 <screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename &lt;filename&gt;
2047 --size &lt;megabytes&gt;
2048 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
2049 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2050
2051 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2052 <glossentry>
2053 <glossterm>filename</glossterm>
2054
2055 <glossdef>
2056 <para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2057 </glossdef>
2058 </glossentry>
2059
2060 <glossentry>
2061 <glossterm>size</glossterm>
2062
2063 <glossdef>
2064 <para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2065 Mandatory.</para>
2066 </glossdef>
2067 </glossentry>
2068
2069 <glossentry>
2070 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
2071
2072 <glossdef>
2073 <para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2074 from the file format of the input file.</para>
2075 </glossdef>
2076 </glossentry>
2077
2078 <glossentry>
2079 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2080
2081 <glossdef>
2082 <para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2083 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2084 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2085 result in an error message.</para>
2086 </glossdef>
2087 </glossentry>
2088 </glosslist> <note>
2089 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2090 "createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2091 "createhd" command.</para>
2092 </note></para>
2093 </sect1>
2094
2095 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2096 <title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2097
2098 <para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2099 change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2100 created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt;
2101 [--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
2102 readonly|multiattach]
2103 [--autoreset on|off]
2104 [--compact]
2105 [--resize &lt;megabytes&gt;|--resizebyte &lt;bytes&gt;]</screen><note>
2106 <para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2107 all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2108 versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2109 mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2110 </note></para>
2111
2112 <para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2113 (if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2114 can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2115 (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2116 A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2117 or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2118 <para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2119 <listitem>
2120 <para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2121 can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2122 immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2123 linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2124 </listitem>
2125
2126 <listitem>
2127 <para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2128 <computeroutput>--autoreset on|off</computeroutput> option
2129 determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2130 startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2131 is "on".</para>
2132 </listitem>
2133
2134 <listitem>
2135 <para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2136 can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2137 contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2138 again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2139 image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2140 Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2141 part of a snapshot.</para>
2142
2143 <para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2144 space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2145 software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2146 <computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2147 Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2148 zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2149 image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2150 supports ext2/ext3 filesystems.</para>
2151
2152 <para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2153 VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2154 blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2155 format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2156 supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2157 </listitem>
2158
2159 <listitem>
2160 <para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2161 is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2162 allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2163 <emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2164 the physical size much.<footnote>
2165 <para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2166 </footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2167 for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2168 (not shrink) the capacity.
2169 For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2170 you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2171 command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2172 image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2173 this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2174 a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2175 to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2176 option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2177 instead of megabytes.</para>
2178 </listitem>
2179 </itemizedlist></para>
2180 </sect1>
2181
2182 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2183 <title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2184
2185 <para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2186 new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2187 transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2188 the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2189 linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2190
2191 <screen>VBoxManage clonehd &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;
2192 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|&lt;other&gt;]
2193 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2194 [--existing]</screen>
2195
2196 <para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2197 either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2198 Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2199 (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2200 A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2201 as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2202 <para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2203 <glossentry>
2204 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
2205
2206 <glossdef>
2207 <para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2208 from the file format of the input file.</para>
2209 </glossdef>
2210 </glossentry>
2211
2212 <glossentry>
2213 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2214
2215 <glossdef>
2216 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2217 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2218 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2219 result in an error message.</para>
2220 </glossdef>
2221 </glossentry>
2222
2223 <glossentry>
2224 <glossterm>existing</glossterm>
2225
2226 <glossdef>
2227 <para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2228 destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2229 fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2230 destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2231 copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2232 the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2233 </glossdef>
2234 </glossentry>
2235 </glosslist> <note>
2236 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2237 "clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2238 "clonehd" command.</para>
2239 </note></para>
2240 </sect1>
2241
2242 <sect1>
2243 <title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2244
2245 <para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2246 (VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2247
2248 <screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw &lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;
2249 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
2250 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2251 [--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
2252VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin &lt;outputfile&gt; &lt;bytes&gt;
2253 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
2254 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2255 [--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;]</screen>
2256
2257 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2258 <glossentry>
2259 <glossterm>bytes</glossterm>
2260
2261 <glossdef>
2262 <para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2263 stdin.</para>
2264 </glossdef>
2265 </glossentry>
2266
2267 <glossentry>
2268 <glossterm>format</glossterm>
2269
2270 <glossdef>
2271 <para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2272 VDI.</para>
2273 </glossdef>
2274 </glossentry>
2275
2276 <glossentry>
2277 <glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2278
2279 <glossdef>
2280 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2281 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2282 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2283 result in an error message.</para>
2284 </glossdef>
2285 </glossentry>
2286
2287 <glossentry>
2288 <glossterm>uuid</glossterm>
2289
2290 <glossdef>
2291 <para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2292 </glossdef>
2293 </glossentry>
2294 </glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2295 the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2296 pipe).</para>
2297
2298 <para><note>
2299 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2300 "convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2301 "convertfromraw" command.</para>
2302 </note></para>
2303 </sect1>
2304
2305 <sect1>
2306 <title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2307
2308 <para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2309 machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2310 <computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2311 name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2312 with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2313
2314 <screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2315VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2316
2317 <para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2318 the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2319 could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2320
2321 <screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2322
2323 <para>which would return</para>
2324
2325 <screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2326(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2327All rights reserved.
2328
2329Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2330 <para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2331 command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2332 </para>
2333
2334 <screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2335
2336 </sect1>
2337
2338 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2339 <title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2340
2341 <para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2342 entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2343 in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2344 following properties are available:<glosslist>
2345 <glossentry>
2346 <glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>
2347
2348 <glossdef>
2349 <para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2350 definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2351 details.</para>
2352 </glossdef>
2353 </glossentry>
2354
2355 <glossentry>
2356 <glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>
2357
2358 <glossdef>
2359 <para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2360 authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2361 see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2362 </glossdef>
2363 </glossentry>
2364
2365 <glossentry>
2366 <glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>
2367
2368 <glossdef>
2369 <para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2370 authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2371 please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2372 linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2373 </glossdef>
2374 </glossentry>
2375
2376 <glossentry>
2377 <glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>
2378
2379 <glossdef>
2380 <para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2381 Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2382 </glossdef>
2383 </glossentry>
2384
2385 <glossentry>
2386 <glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>
2387
2388 <glossdef>
2389 <para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support
2390 is enabled by default.</para>
2391 </glossdef>
2392 </glossentry>
2393 </glosslist></para>
2394 </sect1>
2395
2396 <sect1>
2397 <title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2398
2399 <para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2400 working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2401 affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2402 machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2403 captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2404 particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2405 applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2406 available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2407 ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2408 machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2409 will.</para>
2410
2411 <para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2412 add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2413 The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2414 placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2415 following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2416 will be added onto the end of the list. The
2417 <computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2418 machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2419 to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2420 for the new filter and for global filters,
2421 <computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2422 access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2423 them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2424 filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2425 using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2426 you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2427 filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2428 connection) or either.</para>
2429
2430 <para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2431 modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2432 output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2433 find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2434 showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2435 by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2436 which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2437 add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2438 remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2439 </sect1>
2440
2441 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2442 <title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2443
2444 <para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2445 guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2446 of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2447 functionality.</para>
2448
2449 <para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2450 linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2451 </sect1>
2452
2453 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2454 <title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2455
2456 <para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2457 running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2458 for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2459 key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2460 guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2461 channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2462 Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2463 "/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2464 Additions.</para>
2465
2466 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2467 <computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2468 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2469 <listitem>
2470 <para><computeroutput>enumerate &lt;vm&gt; [--patterns
2471 &lt;pattern&gt;]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2472 properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2473 This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2474 be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2475 Additions are not installed.</para>
2476
2477 <para>If <computeroutput>--patterns &lt;pattern&gt;</computeroutput>
2478 is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2479 the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2480 characters:<itemizedlist>
2481 <listitem>
2482 <para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2483 represents any number of characters; for example,
2484 "<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2485 all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2486 </listitem>
2487
2488 <listitem>
2489 <para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2490 represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2491 "<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2492 and "for".</para>
2493 </listitem>
2494
2495 <listitem>
2496 <para><computeroutput>|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2497 used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2498 "<computeroutput>s*|t*</computeroutput>" would match anything
2499 starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2500 </listitem>
2501 </itemizedlist></para>
2502 </listitem>
2503
2504 <listitem>
2505 <para><computeroutput>get &lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>: This
2506 retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2507 cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2508 print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2509 </listitem>
2510
2511 <listitem>
2512 <para><computeroutput>set &lt;vm&gt; &lt;property&gt; [&lt;value&gt;
2513 [--flags &lt;flags&gt;]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2514 guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2515 <computeroutput>&lt;value&gt;</computeroutput> is omitted, the
2516 property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2517 you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2518 several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2519 <listitem>
2520 <para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2521 will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2522 </listitem>
2523
2524 <listitem>
2525 <para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2526 will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2527 </listitem>
2528
2529 <listitem>
2530 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2531 can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2532 it;</para>
2533 </listitem>
2534
2535 <listitem>
2536 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2537 the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2538 only read it;</para>
2539 </listitem>
2540
2541 <listitem>
2542 <para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2543 of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2544 </listitem>
2545 </itemizedlist></para>
2546 </listitem>
2547
2548 <listitem>
2549 <para><computeroutput>wait &lt;vm&gt; &lt;pattern&gt; --timeout
2550 &lt;timeout&gt;</computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2551 described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2552 pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2553 above.</para>
2554 </listitem>
2555 </itemizedlist></para>
2556 </sect1>
2557
2558 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2559 <title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2560
2561 <para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2562 inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2563 linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2564
2565 <para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2566
2567 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;command&gt;</screen>
2568
2569 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2570 <computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2571 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2572 <listitem>
2573 <para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which allows for
2574 executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2575 runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2576 running and has the following syntax:</para>
2577
2578 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; exec[ute]
2579 --image &lt;path to program&gt;
2580 --username &lt;name&gt; [--password &lt;password&gt;]
2581 [--dos2unix]
2582 [--environment "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt; [&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;]"]
2583 [--timeout &lt;msec&gt;] [--unix2dos] [--verbose]
2584 [--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2585 -- [[&lt;argument1&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentN&gt;]]</screen>
2586
2587 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2588 <glossentry>
2589 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2590
2591 <glossdef>
2592 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2593 </glossdef>
2594 </glossentry>
2595
2596 <glossentry>
2597 <glossterm>--image "&lt;path to program&gt;"</glossterm>
2598
2599 <glossdef>
2600 <para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2601 in the guest, e.g.
2602 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2603 </glossdef>
2604 </glossentry>
2605
2606 <glossentry>
2607 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2608
2609 <glossdef>
2610 <para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2611 user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2612 </glossdef>
2613 </glossentry>
2614
2615 <glossentry>
2616 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2617
2618 <glossdef>
2619 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2620 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2621 an empty password is assumed.</para>
2622 </glossdef>
2623 </glossentry>
2624
2625 <glossentry>
2626 <glossterm>--dos2unix</glossterm>
2627
2628 <glossdef>
2629 Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2630 line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2631 </glossdef>
2632 </glossentry>
2633
2634 <glossentry>
2635 <glossterm>--environment
2636 "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;"</glossterm>
2637
2638 <glossdef>
2639 <para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2640 unset.</para>
2641
2642 <para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2643 created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2644 option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2645 a variable, a pair of
2646 <computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2647 specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2648 value must set, e.g.
2649 <computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2650
2651 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2652 quotation marks. More than one
2653 <computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2654 be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2655 </glossdef>
2656 </glossentry>
2657
2658 <glossentry>
2659 <glossterm>--timeout &lt;msec&gt;</glossterm>
2660
2661 <glossdef>
2662 <para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2663 long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2664 VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2665 timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2666 started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2667 </glossdef>
2668 </glossentry>
2669
2670 <glossentry>
2671 <glossterm>--unix2dos</glossterm>
2672
2673 <glossdef>
2674 Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2675 line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2676 </glossdef>
2677 </glossentry>
2678
2679 <glossentry>
2680 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2681
2682 <glossdef>
2683 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2684 </glossdef>
2685 </glossentry>
2686
2687 <glossentry>
2688 <glossterm>--wait-exit</glossterm>
2689
2690 <glossdef>
2691 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2692 exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2693 </glossdef>
2694 </glossentry>
2695
2696 <glossentry>
2697 <glossterm>--wait-stdout</glossterm>
2698
2699 <glossdef>
2700 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2701 exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2702 VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2703 </glossdef>
2704 </glossentry>
2705
2706 <glossentry>
2707 <glossterm>--wait-stderr</glossterm>
2708
2709 <glossdef>
2710 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2711 exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2712 VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2713 </glossdef>
2714 </glossentry>
2715
2716 <glossentry>
2717 <glossterm>[-- [&lt;argument1s&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentNs&gt;]]</glossterm>
2718
2719 <glossdef>
2720 <para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2721 executed.</para>
2722 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2723 quotation marks.</para>
2724 </glossdef>
2725 </glossentry>
2726
2727 </glosslist></para>
2728
2729 <para><note>
2730 <para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2731 applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2732 information.</para>
2733 </note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2734 --username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usr</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
2735 --username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2736 the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2737 Unix hosts.</para>
2738
2739 <para><note>
2740 <para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2741 must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2742 user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2743 policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2744 will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2745 in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2746 apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2747 </note></para>
2748
2749 <para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2750 to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2751 which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2752 in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2753 old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2754 are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2755 appropriate error message.</para>
2756
2757 <para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2758 property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2759 or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2760 needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2761 guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2762 </listitem>
2763
2764 <listitem>
2765 <para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2766 files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2767 Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2768
2769 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; copyto|cp
2770 &lt;source on host&gt; &lt;destination on guest&gt;
2771 --username &lt;name&gt; [--password &lt;password&gt;]
2772 [--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2773
2774 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2775 <glossentry>
2776 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2777
2778 <glossdef>
2779 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2780 </glossdef>
2781 </glossentry>
2782
2783 <glossentry>
2784 <glossterm>source on host</glossterm>
2785
2786 <glossdef>
2787 <para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2788 to the guest, e.g.
2789 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2790 This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2791 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2792 </glossdef>
2793 </glossentry>
2794
2795 <glossentry>
2796 <glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>
2797
2798 <glossdef>
2799 <para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2800 <computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2801 </glossdef>
2802 </glossentry>
2803
2804 <glossentry>
2805 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2806
2807 <glossdef>
2808 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2809 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2810 </glossdef>
2811 </glossentry>
2812
2813 <glossentry>
2814 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2815
2816 <glossdef>
2817 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2818 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2819 an empty password is assumed.</para>
2820 </glossdef>
2821 </glossentry>
2822
2823 <glossentry>
2824 <glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>
2825
2826 <glossdef>
2827 <para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
2828 really copying files to the guest.</para>
2829 </glossdef>
2830 </glossentry>
2831
2832 <glossentry>
2833 <glossterm>--follow</glossterm>
2834
2835 <glossdef>
2836 <para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
2837 source.</para>
2838 </glossdef>
2839 </glossentry>
2840
2841 <glossentry>
2842 <glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>
2843
2844 <glossdef>
2845 <para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
2846 source.</para>
2847 </glossdef>
2848 </glossentry>
2849
2850 <glossentry>
2851 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2852
2853 <glossdef>
2854 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2855 </glossdef>
2856 </glossentry>
2857
2858 <glossentry>
2859 <glossterm>--flags &lt;flags&gt;</glossterm>
2860
2861 <glossdef>
2862 <para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2863 moment.</para>
2864 </glossdef>
2865 </glossentry>
2866 </glosslist></para>
2867 </listitem>
2868
2869 <listitem>
2870 <para><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput>, which allows
2871 copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2872 Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2873
2874 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; createdir[ectory]|mkdir|md
2875 &lt;directory to create on guest&gt;
2876 [--username "&lt;name&gt;"] [--password "&lt;password&gt;"]
2877 [--parents] [--mode &lt;mode&gt;] [--verbose]</screen>
2878
2879 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2880 <glossentry>
2881 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2882
2883 <glossdef>
2884 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2885 </glossdef>
2886 </glossentry>
2887
2888 <glossentry>
2889 <glossterm>directory to create on guest</glossterm>
2890
2891 <glossdef>
2892 <para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
2893 guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
2894 Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
2895 <computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
2896 <computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
2897 specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
2898 specified directory.</para>
2899 </glossdef>
2900 </glossentry>
2901
2902 <glossentry>
2903 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2904
2905 <glossdef>
2906 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2907 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2908 </glossdef>
2909 </glossentry>
2910
2911 <glossentry>
2912 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2913
2914 <glossdef>
2915 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2916 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2917 an empty password is assumed.</para>
2918 </glossdef>
2919 </glossentry>
2920
2921 <glossentry>
2922 <glossterm>--parents</glossterm>
2923
2924 <glossdef>
2925 <para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
2926 the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
2927 <computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
2928 <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
2929 yet it will be created. Without specifying
2930 <computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
2931 have failed.</para>
2932 </glossdef>
2933 </glossentry>
2934
2935 <glossentry>
2936 <glossterm>--mode &lt;mode&gt;</glossterm>
2937
2938 <glossdef>
2939 <para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
2940 Only octal modes (e.g.
2941 <computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
2942 now.</para>
2943 </glossdef>
2944 </glossentry>
2945
2946 <glossentry>
2947 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2948
2949 <glossdef>
2950 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2951 </glossdef>
2952 </glossentry>
2953 </glosslist></para>
2954 </listitem>
2955
2956 <listitem>
2957 <para><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput>, which displays file
2958 or file system status on the guest.</para>
2959
2960 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; stat
2961 &lt;file element(s) to check on guest&gt;
2962 [--username "&lt;name&gt;"] [--password "&lt;password&gt;"]
2963 [--verbose]</screen>
2964
2965 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2966 <glossentry>
2967 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
2968
2969 <glossdef>
2970 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2971 </glossdef>
2972 </glossentry>
2973
2974 <glossentry>
2975 <glossterm>file element(s) to check on guest</glossterm>
2976
2977 <glossdef>
2978 <para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
2979 guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
2980 The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
2981 the given file element(s).</para>
2982 </glossdef>
2983 </glossentry>
2984
2985 <glossentry>
2986 <glossterm>--username &lt;name&gt;</glossterm>
2987
2988 <glossdef>
2989 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2990 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2991 </glossdef>
2992 </glossentry>
2993
2994 <glossentry>
2995 <glossterm>--password &lt;password&gt;</glossterm>
2996
2997 <glossdef>
2998 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2999 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3000 an empty password is assumed.</para>
3001 </glossdef>
3002 </glossentry>
3003
3004 <glossentry>
3005 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3006
3007 <glossdef>
3008 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3009 </glossdef>
3010 </glossentry>
3011 </glosslist></para>
3012 </listitem>
3013
3014 <listitem>
3015 <para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which allows
3016 for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
3017 guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3018
3019 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;vmname&gt;|&lt;uuid&gt; updateadditions
3020 [--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to use&gt;"] [--verbose]</screen>
3021
3022 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3023 <glossentry>
3024 <glossterm>uuid|vmname</glossterm>
3025
3026 <glossdef>
3027 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3028 </glossdef>
3029 </glossentry>
3030
3031 <glossentry>
3032 <glossterm>--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to
3033 use&gt;"</glossterm>
3034
3035 <glossdef>
3036 <para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3037 .ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3038 </glossdef>
3039 </glossentry>
3040
3041 <glossentry>
3042 <glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3043
3044 <glossdef>
3045 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3046 </glossdef>
3047 </glossentry>
3048 </glosslist></para>
3049 </listitem>
3050 </itemizedlist></para>
3051 </sect1>
3052
3053 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3054 <title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3055
3056 <para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3057 exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3058 in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3059 very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3060 software.</para>
3061
3062 <para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3063 machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3064 <listitem>
3065 <para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3066 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3067 running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3068 will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3069 <xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3070
3071 <para>This corresponds to the
3072 <computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3073 </para>
3074 </listitem>
3075
3076 <listitem>
3077 <para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3078 display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3079 associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3080 name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3081 arguments specific to the info item.
3082 The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3083 listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3084 arguments.</para>
3085
3086 <para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3087 command in the debugger.</para>
3088 </listitem>
3089
3090 <listitem>
3091 <para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3092 a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3093 for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3094 on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3095 operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3096 doing.</para>
3097 </listitem>
3098
3099 <listitem>
3100 <para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3101 VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3102 system.</para>
3103
3104 <para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3105 command in the debugger.</para>
3106 </listitem>
3107
3108 <listitem>
3109 <para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3110 display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3111 debugger facility.</para>
3112 </listitem>
3113
3114 <listitem>
3115 <para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3116 used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3117 of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3118 <itemizedlist>
3119 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3120 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3121 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3122 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3123 <listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3124 </itemizedlist>
3125 The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3126 registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3127 case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3128 can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3129 <computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3130 </para>
3131 </listitem>
3132
3133 <listitem>
3134 <para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3135 used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3136 of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3137 <itemizedlist>
3138 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3139 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3140 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3141 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3142 </itemizedlist>
3143 The value format should be in the same style as what
3144 <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3145 exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3146 hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3147 are handled the same way as with the
3148 <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3149 </listitem>
3150
3151 <listitem>
3152 <para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3153 used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3154 <computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3155 statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3156 <computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3157 DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3158 <computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3159 </listitem>
3160 </itemizedlist></para>
3161 </sect1>
3162
3163 <sect1>
3164 <title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>
3165
3166 <para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3167 Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3168 system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3169 <computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3170 percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3171 sampling period.</para>
3172
3173 <para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3174 retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3175 query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3176 background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3177 process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3178 closed.</para>
3179
3180 <para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3181 not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
3182 is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
3183 retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
3184 collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
3185 keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
3186 used:</para>
3187
3188 <screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
3189
3190 <para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
3191 data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
3192 it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
3193 </computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
3194 You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
3195 subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
3196 affected.</para>
3197
3198 <para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3199 setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
3200 previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
3201
3202 <para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
3203 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
3204 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
3205 can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
3206 like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
3207 other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
3208 <code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
3209
3210 <para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
3211 Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3212 list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
3213
3214 <para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
3215 has the following form:
3216 <computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
3217 For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
3218 for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
3219 applied to the host object.</para>
3220
3221 <para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
3222 to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
3223 in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
3224 all objects. You may use an asterisk
3225 ("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
3226 command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
3227 object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
3228 limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
3229 separated by commas.</para>
3230
3231 <para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
3232 kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
3233 following command:</para>
3234
3235 <screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
3236
3237 <para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
3238
3239 <glosslist>
3240 <glossentry>
3241 <glossterm>list</glossterm>
3242
3243 <glossdef>
3244 <para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
3245 metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
3246 particular VM is running.</para>
3247 </glossdef>
3248 </glossentry>
3249
3250 <glossentry>
3251 <glossterm>setup</glossterm>
3252
3253 <glossdef>
3254 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3255 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3256 retained data is available for displaying with the
3257 <code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
3258 </computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
3259 the result of the command execution.</para>
3260 </glossdef>
3261 </glossentry>
3262
3263 <glossentry>
3264 <glossterm>enable</glossterm>
3265
3266 <glossdef>
3267 <para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
3268 stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
3269 submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
3270 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3271 did what was expected.</para>
3272 </glossdef>
3273 </glossentry>
3274
3275 <glossentry>
3276 <glossterm>disable</glossterm>
3277
3278 <glossdef>
3279 <para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
3280 collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
3281 submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
3282 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3283 did what was expected.</para>
3284 </glossdef>
3285 </glossentry>
3286
3287 <glossentry>
3288 <glossterm>query</glossterm>
3289
3290 <glossdef>
3291 <para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
3292 metric data.<note>
3293 <para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
3294 "flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
3295 how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
3296 samples.</para>
3297 </note></para>
3298 </glossdef>
3299 </glossentry>
3300
3301 <glossentry>
3302 <glossterm>collect</glossterm>
3303
3304 <glossdef>
3305 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3306 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3307 collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
3308 unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
3309 specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
3310 option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
3311 does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
3312 metrics match the specified filter.</para>
3313 </glossdef>
3314 </glossentry>
3315 </glosslist>
3316 </sect1>
3317
3318 <sect1>
3319 <title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
3320
3321 <para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
3322 network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
3323 refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
3324 identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
3325 manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
3326 </sect1>
3327
3328 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
3329 <title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
3330
3331 <para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
3332 is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
3333 host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
3334 network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
3335 servers in your physical network.)</para>
3336
3337 <para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
3338 <listitem>
3339 <para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
3340 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3341 --netname &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>, where
3342 <computeroutput>&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the same
3343 network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
3344 &lt;vmname&gt; --intnet&lt;X&gt;
3345 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
3346 </listitem>
3347
3348 <listitem>
3349 <para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
3350 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3351 --ifname &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> instead, where
3352 <computeroutput>&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the
3353 same host-only interface name you used with
3354 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm &lt;vmname&gt;
3355 --hostonlyadapter&lt;X&gt;
3356 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
3357
3358 <para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
3359 internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
3360 see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
3361 hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
3362 above).</para>
3363 </listitem>
3364 </itemizedlist></para>
3365
3366 <para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
3367 DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
3368 <listitem>
3369 <para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
3370 address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
3371 </listitem>
3372
3373 <listitem>
3374 <para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
3375 netmask of the network.</para>
3376 </listitem>
3377
3378 <listitem>
3379 <para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
3380 <computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
3381 lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
3382 will hand out to clients.</para>
3383 </listitem>
3384 </itemizedlist></para>
3385
3386 <para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
3387 or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
3388 nothing.</para>
3389
3390 <para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
3391 given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
3392 which uses that network is started.</para>
3393
3394 <para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
3395 remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
3396 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
3397 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
3398 for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
3399
3400 <para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
3401 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
3402 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
3403 network or host-only interface name.</para>
3404 </sect1>
3405
3406 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
3407 <title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
3408
3409 <para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
3410 extension packs, as described in <xref
3411 linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
3412 <listitem>
3413 <para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
3414 extpack install &lt;tarball&gt;</computeroutput>. This command
3415 will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
3416 installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
3417 parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
3418 package is installed.</para>
3419 </listitem>
3420
3421 <listitem>
3422 <para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
3423 <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
3424 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>. You can use
3425 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
3426 the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
3427 please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
3428 <computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
3429 override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
3430 </listitem>
3431
3432 <listitem>
3433 <para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
3434 cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
3435 files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
3436 install or uninstall command failed.</para>
3437 </listitem>
3438 </itemizedlist></para>
3439 <para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
3440 remove one:<screen>
3441$ VBoxManage list extpacks
3442Extension Packs: 1
3443Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
3444Version: 4.1.12
3445Revision: 77218
3446Edition:
3447Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
3448VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
3449Usable: true
3450Why unusable:
3451$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
34520%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
3453Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
3454 </sect1>
3455</chapter>
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