VirtualBox

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VBoxManage/GuestCtrl: Make "guestcontrol list <sessions|processes|all>" available to all.

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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/.config/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-general">
153 <title>General options</title>
154 <para>
155 <itemizedlist>
156 <listitem>
157 <para><computeroutput>--version</computeroutput>: show the version of
158 this tool and exit.</para>
159 </listitem>
160 <listitem>
161 <para><computeroutput>--nologo</computeroutput>: suppress the output
162 of the logo information (useful for scripts)</para>
163 </listitem>
164 <listitem>
165 <para><computeroutput>--settingspw</computeroutput>: specifiy a settings
166 password</para>
167 </listitem>
168 <listitem>
169 <para><computeroutput>--settingspwfile</computeroutput>: specify a file
170 containing the settings password.</para>
171 </listitem>
172 </itemizedlist>
173 The settings password is used for certain settings which need to be
174 stored encrypted for security reasons. At the moment, the only encrypted
175 setting is the iSCSI initiator secret (see
176 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details). As long as no
177 settings password is specified, this information is stored in
178 <emphasis role="bold">plain text</emphasis>. After using the
179 <computeroutput>--settingspw|--settingspwfile</computeroutput> option
180 once, it must be always used, otherwise the encrypted setting cannot
181 be unencrypted.
182 </para>
183 </sect1>
184
185 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
186 <title>VBoxManage list</title>
187
188 <para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
189 information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
190 settings.</para>
191
192 <para>The following subcommands are available with
193 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
194 <listitem>
195 <para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
196 machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
197 displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
198 specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
199 <computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
200 with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
201 below).</para>
202 </listitem>
203
204 <listitem>
205 <para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
206 currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
207 (UUIDs) in the same format as with
208 <computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
209 </listitem>
210
211 <listitem>
212 <para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
213 operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
214 identifiers used to refer to them with the
215 <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
216 </listitem>
217
218 <listitem>
219 <para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
220 <computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list
221 DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces
222 on the host, along with the name used to access them from within
223 VirtualBox.</para>
224 </listitem>
225
226 <listitem>
227 <para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,
228 <computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and
229 <computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list
230 bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP
231 servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref
232 linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>
233 </listitem>
234
235 <listitem>
236 <para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information
237 about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating
238 system version.</para>
239 </listitem>
240
241 <listitem>
242 <para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID
243 parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine
244 grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>
245 </listitem>
246
247 <listitem>
248 <para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
249 virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as
250 VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and
251 configuration.</para>
252 </listitem>
253
254 <listitem>
255 <para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
256 <computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
257 <computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
258 about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including
259 all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with
260 them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the
261 command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
262 linkend="vdis" />.</para>
263 </listitem>
264
265 <listitem>
266 <para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information
267 about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
268 for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
269 by the host.</para>
270 </listitem>
271
272 <listitem>
273 <para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
274 USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
275 devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
276 the filter parameters.</para>
277 </listitem>
278
279 <listitem>
280 <para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
281 some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
282 RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
283 authentication library in use.</para>
284 </listitem>
285
286 <listitem>
287 <para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all
288 VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref
289 linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref
290 linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>
291 </listitem>
292 </itemizedlist></para>
293 </sect1>
294
295 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
296 <title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
297
298 <para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
299 information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
300 information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
301 would show for all virtual machines.</para>
302
303 <para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
304
305 <para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
306VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
307(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
308All rights reserved.
309
310Name: Windows XP
311Guest OS: Other/Unknown
312UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
313Config file: /home/username/.config/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
314Memory size: 512MB
315VRAM size: 12MB
316Number of CPUs: 2
317Synthetic Cpu: off
318Boot menu mode: message and menu
319Boot Device (1): DVD
320Boot Device (2): HardDisk
321Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
322Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
323ACPI: on
324IOAPIC: on
325PAE: on
326Time offset: 0 ms
327Hardw. virt.ext: on
328Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
329Nested Paging: on
330VT-x VPID: off
331State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
332Monitor count: 1
3333D Acceleration: off
3342D Video Acceleration: off
335Teleporter Enabled: off
336Teleporter Port: 0
337Teleporter Address:
338Teleporter Password:
339Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
340Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
341Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
342Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
343IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
344IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
345Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
346NIC 1: disabled
347NIC 2: disabled
348NIC 3: disabled
349NIC 4: disabled
350NIC 5: disabled
351NIC 6: disabled
352NIC 7: disabled
353NIC 8: disabled
354UART 1: disabled
355UART 2: disabled
356Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
357Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
358VRDE: disabled
359USB: disabled
360
361USB Device Filters:
362&lt;none&gt;
363
364Shared folders:
365&lt;none&gt;
366
367Statistics update: disabled
368</screen></para>
369 </sect1>
370
371 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">
372 <title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
373
374 <para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
375 to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
376 machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
377 may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
378 place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
379 it.<note>
380 <para>When creating a new virtual machine with
381 <computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
382 can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
383 option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
384 </note></para>
385
386 <para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
387 unregisters a virtual machine. If
388 <computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
389 files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
390 <listitem>
391 <para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
392 are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
393 </listitem>
394
395 <listitem>
396 <para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
397 machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
398 snapshot);</para>
399 </listitem>
400
401 <listitem>
402 <para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
403 </listitem>
404
405 <listitem>
406 <para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
407 </listitem>
408
409 <listitem>
410 <para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
411 the above.</para>
412 </listitem>
413 </orderedlist></para>
414 </sect1>
415
416 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvm">
417 <title>VBoxManage createvm</title>
418
419 <para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
420 file.</para>
421
422 <para>The <computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput> parameter
423 is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
424 used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
425 <computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
426 of the <computeroutput>.config/VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder - this folder name may vary depending on the operating system and the version of VirtualBox which you are using), it
427 must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
428 specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
429 change automatically.</para>
430
431 <para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
432 &lt;path&gt;</computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
433 named <computeroutput>&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>. In this case, the
434 names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
435 renamed.</para>
436
437 <para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
438 automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
439 register the VM instantly, use the optional
440 <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
441 <computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
442 afterwards.</para>
443 </sect1>
444
445 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
446 <title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
447
448 <para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
449 which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
450 available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
451 interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
452 <xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
453 however, are only available through the
454 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
455
456 <para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
457 running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
458 while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
459 subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
460 subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
461
462 <sect2>
463 <title>General settings</title>
464
465 <para>The following general settings are available through
466 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
467 <listitem>
468 <para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This
469 changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
470 machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
471 createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
472 </listitem>
473
474 <listitem>
475 <para><computeroutput>--ostype &lt;ostype&gt;</computeroutput>:
476 This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
477 the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
478 here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
479 ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
480 </listitem>
481
482 <listitem>
483 <para><computeroutput>--memory
484 &lt;memorysize&gt;</computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
485 in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
486 the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
487 more information.</para>
488 </listitem>
489
490 <listitem>
491 <para><computeroutput>--vram &lt;vramsize&gt;</computeroutput>:
492 This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
493 have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
494 </listitem>
495
496 <listitem>
497 <para><computeroutput>--acpi on|off</computeroutput>;
498 <computeroutput>--ioapic on|off</computeroutput>: These two
499 determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
500 respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
501 details.</para>
502 </listitem>
503
504 <listitem>
505 <para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
506 &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
507 memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
508 default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
509 Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
510 </listitem>
511
512 <listitem>
513 <para><computeroutput>--cpus &lt;cpucount&gt;</computeroutput>:
514 This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
515 <xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
516 enabled (see below), this then sets the
517 <emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
518 plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
519 </listitem>
520
521 <listitem>
522 <para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on|off</computeroutput>: This
523 option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
524 <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
525 </listitem>
526
527 <listitem>
528 <para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on|off</computeroutput>: This
529 enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
530 to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
531 <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
532 </listitem>
533
534 <listitem>
535 <para><computeroutput>--plugcpu|unplugcpu
536 &lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
537 above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
538 removes one). <computeroutput>&lt;id&gt;</computeroutput>
539 specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
540 must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
541 the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
542 never be removed.</para>
543 </listitem>
544
545 <listitem>
546 <para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
547 &lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
548 time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
549 CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
550 </listitem>
551
552 <listitem>
553 <para><computeroutput>--pae on|off</computeroutput>: This
554 enables/disables PAE (see <xref
555 linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
556 </listitem>
557
558 <listitem>
559 <para><computeroutput>--longmode on|off</computeroutput>: This
560 enables/disables long mode (see <xref
561 linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
562 </listitem>
563
564 <listitem>
565 <para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on|off</computeroutput>: This
566 setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
567 to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
568 differ significantly.</para>
569 </listitem>
570
571 <listitem>
572 <para><computeroutput>--hpet on|off</computeroutput>: This
573 enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
574 replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
575 Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
576 </listitem>
577
578 <listitem>
579 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on|off</computeroutput>: This
580 enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
581 (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
582 <xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
583 </listitem>
584
585 <listitem>
586 <para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on|off</computeroutput>: This
587 specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the
588 hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the
589 processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If
590 you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other
591 hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has
592 negative performance implications.</para>
593 </listitem>
594
595 <listitem>
596 <para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on|off</computeroutput>: If
597 hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
598 enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
599 processor of your host system; see <xref
600 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
601 </listitem>
602
603 <listitem>
604 <para><computeroutput>--largepages on|off</computeroutput>: If
605 hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
606 enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
607 improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
608 This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
609 and overhead.</para>
610 </listitem>
611
612 <listitem>
613 <para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on|off</computeroutput>: If
614 hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
615 additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
616 (VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
617 linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
618 </listitem>
619
620 <listitem>
621 <para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on|off</computeroutput>: This
622 enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
623 acceleration should be available; see <xref
624 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
625 </listitem>
626
627 <listitem>
628 <para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
629 virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
630 a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
631
632 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
633 on|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
634 on|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
635 fade in and out, respectively.</para>
636
637 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
638 &lt;msec&gt;</computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
639 be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
640
641 <para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
642 &lt;imagepath&gt;</computeroutput> you can, if you are so
643 inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
644 image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file without color
645 space information (Windows 3.0 format). The image must not be
646 bigger than 640 x 480.</para>
647 </listitem>
648
649 <listitem>
650 <para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
651 disabled|menuonly|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
652 whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
653 device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
654 message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
655 boot device.</para>
656 </listitem>
657
658 <listitem>
659 <para><computeroutput>--nicbootprio&lt;1-N&gt;
660 &lt;priority&gt;</computeroutput>: This specifies the order in which
661 NICs are tried for booting over the network (using PXE). The
662 priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range. Priority 1 is the
663 highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0, which is the default unless
664 otherwise specified, is the lowest.
665 </para>
666 <para> Note that this option only has effect when the Intel PXE boot
667 ROM is used.
668 </para>
669 </listitem>
670
671 <listitem>
672 <para><computeroutput>--boot&lt;1-4&gt;
673 none|floppy|dvd|disk|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
674 order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
675 VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
676 set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
677 </listitem>
678
679 <listitem>
680 <para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
681 default|&lt;path&gt;</computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
682 the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
683 machine.</para>
684 </listitem>
685
686 <listitem>
687 <para><computeroutput>--firmware efi|bios</computeroutput>:
688 Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
689 machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
690 you're doing.</para>
691 </listitem>
692
693 <listitem>
694 <para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
695 &lt;size&gt;</computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
696 memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
697 Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
698 hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. &lt;size&gt; must
699 be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
700 details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
701 </listitem>
702
703 <listitem>
704 <para><computeroutput>--lptmode&lt;1-N&gt;
705 &lt;Device&gt;</computeroutput>
706 Specifies the Device Name of the parallel port that
707 the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
708 <emphasis>before</emphasis> <computeroutput>--lpt</computeroutput>.
709 This feature is host operating system specific.</para>
710 </listitem>
711
712 <listitem>
713 <para><computeroutput>--lpt&lt;1-N&gt;
714 &lt;I/O base&gt; &lt;IRQ&gt;</computeroutput>
715 Specifies the I/O address of the parallel port and the IRQ
716 number that the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
717 <emphasis>after</emphasis>
718 <computeroutput>--lptmod</computeroutput>. I/O base address and IRQ are
719 the values that guest sees i.e. the values avalable under guest Device Manager.</para>
720 </listitem>
721
722 <listitem>
723 <para><computeroutput>--defaultfrontend
724 default|&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
725 the default frontend which will be used when starting this VM; see
726 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
727 </listitem>
728 </itemizedlist></para>
729 </sect2>
730
731 <sect2>
732 <title>Networking settings</title>
733
734 <para>The following networking settings are available through
735 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
736 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
737 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
738 should be changed.<itemizedlist>
739 <listitem>
740 <para><computeroutput>--nic&lt;1-N&gt;
741 none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic
742 </computeroutput>: With
743 this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
744 what type of networking should be available. They can be not
745 present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
746 the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
747 address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
748 bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
749 communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
750 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
751 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
752 sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
753 These options correspond
754 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
755 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
756 </listitem>
757
758 <listitem>
759 <para><computeroutput>--nictype&lt;1-N&gt;
760 Am79C970A|Am79C973|82540EM|82543GC|82545EM|virtio</computeroutput>:
761 This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
762 specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
763 guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
764 </listitem>
765
766 <listitem>
767 <para><computeroutput>--cableconnected&lt;1-N&gt;
768 on|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
769 a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
770 from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
771 certain software components in the VM.</para>
772 </listitem>
773
774 <listitem>
775 <para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
776 network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
777 purposes.</para>
778
779 <para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace&lt;1-N&gt;
780 on|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
781 particular virtual network card.</para>
782
783 <para>If enabled, you must specify with
784 <computeroutput>--nictracefile&lt;1-N&gt;
785 &lt;filename&gt;</computeroutput> what file the trace should be
786 logged to.</para>
787 </listitem>
788
789 <listitem>
790 <para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
791 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If bridged networking
792 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
793 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
794 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
795 interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
796 details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
797 </listitem>
798
799 <listitem>
800 <para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter&lt;1-N&gt;
801 none|&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>: If host-only networking
802 has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
803 above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
804 specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
805 network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
806 linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
807 </listitem>
808
809 <listitem>
810 <para><computeroutput>--intnet&lt;1-N&gt;
811 network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
812 for a virtual network card (see the
813 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
814 this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
815 of the internal network (see <xref
816 linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
817 </listitem>
818
819 <listitem>
820 <para><computeroutput>--macaddress&lt;1-N&gt;
821 auto|&lt;mac&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can set
822 the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
823 virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
824 VM creation.</para>
825 </listitem>
826
827 <listitem>
828 <para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv&lt;1-N&gt;
829 &lt;backend driver&gt;</computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
830 enabled for a virtual network card (see the
831 <computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
832 this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
833 rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
834 </para>
835 </listitem>
836
837 <listitem>
838 <para><computeroutput>--nicproperty&lt;1-N&gt;
839 &lt;paramname&gt;="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
840 This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
841 pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
842 Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
843 between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
844 please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
845 </para>
846 </listitem>
847 </itemizedlist></para>
848
849 <sect3>
850 <title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
851
852 <para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
853 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
854 settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
855 in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
856 settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
857 <listitem>
858 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt;
859 [&lt;name&gt;],tcp|udp,[&lt;hostip&gt;],&lt;hostport&gt;,[&lt;guestip&gt;],
860 &lt;guestport&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
861 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
862 for details).</para>
863 </listitem>
864
865 <listitem>
866 <para><computeroutput>--natpf&lt;1-N&gt; delete
867 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
868 port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
869 for details).</para>
870 </listitem>
871
872 <listitem>
873 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix&lt;1-N&gt;
874 &lt;prefix&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
875 for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
876 located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
877 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
878 </listitem>
879
880 <listitem>
881 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile&lt;1-N&gt;
882 &lt;bootfile&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
883 boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
884 details).</para>
885 </listitem>
886
887 <listitem>
888 <para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver&lt;1-N&gt;
889 &lt;tftpserver&gt;</computeroutput>: This option defines the
890 TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
891 linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
892 </listitem>
893
894 <listitem>
895 <para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain&lt;1-N&gt;
896 on|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
897 built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
898 resolution.</para>
899 </listitem>
900
901 <listitem>
902 <para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy&lt;1-N&gt;
903 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
904 all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
905 <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
906 </listitem>
907
908 <listitem>
909 <para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver&lt;1-N&gt;
910 on|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
911 the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
912 see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
913 </listitem>
914
915 <listitem>
916 <para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings&lt;1-N&gt;
917 [&lt;mtu&gt;],[&lt;socksnd&gt;],[&lt;sockrcv&gt;],[&lt;tcpsnd&gt;],
918 [&lt;tcprcv&gt;]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
919 NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
920 details).</para>
921 </listitem>
922
923 <listitem>
924 <para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode&lt;1-N&gt;
925 default|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
926 option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
927 logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
928 transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
929 the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
930 mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
931 linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
932 </listitem>
933 </itemizedlist></para>
934 </sect3>
935 </sect2>
936
937 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
938 <title>Serial port, audio, clipboard and USB settings</title>
939
940 <para>The following other hardware settings are available through
941 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
942 <listitem>
943 <para><computeroutput>--uart&lt;1-N&gt; off|&lt;I/O base&gt;
944 &lt;IRQ&gt;</computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
945 virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
946 linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
947 </listitem>
948
949 <listitem>
950 <para><computeroutput>--uartmode&lt;1-N&gt;
951 &lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
952 connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
953 the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
954 to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
955 in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
956 you can specify <computeroutput>&lt;arg&gt;</computeroutput> as
957 one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
958 <listitem>
959 <para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
960 though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
961 "other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
962 </listitem>
963
964 <listitem>
965 <para><computeroutput>server
966 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
967 tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
968 <computeroutput>&lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput> and
969 connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
970 requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
971 <computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
972
973 <para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
974 domain socket is used.</para>
975 </listitem>
976
977 <listitem>
978 <para><computeroutput>client
979 &lt;pipename&gt;</computeroutput>: This operates just like
980 <computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
981 pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
982 but assumed to exist already.</para>
983 </listitem>
984
985 <listitem>
986 <para><computeroutput>&lt;devicename&gt;</computeroutput>:
987 If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
988 hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
989 serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
990 host, the device name will be a COM port such as
991 <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
992 device name will look like
993 <computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
994 to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
995 </listitem>
996 </itemizedlist></para>
997 </listitem>
998
999 <listitem>
1000 <para><computeroutput>--audio none|null|oss</computeroutput>: With
1001 this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
1002 support.</para>
1003 </listitem>
1004
1005 <listitem>
1006 <para><computeroutput>--clipboard
1007 disabled|hosttoguest|guesttohost|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1008 With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
1009 system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
1010 linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
1011 Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1012 </listitem>
1013
1014 <listitem>
1015 <para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
1016 &lt;count&gt;</computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
1017 support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
1018 </listitem>
1019
1020 <listitem>
1021 <para><computeroutput>--usb on|off</computeroutput>: This option
1022 enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
1023 linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1024 </listitem>
1025
1026 <listitem>
1027 <para><computeroutput>--usbehci on|off</computeroutput>: This
1028 option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
1029 see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1030 </listitem>
1031 </itemizedlist></para>
1032 </sect2>
1033
1034 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-vrde">
1035 <title>Remote machine settings</title>
1036
1037 <para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
1038 available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1039 modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1040 <listitem>
1041 <para><computeroutput>--vrde on|off</computeroutput>: With the
1042 VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
1043 VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
1044 you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
1045 <xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
1046 default.</para>
1047 </listitem>
1048
1049 <listitem>
1050 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
1051 default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
1052 the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
1053 standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
1054 ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
1055 specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
1056 role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
1057 list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
1058 example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
1059 5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
1060 one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
1061 </listitem>
1062
1063 <listitem>
1064 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress &lt;IP
1065 address&gt;</computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1066 interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1067 will accept connections only on the specified host network
1068 interface.</para>
1069 <para>The setting can be used to specify whether the VRDP server
1070 should accept either IPv4 or IPv6 or both connections:
1071 <itemizedlist>
1072 <listitem>
1073 <para>only IPv4: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "0.0.0.0"
1074 </computeroutput></para>
1075 </listitem>
1076 <listitem>
1077 <para>only IPv6: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "::"
1078 </computeroutput></para>
1079 </listitem>
1080 <listitem>
1081 <para>both IPv6 and IPv4 (default): <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress ""
1082 </computeroutput></para>
1083 </listitem>
1084 </itemizedlist></para>
1085 </listitem>
1086
1087 <listitem>
1088 <para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1089 null|external|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1090 whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1091 linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1092 </listitem>
1093
1094 <listitem>
1095 <para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on|off</computeroutput>: This
1096 enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1097 server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1098 linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1099 </listitem>
1100
1101 <listitem>
1102 <para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on|off</computeroutput>: This
1103 specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1104 disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1105 client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1106 option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1107 will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1108 server.</para>
1109 </listitem>
1110
1111 <listitem>
1112 <para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on|off</computeroutput>:
1113 This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1114 server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1115 </listitem>
1116
1117 <listitem>
1118 <para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1119 &lt;percent&gt;</computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1120 redirection; see <xref lang=""
1121 linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1122 </listitem>
1123 </itemizedlist></para>
1124 </sect2>
1125
1126 <sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1127 <title>Teleporting settings</title>
1128
1129 <para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1130 modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1131 teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1132 introduction.<itemizedlist>
1133 <listitem>
1134 <para><computeroutput>--teleporter on|off</computeroutput>: With
1135 this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1136 teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1137 If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1138 machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1139 teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1140 the next two parameters.</para>
1141 </listitem>
1142
1143 <listitem>
1144 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1145 &lt;port&gt;</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1146 &lt;address&gt;</computeroutput>: these must be used with
1147 --teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1148 address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1149 virtual machine. <computeroutput>&lt;port&gt;</computeroutput> can
1150 be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1151 <computeroutput>&lt;address&gt;</computeroutput> can be any IP
1152 address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1153 The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1154 </listitem>
1155
1156 <listitem>
1157 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1158 &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1159 given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1160 source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1161 this command.</para>
1162 </listitem>
1163
1164 <listitem>
1165 <para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1166 &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1167 given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1168 source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1169 in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1170 to read the password from stdin.</para>
1171 </listitem>
1172
1173 <listitem>
1174 <para><computeroutput>--cpuid &lt;leaf&gt; &lt;eax&gt; &lt;ebx&gt;
1175 &lt;ecx&gt; &lt;edx&gt;</computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1176 this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1177 virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1178 operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1179 target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1180 what the guest sees when it executes the
1181 <computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1182 might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1183 certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1184 parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1185 processor manuals.</para>
1186 </listitem>
1187 </itemizedlist></para>
1188 </sect2>
1189 </sect1>
1190
1191 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1192 <title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1193
1194 <para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1195 machine.</para>
1196
1197 <para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1198 least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1199 additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1200 operation:</para>
1201
1202 <itemizedlist>
1203 <listitem>
1204 <para><computeroutput>--snapshot &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>:
1205 Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1206 to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1207 </listitem>
1208 <listitem>
1209 <para><computeroutput>--mode machine|machineandchildren|all</computeroutput>:
1210 Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1211 <computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1212 the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1213 <computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1214 provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1215 child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1216 is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1217 </para>
1218 </listitem>
1219 <listitem>
1220 <para><computeroutput>--options link|keepallmacs|keepnatmacs|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1221 Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1222 option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1223 only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1224 options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1225 network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1226 (the default), left unchanged
1227 (<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1228 when the network type is NAT
1229 (<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1230 <computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1231 are called like the original once, otherwise they are
1232 renamed.</para>
1233 </listitem>
1234 <listitem>
1235 <para><computeroutput>--name &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>: Select a
1236 new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1237 Clone".</para>
1238 </listitem>
1239 <listitem>
1240 <para><computeroutput>--basefolder &lt;basefolder&gt;</computeroutput>:
1241 Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1242 be saved in.</para>
1243 </listitem>
1244 <listitem>
1245 <para><computeroutput>--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;</computeroutput>:
1246 Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1247 the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1248 creating a new UUID.</para>
1249 </listitem>
1250 <listitem>
1251 <para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1252 Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1253 installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see
1254 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1255 so.</para>
1256 </listitem>
1257 </itemizedlist>
1258 </sect1>
1259
1260 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1261 <title>VBoxManage import</title>
1262
1263 <para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1264 the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1265 <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1266
1267 <para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1268 least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1269 if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1270 command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1271 imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1272 content of the OVF file.</para>
1273
1274 <para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1275 the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1276 <computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1277 description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1278 imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1279 to influence the import behavior.</para>
1280
1281 <para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1282 containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1283Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1284OK.
1285Virtual system 0:
1286 0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1287 (change with "--vsys 0 --ostype &lt;type&gt;"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1288 1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1289 (change with "--vsys 0 --vmname &lt;name&gt;")
1290 3: Number of CPUs: 1
1291 (change with "--vsys 0 --cpus &lt;n&gt;")
1292 4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory &lt;MB&gt;")
1293 5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1294 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1295 6: USB controller
1296 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1297 7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1298 8: Floppy
1299 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1300 9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1301 (change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic|LsiLogic}";
1302 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
130310: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1304 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
130511: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1306 target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1307 (change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller &lt;id&gt;";
1308 disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1309
1310 <para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1311 depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1312 subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1313 <computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1314 X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1315 virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1316 printed on the screen.</para>
1317
1318 <para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1319 machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1320 respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1321 additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1322 which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1323 from the OVF file.</para>
1324
1325 <para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1326 same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1327 import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1328 without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1329 controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1330 --vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1331 </sect1>
1332
1333 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1334 <title>VBoxManage export</title>
1335
1336 <para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1337 into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1338 disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1339 introduction to appliances.</para>
1340
1341 <para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1342 use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1343 the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1344 <computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1345 <computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1346 target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1347 compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1348 enough disk space left for them.</para>
1349
1350 <para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1351 several product information to the appliance file. Use
1352 <computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1353 <computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1354 <computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1355 <computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1356 <computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1357 information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1358 of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1359 <computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1360 OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1361 option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1362 machine.</para>
1363
1364 <para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1365 OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1366 <computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1367 </sect1>
1368
1369 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1370 <title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1371
1372 <para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1373 "Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1374
1375 <para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1376 determines whether the machine will be started in a window or whether the
1377 output should go through <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>,
1378 with VRDE enabled or not; see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1379 information. The list of types is subject to change, and it's not
1380 guaranteed that all types are accepted by any product variant.</para>
1381
1382 <para>The global or per-VM default value for the VM frontend type will be
1383 taken if the type is not explicitly specified. If none of these are set,
1384 the GUI variant will be started.</para>
1385
1386 <para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1387
1388 <glosslist>
1389 <glossentry>
1390 <glossterm><computeroutput>gui</computeroutput></glossterm>
1391
1392 <glossdef>
1393 <para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1394 </glossdef>
1395 </glossentry>
1396
1397 <glossentry>
1398 <glossterm><computeroutput>headless</computeroutput></glossterm>
1399
1400 <glossdef>
1401 <para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1402 </glossdef>
1403 </glossentry>
1404
1405 <glossentry>
1406 <glossterm><computeroutput>sdl</computeroutput></glossterm>
1407
1408 <glossdef>
1409 <para>Starts a VM with a minimal GUI and limited features.</para>
1410 </glossdef>
1411 </glossentry>
1412 </glosslist>
1413
1414 <note>
1415 <para>If you experience problems with starting virtual machines with
1416 particular frontends and there is no conclusive error information,
1417 consider starting virtual machines directly by running the respective
1418 front-end, as this can give additional error information.</para>
1419 </note>
1420 </sect1>
1421
1422 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1423 <title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1424
1425 <para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1426 to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1427 following can be specified:</para>
1428
1429 <para><itemizedlist>
1430 <listitem>
1431 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1432 pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1433 without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1434 in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1435 equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1436 the GUI.)</para>
1437 </listitem>
1438
1439 <listitem>
1440 <para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1441 resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1442 <computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1443 to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1444 GUI.)</para>
1445 </listitem>
1446
1447 <listitem>
1448 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1449 reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1450 pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1451 virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1452 system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1453 beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1454 the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1455 </listitem>
1456
1457 <listitem>
1458 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1459 poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1460 as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1461 the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1462 equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1463 the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1464 "Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1465
1466 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1467 it can be started again; see <xref
1468 linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1469 </listitem>
1470
1471 <listitem>
1472 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm &lt;vm&gt;
1473 savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1474 disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1475 "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1476 window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1477 in the dialog.)</para>
1478
1479 <para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1480 be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1481 </listitem>
1482
1483 <listitem>
1484 <para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm "VM name" teleport
1485 --hostname &lt;name&gt; --port &lt;port&gt; [--passwordfile
1486 &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]</computeroutput> makes
1487 the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a
1488 teleport to the given target. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for
1489 an introduction. If the optional password is specified, it must match
1490 the password that was given to the
1491 <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for the target
1492 machine; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for
1493 details.</para>
1494 </listitem>
1495 </itemizedlist></para>
1496
1497 <para>A few extra options are available with
1498 <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1499 VM's running state:</para>
1500
1501 <itemizedlist>
1502 <listitem>
1503 <para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate&lt;1-N&gt;</computeroutput>
1504 operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1505 network interfaces.</para>
1506 </listitem>
1507
1508 <listitem>
1509 <para><computeroutput>nic&lt;1-N&gt;
1510 null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1511 set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1512 networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1513 (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1514 translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1515 (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1516 virtual machines using internal networking
1517 (<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1518 (<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1519 sub-modes
1520 (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1521 to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1522 linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1523 </listitem>
1524
1525 <listitem>
1526 <para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1527 <computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1528 visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1529 creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1530 (unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1531
1532 <para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1533 usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1534 </listitem>
1535
1536 <listitem>
1537 <para><computeroutput>vrde on|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1538 disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1539 </listitem>
1540
1541 <listitem>
1542 <para><computeroutput>vrdeport default|&lt;ports&gt;</computeroutput>
1543 changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1544 "default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1545 details, see the description for the
1546 <computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1547 linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1548 </listitem>
1549
1550 <listitem>
1551 <para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1552 the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1553 the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1554 systems.</para>
1555 </listitem>
1556
1557 <listitem>
1558 <para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1559 of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1560 </listitem>
1561
1562 <listitem>
1563 <para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1564 used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1565 <xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1566 </listitem>
1567
1568 <listitem>
1569 <para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1570 operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1571 memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1572 operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1573 virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1574 see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1575 </listitem>
1576
1577 <listitem>
1578 <para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1579 &lt;1-100&gt;</computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1580 time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1581 can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1582 </listitem>
1583 </itemizedlist>
1584 </sect1>
1585
1586 <sect1>
1587 <title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1588
1589 <para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1590 not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1591 next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1592 cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1593 </sect1>
1594
1595 <sect1>
1596 <title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1597
1598 <para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1599 that is separate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1600 "adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1601 start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1602 you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1603 </sect1>
1604
1605 <sect1>
1606 <title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1607
1608 <para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1609 snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1610 copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1611 machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1612 running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1613 hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1614 when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1615 hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1616 differencing files.</para>
1617
1618 <para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1619 of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1620 the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1621 inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1622 then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1623
1624 <para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1625 snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1626 since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1627 be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1628
1629 <para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1630 the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1631 machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1632 current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1633 becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1634 inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1635
1636 <para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1637 shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1638 current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1639 "restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1640 that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1641
1642 <para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1643 change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1644
1645 <para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1646 can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1647 snapshot.</para>
1648 </sect1>
1649
1650 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1651 <title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1652
1653 <para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1654 VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1655 <para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1656 openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1657 that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1658 registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1659 added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1660 been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1661 a registry.</para>
1662 </footnote></para>
1663
1664 <para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1665 appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1666 become unregistered in any case.</para>
1667 </sect1>
1668
1669 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-storageattach">
1670 <title>VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1671
1672 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1673 a storage controller that was previously added with the
1674 <computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1675 section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1676
1677 <screen>VBoxManage storageattach &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1678 --storagectl &lt;name&gt;
1679 [--port &lt;number&gt;]
1680 [--device &lt;number&gt;]
1681 [--type dvddrive|hdd|fdd]
1682 [--medium none|emptydrive|
1683 &lt;uuid&gt;|&lt;filename&gt;|host:&lt;drive&gt;|iscsi]
1684 [--mtype normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable]
1685 [--comment &lt;text&gt;]
1686 [--setuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
1687 [--setparentuuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
1688 [--passthrough on|off]
1689 [--tempeject on|off]
1690 [--nonrotational on|off]
1691 [--discard on|off]
1692 [--bandwidthgroup name|none]
1693 [--forceunmount]
1694 [--server &lt;name&gt;|&lt;ip&gt;]
1695 [--target &lt;target&gt;]
1696 [--tport &lt;port&gt;]
1697 [--lun &lt;lun&gt;]
1698 [--encodedlun &lt;lun&gt;]
1699 [--username &lt;username&gt;]
1700 [--password &lt;password&gt;]
1701 [--initiator &lt;initiator&gt;]
1702 [--intnet]
1703</screen>
1704
1705 <para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1706 the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1707
1708 <para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1709 <glossentry>
1710 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
1711
1712 <glossdef>
1713 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1714 </glossdef>
1715 </glossentry>
1716
1717 <glossentry>
1718 <glossterm><computeroutput>--storagectl</computeroutput></glossterm>
1719
1720 <glossdef>
1721 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1722 storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1723 with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1724 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1725 </glossdef>
1726 </glossentry>
1727
1728 <glossentry>
1729 <glossterm><computeroutput>--port</computeroutput></glossterm>
1730
1731 <glossdef>
1732 <para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1733 modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1734 single port.</para>
1735 </glossdef>
1736 </glossentry>
1737
1738 <glossentry>
1739 <glossterm><computeroutput>--device</computeroutput></glossterm>
1740
1741 <glossdef>
1742 <para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1743 Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1744 per port.</para>
1745 </glossdef>
1746 </glossentry>
1747
1748 <glossentry>
1749 <glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
1750
1751 <glossdef>
1752 <para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1753 attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1754 the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1755 with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1756 from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1757 </glossdef>
1758 </glossentry>
1759
1760 <glossentry>
1761 <glossterm><computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput></glossterm>
1762
1763 <glossdef>
1764 <para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1765 supported:<itemizedlist>
1766 <listitem>
1767 <para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1768 given slot.</para>
1769 </listitem>
1770
1771 <listitem>
1772 <para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1773 this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1774 into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1775 </listitem>
1776
1777 <listitem>
1778 <para>"additions": For a virtual DVD drive only, this
1779 attaches the <emphasis>VirtualBox Guest Additions</emphasis>
1780 image to the given device slot.</para>
1781 </listitem>
1782
1783 <listitem>
1784 <para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1785 storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1786 because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1787 See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1788 media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1789 slot.</para>
1790 </listitem>
1791
1792 <listitem>
1793 <para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1794 of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1795 which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1796 </listitem>
1797
1798 <listitem>
1799 <para>"host:&lt;drive&gt;": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1800 drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1801 specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1802 </listitem>
1803
1804 <listitem>
1805 <para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1806 specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1807 must be given; see below.</para>
1808 </listitem>
1809 </itemizedlist></para>
1810
1811 <para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1812 media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1813 running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1814 slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1815 </glossdef>
1816 </glossentry>
1817
1818 <glossentry>
1819 <glossterm><computeroutput>--mtype</computeroutput></glossterm>
1820
1821 <glossdef>
1822 <para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1823 and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1824 details.</para>
1825 </glossdef>
1826 </glossentry>
1827
1828 <glossentry>
1829 <glossterm><computeroutput>--comment</computeroutput></glossterm>
1830
1831 <glossdef>
1832 <para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1833 medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1834 server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1835 the medium to function correctly.</para>
1836 </glossdef>
1837 </glossentry>
1838
1839 <glossentry>
1840 <glossterm><computeroutput>--setuuid, --setparentuuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
1841
1842 <glossdef>
1843 <para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1844 attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1845 can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1846 if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1847 frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1848 a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1849 duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1850 utilities.</para>
1851 </glossdef>
1852 </glossentry>
1853
1854 <glossentry>
1855 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passthrough</computeroutput></glossterm>
1856
1857 <glossdef>
1858 <para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1859 support (currently experimental; see <xref
1860 linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1861 </glossdef>
1862 </glossentry>
1863
1864 <glossentry>
1865 <glossterm><computeroutput>--tempeject</computeroutput></glossterm>
1866
1867 <glossdef>
1868 <para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1869 for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1870 has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1871 the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1872 </glossdef>
1873 </glossentry>
1874
1875 <glossentry>
1876 <glossterm><computeroutput>--nonrotational</computeroutput></glossterm>
1877
1878 <glossdef>
1879 <para>This switch allows to enable the non-rotational flag for virtual
1880 hard disks. Some guests (i.e. Windows 7+) treat such disks like SSDs
1881 and don't perform disk fragmentation on such media.
1882 </para>
1883 </glossdef>
1884 </glossentry>
1885
1886 <glossentry>
1887 <glossterm><computeroutput>--bandwidthgroup</computeroutput></glossterm>
1888
1889 <glossdef>
1890 <para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1891 <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1892 </glossdef>
1893 </glossentry>
1894
1895 <glossentry>
1896 <glossterm><computeroutput>--forceunmount</computeroutput></glossterm>
1897
1898 <glossdef>
1899 <para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1900 unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1901 the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1902 see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1903 </glossdef>
1904 </glossentry>
1905 </glosslist></para>
1906
1907 <para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1908 <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1909 see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1910 be used:<glosslist>
1911 <glossentry>
1912 <glossterm><computeroutput>--server</computeroutput></glossterm>
1913
1914 <glossdef>
1915 <para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1916 required.</para>
1917 </glossdef>
1918 </glossentry>
1919
1920 <glossentry>
1921 <glossterm><computeroutput>--target</computeroutput></glossterm>
1922
1923 <glossdef>
1924 <para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1925 and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1926 </glossdef>
1927 </glossentry>
1928
1929 <glossentry>
1930 <glossterm><computeroutput>--tport</computeroutput></glossterm>
1931
1932 <glossdef>
1933 <para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1934 (optional).</para>
1935 </glossdef>
1936 </glossentry>
1937
1938 <glossentry>
1939 <glossterm><computeroutput>--lun</computeroutput></glossterm>
1940
1941 <glossdef>
1942 <para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1943 Often, this value is zero.</para>
1944 </glossdef>
1945 </glossentry>
1946
1947 <glossentry>
1948 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username, --password</computeroutput></glossterm>
1949
1950 <glossdef>
1951 <para>Username and password (initiator secret) for target
1952 authentication, if required (optional).<note>
1953 <para>Username and password are stored without
1954 encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1955 configuration file if no settings password is provided.
1956 When a settings password was specified the first time,
1957 the password is stored encrypted.</para>
1958 </note></para>
1959 </glossdef>
1960 </glossentry>
1961
1962 <glossentry>
1963 <glossterm><computeroutput>--intnet</computeroutput></glossterm>
1964
1965 <glossdef>
1966 <para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1967 Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1968 <xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1969 </glossdef>
1970 </glossentry>
1971 </glosslist></para>
1972 </sect1>
1973
1974 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1975 <title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1976
1977 <para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1978 this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1979 <computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1980 section).</para>
1981
1982 <para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1983
1984 <screen>VBoxManage storagectl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
1985 --name &lt;name&gt;
1986 [--add &lt;ide/sata/scsi/floppy&gt;]
1987 [--controller &lt;LsiLogic|LSILogicSAS|BusLogic|
1988 IntelAhci|PIIX3|PIIX4|ICH6|I82078&gt;]
1989 [--sataportcount &lt;1-30&gt;]
1990 [--hostiocache on|off]
1991 [--bootable on|off]
1992 [--remove]</screen>
1993
1994 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1995 <glossentry>
1996 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
1997
1998 <glossdef>
1999 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2000 </glossdef>
2001 </glossentry>
2002
2003 <glossentry>
2004 <glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2005
2006 <glossdef>
2007 <para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
2008 </glossdef>
2009 </glossentry>
2010
2011 <glossentry>
2012 <glossterm><computeroutput>--add</computeroutput></glossterm>
2013
2014 <glossdef>
2015 <para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
2016 controller must be connected.</para>
2017 </glossdef>
2018 </glossentry>
2019
2020 <glossentry>
2021 <glossterm><computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput></glossterm>
2022
2023 <glossdef>
2024 <para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
2025 given storage controller.</para>
2026 </glossdef>
2027 </glossentry>
2028
2029 <glossentry>
2030 <glossterm><computeroutput>--sataportcount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2031
2032 <glossdef>
2033 <para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
2034 support.</para>
2035 </glossdef>
2036 </glossentry>
2037
2038 <glossentry>
2039 <glossterm><computeroutput>--hostiocache</computeroutput></glossterm>
2040
2041 <glossdef>
2042 <para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
2043 attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
2044 linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
2045 </glossdef>
2046 </glossentry>
2047
2048 <glossentry>
2049 <glossterm><computeroutput>--bootable</computeroutput></glossterm>
2050
2051 <glossdef>
2052 <para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
2053 </glossdef>
2054 </glossentry>
2055
2056 <glossentry>
2057 <glossterm><computeroutput>--remove</computeroutput></glossterm>
2058
2059 <glossdef>
2060 <para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
2061 </glossdef>
2062 </glossentry>
2063 </glosslist></para>
2064 </sect1>
2065
2066 <sect1>
2067 <title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
2068
2069 <para>This command creates/deletes/modifies/shows bandwidth groups of the given
2070 virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl &lt;uuid|vmname&gt;
2071 add &lt;name&gt; --type disk|network --limit &lt;megabytes per second&gt;[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
2072 set &lt;name&gt; --limit &lt;megabytes per second&gt;[k|m|g|K|M|G] |
2073 remove &lt;name&gt; |
2074 list [--machinereadable]</screen></para>
2075
2076 <para>The following subcommands are available:<itemizedlist>
2077 <listitem>
2078 <para><computeroutput>add</computeroutput>, creates a new bandwidth
2079 group of given type.</para>
2080 </listitem>
2081 <listitem>
2082 <para><computeroutput>set</computeroutput>, modifies the limit for an
2083 existing bandwidth group.</para>
2084 </listitem>
2085 <listitem>
2086 <para><computeroutput>remove</computeroutput>, destroys a bandwidth
2087 group.</para>
2088 </listitem>
2089 <listitem>
2090 <para><computeroutput>list</computeroutput>, shows all bandwidth groups
2091 defined for the given VM.</para>
2092 </listitem>
2093 </itemizedlist>
2094 </para>
2095 <para>The parameters mean:<glosslist>
2096 <glossentry>
2097 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2098
2099 <glossdef>
2100 <para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2101 </glossdef>
2102 </glossentry>
2103
2104 <glossentry>
2105 <glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2106
2107 <glossdef>
2108 <para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
2109 </glossdef>
2110 </glossentry>
2111
2112 <glossentry>
2113 <glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
2114
2115 <glossdef>
2116 <para>Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
2117 supported: <computeroutput>disk</computeroutput> and
2118 <computeroutput>network</computeroutput>. See
2119 <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> or
2120 <xref linkend="network_bandwidth_limit" /> for a description of a
2121 particular type.</para>
2122 </glossdef>
2123 </glossentry>
2124
2125 <glossentry>
2126 <glossterm><computeroutput>--limit</computeroutput></glossterm>
2127
2128 <glossdef>
2129 <para>Specifies the limit for the given group. Can be changed
2130 while the VM is running. The default unit is megabytes per
2131 second. The unit can be changed by specifying one of the
2132 following suffixes: <computeroutput>k</computeroutput> for kilobits/s, <computeroutput>m</computeroutput> for megabits/s, <computeroutput>g</computeroutput> for gigabits/s, <computeroutput>K</computeroutput> for kilobytes/s, <computeroutput>M</computeroutput> for megabytes/s, <computeroutput>G</computeroutput> for gigabytes/s.</para>
2133 </glossdef>
2134 </glossentry>
2135 </glosslist>
2136 <note>
2137 <para>The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by
2138 virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.</para>
2139 </note>
2140 <note>
2141 <para>To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks
2142 or adapters in running VM.</para>
2143 </note>
2144 </para>
2145 </sect1>
2146
2147 <sect1>
2148 <title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2149
2150 <para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2151 notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2152 which use it.<note>
2153 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2154 "showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2155 "showhdinfo" command.</para>
2156 </note></para>
2157 <para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2158 is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2159 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2160 for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2161 as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2162 directory.</para>
2163 </sect1>
2164
2165 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2166 <title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2167
2168 <para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2169 follows:</para>
2170
2171 <screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename &lt;filename&gt;
2172 --size &lt;megabytes&gt;
2173 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
2174 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2175
2176 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2177 <glossentry>
2178 <glossterm><computeroutput>--filename</computeroutput></glossterm>
2179
2180 <glossdef>
2181 <para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2182 </glossdef>
2183 </glossentry>
2184
2185 <glossentry>
2186 <glossterm><computeroutput>--size</computeroutput></glossterm>
2187
2188 <glossdef>
2189 <para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2190 Mandatory.</para>
2191 </glossdef>
2192 </glossentry>
2193
2194 <glossentry>
2195 <glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2196
2197 <glossdef>
2198 <para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2199 from the file format of the input file.</para>
2200 </glossdef>
2201 </glossentry>
2202
2203 <glossentry>
2204 <glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2205
2206 <glossdef>
2207 <para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2208 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2209 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2210 result in an error message.</para>
2211 </glossdef>
2212 </glossentry>
2213 </glosslist> <note>
2214 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2215 "createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2216 "createhd" command.</para>
2217 </note></para>
2218 </sect1>
2219
2220 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2221 <title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2222
2223 <para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2224 change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2225 created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd &lt;uuid|filename&gt;
2226 [--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
2227 readonly|multiattach]
2228 [--autoreset on|off]
2229 [--compact]
2230 [--resize &lt;megabytes&gt;|--resizebyte &lt;bytes&gt;]</screen><note>
2231 <para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2232 all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2233 versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2234 mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2235 </note></para>
2236
2237 <para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2238 (if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2239 can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2240 (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2241 A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2242 or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2243 <para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2244 <listitem>
2245 <para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2246 can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2247 immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2248 linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2249 </listitem>
2250
2251 <listitem>
2252 <para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2253 <computeroutput>--autoreset on|off</computeroutput> option
2254 determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2255 startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2256 is "on".</para>
2257 </listitem>
2258
2259 <listitem>
2260 <para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2261 can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2262 contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2263 again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2264 image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2265 Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2266 part of a snapshot.</para>
2267
2268 <para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2269 space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2270 software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2271 <computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2272 Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2273 zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2274 image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2275 supports ext2/ext3 filesystems. For Mac OS X guests, use the
2276 <emphasis>Erase Free Space</emphasis> feature of the built-in
2277 <emphasis>Disk Utility</emphasis>. Use
2278 <emphasis>Zero Out Data</emphasis> there.</para>
2279
2280 <para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2281 VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2282 blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2283 format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2284 supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2285 </listitem>
2286
2287 <listitem>
2288 <para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2289 is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2290 allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2291 <emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2292 the physical size much.<footnote>
2293 <para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2294 </footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2295 for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2296 (not shrink) the capacity.
2297 For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2298 you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2299 command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2300 image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2301 this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2302 a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2303 to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2304 option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2305 instead of megabytes.</para>
2306 </listitem>
2307 </itemizedlist></para>
2308 </sect1>
2309
2310 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2311 <title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2312
2313 <para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2314 new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2315 transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2316 the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2317 linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2318
2319 <screen>VBoxManage clonehd &lt;uuid|inutfile&gt; &lt;uuid|outputfile&gt;
2320 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|&lt;other&gt;]
2321 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2322 [--existing]</screen>
2323
2324 <para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2325 either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2326 Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2327 (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2328 A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2329 as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2330 <para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2331 <glossentry>
2332 <glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2333
2334 <glossdef>
2335 <para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2336 from the file format of the input file.</para>
2337 </glossdef>
2338 </glossentry>
2339
2340 <glossentry>
2341 <glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2342
2343 <glossdef>
2344 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2345 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2346 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2347 result in an error message.</para>
2348 </glossdef>
2349 </glossentry>
2350
2351 <glossentry>
2352 <glossterm><computeroutput>--existing</computeroutput></glossterm>
2353
2354 <glossdef>
2355 <para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2356 destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2357 fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2358 destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2359 copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2360 the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2361 </glossdef>
2362 </glossentry>
2363 </glosslist> <note>
2364 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2365 "clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2366 "clonehd" command.</para>
2367 </note></para>
2368 </sect1>
2369
2370 <sect1>
2371 <title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2372
2373 <para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2374 (VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2375
2376 <screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw &lt;filename&gt; &lt;outputfile&gt;
2377 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
2378 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2379 [--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;]
2380VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin &lt;outputfile&gt; &lt;bytes&gt;
2381 [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
2382 [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2383 [--uuid &lt;uuid&gt;]</screen>
2384
2385 <para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2386 <glossentry>
2387 <glossterm><computeroutput>--bytes</computeroutput></glossterm>
2388
2389 <glossdef>
2390 <para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2391 stdin.</para>
2392 </glossdef>
2393 </glossentry>
2394
2395 <glossentry>
2396 <glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2397
2398 <glossdef>
2399 <para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2400 VDI.</para>
2401 </glossdef>
2402 </glossentry>
2403
2404 <glossentry>
2405 <glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2406
2407 <glossdef>
2408 <para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2409 It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2410 combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2411 result in an error message.</para>
2412 </glossdef>
2413 </glossentry>
2414
2415 <glossentry>
2416 <glossterm><computeroutput>--uuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
2417
2418 <glossdef>
2419 <para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2420 </glossdef>
2421 </glossentry>
2422 </glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2423 the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2424 pipe).</para>
2425
2426 <para><note>
2427 <para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2428 "convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2429 "convertfromraw" command.</para>
2430 </note></para>
2431 </sect1>
2432
2433 <sect1>
2434 <title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2435
2436 <para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2437 machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2438 <computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2439 name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2440 with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2441
2442 <screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2443VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2444
2445 <para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2446 the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2447 could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2448
2449 <screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2450
2451 <para>which would return</para>
2452
2453 <screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2454(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2455All rights reserved.
2456
2457Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2458 <para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2459 command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2460 </para>
2461
2462 <screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2463
2464 </sect1>
2465
2466 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2467 <title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2468
2469 <para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2470 entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2471 in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2472 following properties are available:<glosslist>
2473 <glossentry>
2474 <glossterm><computeroutput>machinefolder</computeroutput></glossterm>
2475
2476 <glossdef>
2477 <para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2478 definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2479 details.</para>
2480 </glossdef>
2481 </glossentry>
2482
2483 <glossentry>
2484 <glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2485
2486 <glossdef>
2487 <para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2488 authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2489 see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2490 </glossdef>
2491 </glossentry>
2492
2493 <glossentry>
2494 <glossterm><computeroutput>websrvauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2495
2496 <glossdef>
2497 <para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2498 authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2499 please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2500 linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2501 </glossdef>
2502 </glossentry>
2503
2504 <glossentry>
2505 <glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeextpack</computeroutput></glossterm>
2506
2507 <glossdef>
2508 <para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2509 Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2510 </glossdef>
2511 </glossentry>
2512
2513 <glossentry>
2514 <glossterm><computeroutput>loghistorycount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2515
2516 <glossdef>
2517 <para>This selects how many rotated (old) VM logs are kept.</para>
2518 </glossdef>
2519 </glossentry>
2520
2521 <glossentry>
2522 <glossterm><computeroutput>autostartdbpath</computeroutput></glossterm>
2523
2524 <glossdef>
2525 <para>This selects the path to the autostart database. See
2526 <xref linkend="autostart" />.</para>
2527 </glossdef>
2528 </glossentry>
2529
2530 <glossentry>
2531 <glossterm><computeroutput>defaultfrontend</computeroutput></glossterm>
2532
2533 <glossdef>
2534 <para>This selects the global default VM frontend setting. See
2535 <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
2536 </glossdef>
2537 </glossentry>
2538 </glosslist></para>
2539 </sect1>
2540
2541 <sect1>
2542 <title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2543
2544 <para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2545 working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2546 affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2547 machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2548 captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2549 particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2550 applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2551 available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2552 ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2553 machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2554 will.</para>
2555
2556 <para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2557 add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2558 The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2559 placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2560 following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2561 will be added onto the end of the list. The
2562 <computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2563 machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2564 to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2565 for the new filter and for global filters,
2566 <computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2567 access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2568 them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2569 filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2570 using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2571 you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2572 filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2573 connection) or either.</para>
2574
2575 <para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2576 modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2577 output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2578 find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2579 showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2580 by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2581 which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2582 add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2583 remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2584 </sect1>
2585
2586 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2587 <title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2588
2589 <para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2590 guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2591 of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2592 functionality.</para>
2593
2594 <para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2595 linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2596 </sect1>
2597
2598 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2599 <title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2600
2601 <para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2602 running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2603 for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2604 key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2605 guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2606 channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2607 Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2608 "/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2609 Additions.</para>
2610
2611 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2612 <computeroutput>&lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2613 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2614 <listitem>
2615 <para><computeroutput>enumerate &lt;vm&gt; [--patterns
2616 &lt;pattern&gt;]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2617 properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2618 This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2619 be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2620 Additions are not installed.</para>
2621
2622 <para>If <computeroutput>--patterns &lt;pattern&gt;</computeroutput>
2623 is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2624 the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2625 characters:<itemizedlist>
2626 <listitem>
2627 <para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2628 represents any number of characters; for example,
2629 "<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2630 all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2631 </listitem>
2632
2633 <listitem>
2634 <para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2635 represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2636 "<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2637 and "for".</para>
2638 </listitem>
2639
2640 <listitem>
2641 <para><computeroutput>|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2642 used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2643 "<computeroutput>s*|t*</computeroutput>" would match anything
2644 starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2645 </listitem>
2646 </itemizedlist></para>
2647 </listitem>
2648
2649 <listitem>
2650 <para><computeroutput>get &lt;vm&gt;</computeroutput>: This
2651 retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2652 cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2653 print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2654 </listitem>
2655
2656 <listitem>
2657 <para><computeroutput>set &lt;vm&gt; &lt;property&gt; [&lt;value&gt;
2658 [--flags &lt;flags&gt;]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2659 guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2660 <computeroutput>&lt;value&gt;</computeroutput> is omitted, the
2661 property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2662 you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2663 several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2664 <listitem>
2665 <para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2666 will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2667 </listitem>
2668
2669 <listitem>
2670 <para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2671 will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2672 </listitem>
2673
2674 <listitem>
2675 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2676 can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2677 it;</para>
2678 </listitem>
2679
2680 <listitem>
2681 <para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2682 the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2683 only read it;</para>
2684 </listitem>
2685
2686 <listitem>
2687 <para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2688 of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2689 </listitem>
2690 </itemizedlist></para>
2691 </listitem>
2692
2693 <listitem>
2694 <para><computeroutput>wait &lt;vm&gt; &lt;pattern&gt; --timeout
2695 &lt;timeout&gt;</computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2696 described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2697 pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2698 above.</para>
2699 </listitem>
2700
2701 <listitem>
2702 <para><computeroutput>delete &lt;vm&gt; &lt;property&gt;
2703 </computeroutput>: Deletes a formerly set guest property.
2704 </para></listitem>
2705 </itemizedlist></para>
2706 </sect1>
2707
2708 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2709 <title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2710
2711 <para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2712 inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2713 linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2714
2715 <para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2716
2717 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; &lt;command&gt;</screen>
2718
2719 <para>The following subcommands are available (where
2720 <computeroutput>&lt;uuid|vmname&gt;</computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2721 VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2722 <listitem>
2723 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput></emphasis>,
2724 which allows for
2725 executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2726 runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2727 running and has the following syntax:</para>
2728
2729 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; exec[ute]
2730 --image &lt;path to program&gt; --username &lt;name&gt;
2731 [--passwordfile &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]
2732 [--environment "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt; [&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;]"]
2733 [--verbose] [--timeout &lt;msec&gt;]
2734 [--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2735 [--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
2736 -- [[&lt;argument1&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentN&gt;]]</screen>
2737
2738 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2739 <glossentry>
2740 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2741
2742 <glossdef>
2743 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2744 </glossdef>
2745 </glossentry>
2746
2747 <glossentry>
2748 <glossterm><computeroutput>--image "&lt;path to program&gt;"</computeroutput></glossterm>
2749
2750 <glossdef>
2751 <para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2752 in the guest, e.g.
2753 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2754 </glossdef>
2755 </glossentry>
2756
2757 <glossentry>
2758 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2759
2760 <glossdef>
2761 <para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2762 user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2763 </glossdef>
2764 </glossentry>
2765
2766 <glossentry>
2767 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile &lt;file&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2768
2769 <glossdef>
2770 <para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2771 the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2772 assumed.</para>
2773 </glossdef>
2774 </glossentry>
2775
2776 <glossentry>
2777 <glossterm><computeroutput>--password &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2778
2779 <glossdef>
2780 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2781 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2782 an empty password is assumed.</para>
2783 </glossdef>
2784 </glossentry>
2785
2786 <glossentry>
2787 <glossterm><computeroutput>--dos2unix</computeroutput></glossterm>
2788
2789 <glossdef>
2790 Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2791 line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2792 </glossdef>
2793 </glossentry>
2794
2795 <glossentry>
2796 <glossterm><computeroutput>--environment
2797 "&lt;NAME&gt;=&lt;VALUE&gt;"</computeroutput></glossterm>
2798
2799 <glossdef>
2800 <para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2801 unset.</para>
2802
2803 <para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2804 created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2805 option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2806 a variable, a pair of
2807 <computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2808 specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2809 value must set, e.g.
2810 <computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2811
2812 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2813 quotation marks. More than one
2814 <computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2815 be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2816 </glossdef>
2817 </glossentry>
2818
2819 <glossentry>
2820 <glossterm><computeroutput>--timeout &lt;msec&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2821
2822 <glossdef>
2823 <para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2824 long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2825 VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2826 timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2827 started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2828 </glossdef>
2829 </glossentry>
2830
2831 <glossentry>
2832 <glossterm><computeroutput>--unix2dos</computeroutput></glossterm>
2833
2834 <glossdef>
2835 Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2836 line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2837 </glossdef>
2838 </glossentry>
2839
2840 <glossentry>
2841 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
2842
2843 <glossdef>
2844 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2845 </glossdef>
2846 </glossentry>
2847
2848 <glossentry>
2849 <glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-exit</computeroutput></glossterm>
2850
2851 <glossdef>
2852 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2853 exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2854 </glossdef>
2855 </glossentry>
2856
2857 <glossentry>
2858 <glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stdout</computeroutput></glossterm>
2859
2860 <glossdef>
2861 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2862 exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2863 VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2864 </glossdef>
2865 </glossentry>
2866
2867 <glossentry>
2868 <glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stderr</computeroutput></glossterm>
2869
2870 <glossdef>
2871 <para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2872 exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2873 VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2874 </glossdef>
2875 </glossentry>
2876
2877 <glossentry>
2878 <glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [&lt;argument1s&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentNs&gt;]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
2879
2880 <glossdef>
2881 <para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2882 executed.</para>
2883 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2884 quotation marks.</para>
2885 </glossdef>
2886 </glossentry>
2887
2888 </glosslist></para>
2889
2890 <para><note>
2891 <para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2892 applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2893 information.</para>
2894 </note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2895 --username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usr</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
2896 --username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2897 the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2898 Unix hosts.</para>
2899
2900 <para><note>
2901 <para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2902 must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2903 user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2904 policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2905 will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2906 in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2907 apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2908 </note></para>
2909
2910 <para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2911 to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2912 which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2913 in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2914 old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2915 are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2916 appropriate error message.</para>
2917
2918 <para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2919 property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2920 or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2921 needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2922 guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2923 </listitem>
2924
2925 <listitem>
2926 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput></emphasis>,
2927 which allows copying
2928 files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2929 Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2930
2931 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; copyto|cp
2932 &lt;guest source&gt; &lt;host dest&gt; --username &lt;name&gt;
2933 [--passwordfile &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]
2934 [--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2935
2936 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2937 <glossentry>
2938 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2939
2940 <glossdef>
2941 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2942 </glossdef>
2943 </glossentry>
2944
2945 <glossentry>
2946 <glossterm><computeroutput>source on host</computeroutput></glossterm>
2947
2948 <glossdef>
2949 <para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2950 to the guest, e.g.
2951 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2952 This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2953 <computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2954 </glossdef>
2955 </glossentry>
2956
2957 <glossentry>
2958 <glossterm><computeroutput>destination on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
2959
2960 <glossdef>
2961 <para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2962 <computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2963 </glossdef>
2964 </glossentry>
2965
2966 <glossentry>
2967 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2968
2969 <glossdef>
2970 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2971 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2972 </glossdef>
2973 </glossentry>
2974
2975 <glossentry>
2976 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile &lt;file&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2977
2978 <glossdef>
2979 <para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2980 the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2981 assumed.</para>
2982 </glossdef>
2983 </glossentry>
2984
2985 <glossentry>
2986 <glossterm><computeroutput>--password &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
2987
2988 <glossdef>
2989 <para>Password of the user account specified with
2990 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2991 an empty password is assumed.</para>
2992 </glossdef>
2993 </glossentry>
2994
2995 <glossentry>
2996 <glossterm><computeroutput>--dryrun</computeroutput></glossterm>
2997
2998 <glossdef>
2999 <para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
3000 really copying files to the guest.</para>
3001 </glossdef>
3002 </glossentry>
3003
3004 <glossentry>
3005 <glossterm><computeroutput>--follow</computeroutput></glossterm>
3006
3007 <glossdef>
3008 <para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
3009 source.</para>
3010 </glossdef>
3011 </glossentry>
3012
3013 <glossentry>
3014 <glossterm><computeroutput>--recursive</computeroutput></glossterm>
3015
3016 <glossdef>
3017 <para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
3018 source.</para>
3019 </glossdef>
3020 </glossentry>
3021
3022 <glossentry>
3023 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3024
3025 <glossdef>
3026 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3027 </glossdef>
3028 </glossentry>
3029
3030 <glossentry>
3031 <glossterm><computeroutput>--flags &lt;flags&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3032
3033 <glossdef>
3034 <para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
3035 moment.</para>
3036 </glossdef>
3037 </glossentry>
3038 </glosslist></para>
3039 </listitem>
3040
3041 <listitem>
3042 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyfrom</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3043 which allows copying
3044 files from the guest to the host (only with installed Guest
3045 Additions 4.0 and later). It has the same parameters as
3046 <computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput> above.</para>
3047 </listitem>
3048
3049 <listitem>
3050 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3051 which allows
3052 copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3053 Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3054
3055 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; createdir[ectory]|mkdir|md
3056 &lt;guest directory&gt;... --username &lt;name&gt;
3057 [--passwordfile &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]
3058 [--parents] [--mode &lt;mode&gt;] [--verbose]</screen>
3059
3060 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3061 <glossentry>
3062 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3063
3064 <glossdef>
3065 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3066 </glossdef>
3067 </glossentry>
3068
3069 <glossentry>
3070 <glossterm><computeroutput>directory to create on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3071
3072 <glossdef>
3073 <para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
3074 guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
3075 Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
3076 <computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
3077 <computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
3078 specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
3079 specified directory.</para>
3080 </glossdef>
3081 </glossentry>
3082
3083 <glossentry>
3084 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3085
3086 <glossdef>
3087 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3088 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3089 </glossdef>
3090 </glossentry>
3091
3092 <glossentry>
3093 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile &lt;file&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3094
3095 <glossdef>
3096 <para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3097 the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3098 assumed.</para>
3099 </glossdef>
3100 </glossentry>
3101
3102 <glossentry>
3103 <glossterm><computeroutput>--password &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3104
3105 <glossdef>
3106 <para>Password of the user account specified with
3107 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3108 an empty password is assumed.</para>
3109 </glossdef>
3110 </glossentry>
3111
3112 <glossentry>
3113 <glossterm><computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput></glossterm>
3114
3115 <glossdef>
3116 <para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
3117 the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
3118 <computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
3119 <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
3120 yet it will be created. Without specifying
3121 <computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
3122 have failed.</para>
3123 </glossdef>
3124 </glossentry>
3125
3126 <glossentry>
3127 <glossterm><computeroutput>--mode &lt;mode&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3128
3129 <glossdef>
3130 <para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3131 Only octal modes (e.g.
3132 <computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3133 now.</para>
3134 </glossdef>
3135 </glossentry>
3136
3137 <glossentry>
3138 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3139
3140 <glossdef>
3141 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3142 </glossdef>
3143 </glossentry>
3144 </glosslist></para>
3145 </listitem>
3146
3147 <listitem>
3148 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createtemporary</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3149 which allows
3150 copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3151 Additions 4.2 and later).</para>
3152
3153 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; createtemp[orary]|mktemp
3154 &lt;template&gt; --username &lt;name&gt;
3155 [--passwordfile &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]
3156 [--directory] [--secure] [--tmpdir &lt;directory&gt;]
3157 [--domain &lt;domain&gt;] [--mode &lt;mode&gt;] [--verbose]</screen>
3158
3159 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3160 <glossentry>
3161 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3162
3163 <glossdef>
3164 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3165 </glossdef>
3166 </glossentry>
3167
3168 <glossentry>
3169 <glossterm><computeroutput>template</computeroutput></glossterm>
3170
3171 <glossdef>
3172 <para>A file name without a path and with at least three consecutive 'X'
3173 characters or ending in 'X'
3174 </para>
3175 </glossdef>
3176 </glossentry>
3177
3178 <glossentry>
3179 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3180
3181 <glossdef>
3182 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3183 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3184 </glossdef>
3185 </glossentry>
3186
3187 <glossentry>
3188 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile &lt;file&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3189
3190 <glossdef>
3191 <para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3192 the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3193 assumed.</para>
3194 </glossdef>
3195 </glossentry>
3196
3197 <glossentry>
3198 <glossterm><computeroutput>--password &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3199
3200 <glossdef>
3201 <para>Password of the user account specified with
3202 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3203 an empty password is assumed.</para>
3204 </glossdef>
3205 </glossentry>
3206
3207 <glossentry>
3208 <glossterm><computeroutput>--directory</computeroutput></glossterm>
3209
3210 <glossdef>
3211 <para>Create a temporary directory instead of a file.</para>
3212 </glossdef>
3213 </glossentry>
3214
3215 <glossentry>
3216 <glossterm><computeroutput>--secure</computeroutput></glossterm>
3217
3218 <glossdef>
3219 <para>
3220 Secure creation. The file mode is fixed to
3221 <computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>. And the operation
3222 will fail if it cannot performed securely.
3223 </para>
3224 </glossdef>
3225 </glossentry>
3226
3227 <glossentry>
3228 <glossterm><computeroutput>--tmpdir &lt;directory&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3229
3230 <glossdef>
3231 <para>
3232 Directory where the file / directory is created. If not
3233 specified, the platform-specific temp directory is used.
3234 </para>
3235 </glossdef>
3236 </glossentry>
3237
3238 <glossentry>
3239 <glossterm><computeroutput>--mode &lt;mode&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3240
3241 <glossdef>
3242 <para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3243 Only octal modes (e.g.
3244 <computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3245 now.</para>
3246 </glossdef>
3247 </glossentry>
3248
3249 <glossentry>
3250 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3251
3252 <glossdef>
3253 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3254 </glossdef>
3255 </glossentry>
3256 </glosslist></para>
3257 </listitem>
3258
3259 <listitem>
3260 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3261 which lists various guest control information such as open guest sessions and
3262 guest processes.</para>
3263
3264 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; list
3265 &lt;all|sessions|processes&gt; [--verbose]</screen>
3266
3267 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3268 <glossentry>
3269 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3270
3271 <glossdef>
3272 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3273 </glossdef>
3274 </glossentry>
3275
3276 <glossentry>
3277 <glossterm><computeroutput>all|sessions|processes</computeroutput></glossterm>
3278
3279 <glossdef>
3280 <para>Whether to list guest sessions, guest processes or all information
3281 available.</para>
3282 </glossdef>
3283 </glossentry>
3284
3285 <glossentry>
3286 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3287
3288 <glossdef>
3289 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3290 </glossdef>
3291 </glossentry>
3292 </glosslist></para>
3293 </listitem>
3294
3295 <listitem>
3296 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3297 which displays file
3298 or file system status on the guest.</para>
3299
3300 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; stat
3301 &lt;file&gt;... --username &lt;name&gt;
3302 [--passwordfile &lt;file&gt; | --password &lt;password&gt;]
3303 [--verbose]</screen>
3304
3305 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3306 <glossentry>
3307 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3308
3309 <glossdef>
3310 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3311 </glossdef>
3312 </glossentry>
3313
3314 <glossentry>
3315 <glossterm><computeroutput>file element(s) to check on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3316
3317 <glossdef>
3318 <para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
3319 guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
3320 The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
3321 the given file element(s).</para>
3322 </glossdef>
3323 </glossentry>
3324
3325 <glossentry>
3326 <glossterm><computeroutput>--username &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3327
3328 <glossdef>
3329 <para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3330 This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3331 </glossdef>
3332 </glossentry>
3333
3334 <glossentry>
3335 <glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile &lt;file&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3336
3337 <glossdef>
3338 <para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3339 the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3340 assumed.</para>
3341 </glossdef>
3342 </glossentry>
3343
3344 <glossentry>
3345 <glossterm><computeroutput>--password &lt;password&gt;</computeroutput></glossterm>
3346
3347 <glossdef>
3348 <para>Password of the user account specified with
3349 <computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3350 an empty password is assumed.</para>
3351 </glossdef>
3352 </glossentry>
3353
3354 <glossentry>
3355 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3356
3357 <glossdef>
3358 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3359 </glossdef>
3360 </glossentry>
3361 </glosslist></para>
3362 </listitem>
3363
3364 <listitem>
3365 <para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3366 which allows
3367 for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
3368 guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3369
3370 <screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol &lt;uuid|vmname&gt; updateadditions
3371 [--source "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to use&gt;"] [--verbose]
3372 [--wait-start] [-- [&lt;argument1&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentN&gt;]]</screen>
3373
3374 <para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3375 <glossentry>
3376 <glossterm><computeroutput>uuid|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3377
3378 <glossdef>
3379 <para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3380 </glossdef>
3381 </glossentry>
3382
3383 <glossentry>
3384 <glossterm><computeroutput>--source</computeroutput> "&lt;guest additions .ISO file to
3385 use&gt;"</glossterm>
3386
3387 <glossdef>
3388 <para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3389 .ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3390 </glossdef>
3391 </glossentry>
3392
3393 <glossentry>
3394 <glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3395
3396 <glossdef>
3397 <para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3398 </glossdef>
3399 </glossentry>
3400
3401 <glossentry>
3402 <glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-start</computeroutput></glossterm>
3403 <glossdef>
3404 <para>Starts the regular updating process and waits until the
3405 actual Guest Additions update inside the guest was started.
3406 This can be necessary due to needed interaction with the
3407 guest OS during the installation phase.</para>
3408 <para>When omitting this flag VBoxManage will wait for the
3409 whole Guest Additions update to complete.</para>
3410 </glossdef>
3411 </glossentry>
3412
3413 <glossentry>
3414 <glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [&lt;argument1s&gt;] ... [&lt;argumentNs&gt;]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
3415
3416 <glossdef>
3417 <para>Optional command line arguments to use for the Guest Additions
3418 installer. Useful for retrofitting features which weren't installed
3419 before on the guest.</para>
3420 <para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
3421 quotation marks.</para>
3422 </glossdef>
3423 </glossentry>
3424 </glosslist></para>
3425 </listitem>
3426 </itemizedlist></para>
3427 </sect1>
3428
3429 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3430 <title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3431
3432 <para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3433 exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3434 in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3435 very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3436 software.</para>
3437
3438 <para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3439 machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3440 <listitem>
3441 <para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3442 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3443 running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3444 will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3445 <xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3446
3447 <para>This corresponds to the
3448 <computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3449 </para>
3450 </listitem>
3451
3452 <listitem>
3453 <para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3454 display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3455 associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3456 name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3457 arguments specific to the info item.
3458 The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3459 listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3460 arguments.</para>
3461
3462 <para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3463 command in the debugger.</para>
3464 </listitem>
3465
3466 <listitem>
3467 <para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3468 a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3469 for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3470 on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3471 operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3472 doing.</para>
3473 </listitem>
3474
3475 <listitem>
3476 <para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3477 VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3478 system.</para>
3479
3480 <para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3481 command in the debugger.</para>
3482 </listitem>
3483
3484 <listitem>
3485 <para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3486 display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3487 debugger facility.</para>
3488 </listitem>
3489
3490 <listitem>
3491 <para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3492 used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3493 of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3494 <itemizedlist>
3495 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3496 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3497 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3498 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3499 <listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3500 </itemizedlist>
3501 The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3502 registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3503 case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3504 can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3505 <computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3506 </para>
3507 </listitem>
3508
3509 <listitem>
3510 <para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3511 used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3512 of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3513 <itemizedlist>
3514 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3515 <listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3516 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3517 <listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3518 </itemizedlist>
3519 The value format should be in the same style as what
3520 <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3521 exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3522 hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3523 are handled the same way as with the
3524 <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3525 </listitem>
3526
3527 <listitem>
3528 <para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3529 used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3530 <computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3531 statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3532 <computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3533 DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3534 <computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3535 </listitem>
3536 </itemizedlist></para>
3537 </sect1>
3538
3539 <sect1 id="metrics">
3540 <title>VBoxManage metrics</title>
3541
3542 <para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3543 Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3544 system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3545 <computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3546 percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3547 sampling period.</para>
3548
3549 <para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3550 retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3551 query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3552 background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3553 process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3554 closed.</para>
3555
3556 <para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3557 not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
3558 is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
3559 retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
3560 collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
3561 keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
3562 used:</para>
3563
3564 <screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
3565
3566 <para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
3567 data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
3568 it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
3569 </computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
3570 You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
3571 subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
3572 affected.</para>
3573
3574 <para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3575 setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
3576 previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
3577
3578 <para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
3579 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
3580 <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
3581 can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
3582 like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
3583 other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
3584 <code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
3585
3586 <para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
3587 Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3588 list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
3589
3590 <para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
3591 has the following form:
3592 <computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
3593 For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
3594 for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
3595 applied to the host object.</para>
3596
3597 <para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
3598 to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
3599 in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
3600 all objects. You may use an asterisk
3601 ("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
3602 command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
3603 object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
3604 limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
3605 separated by commas.</para>
3606
3607 <para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
3608 kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
3609 following command:</para>
3610
3611 <screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
3612
3613 <para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
3614
3615 <glosslist>
3616 <glossentry>
3617 <glossterm><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></glossterm>
3618
3619 <glossdef>
3620 <para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
3621 metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
3622 particular VM is running.</para>
3623 </glossdef>
3624 </glossentry>
3625
3626 <glossentry>
3627 <glossterm><computeroutput>setup</computeroutput></glossterm>
3628
3629 <glossdef>
3630 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3631 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3632 retained data is available for displaying with the
3633 <code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
3634 </computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
3635 the result of the command execution.</para>
3636 </glossdef>
3637 </glossentry>
3638
3639 <glossentry>
3640 <glossterm><computeroutput>enable</computeroutput></glossterm>
3641
3642 <glossdef>
3643 <para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
3644 stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
3645 submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
3646 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3647 did what was expected.</para>
3648 </glossdef>
3649 </glossentry>
3650
3651 <glossentry>
3652 <glossterm><computeroutput>disable</computeroutput></glossterm>
3653
3654 <glossdef>
3655 <para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
3656 collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
3657 submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
3658 <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3659 did what was expected.</para>
3660 </glossdef>
3661 </glossentry>
3662
3663 <glossentry>
3664 <glossterm><computeroutput>query</computeroutput></glossterm>
3665
3666 <glossdef>
3667 <para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
3668 metric data.<note>
3669 <para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
3670 "flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
3671 how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
3672 samples.</para>
3673 </note></para>
3674 </glossdef>
3675 </glossentry>
3676
3677 <glossentry>
3678 <glossterm><computeroutput>collect</computeroutput></glossterm>
3679
3680 <glossdef>
3681 <para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3682 of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3683 collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
3684 unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
3685 specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
3686 option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
3687 does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
3688 metrics match the specified filter.</para>
3689 </glossdef>
3690 </glossentry>
3691 </glosslist>
3692 </sect1>
3693
3694 <sect1>
3695 <title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
3696
3697 <para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
3698 network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
3699 refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
3700 identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
3701 manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
3702 </sect1>
3703
3704 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
3705 <title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
3706
3707 <para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
3708 is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
3709 host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
3710 network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
3711 servers in your physical network.)</para>
3712
3713 <para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
3714 <listitem>
3715 <para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
3716 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3717 --netname &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>, where
3718 <computeroutput>&lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the same
3719 network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
3720 &lt;vmname&gt; --intnet&lt;X&gt;
3721 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
3722 </listitem>
3723
3724 <listitem>
3725 <para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
3726 of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3727 --ifname &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> instead, where
3728 <computeroutput>&lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> is the
3729 same host-only interface name you used with
3730 <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm &lt;vmname&gt;
3731 --hostonlyadapter&lt;X&gt;
3732 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput>.</para>
3733
3734 <para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
3735 internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
3736 see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
3737 hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
3738 above).</para>
3739 </listitem>
3740 </itemizedlist></para>
3741
3742 <para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
3743 DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
3744 <listitem>
3745 <para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
3746 address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
3747 </listitem>
3748
3749 <listitem>
3750 <para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
3751 netmask of the network.</para>
3752 </listitem>
3753
3754 <listitem>
3755 <para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
3756 <computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
3757 lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
3758 will hand out to clients.</para>
3759 </listitem>
3760 </itemizedlist></para>
3761
3762 <para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
3763 or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
3764 nothing.</para>
3765
3766 <para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
3767 given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
3768 which uses that network is started.</para>
3769
3770 <para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
3771 remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
3772 &lt;network_name&gt;</computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
3773 &lt;hostonly_if_name&gt;</computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
3774 for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
3775
3776 <para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
3777 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
3778 <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
3779 network or host-only interface name.</para>
3780 </sect1>
3781
3782 <sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
3783 <title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
3784
3785 <para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
3786 extension packs, as described in <xref
3787 linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
3788 <listitem>
3789 <para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
3790 extpack install &lt;.vbox-extpack&gt;</computeroutput>. This command
3791 will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
3792 installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
3793 parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
3794 package is installed.</para>
3795 </listitem>
3796
3797 <listitem>
3798 <para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
3799 <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
3800 &lt;name&gt;</computeroutput>. You can use
3801 <computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
3802 the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
3803 please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
3804 <computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
3805 override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
3806 </listitem>
3807
3808 <listitem>
3809 <para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
3810 cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
3811 files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
3812 install or uninstall command failed.</para>
3813 </listitem>
3814 </itemizedlist></para>
3815 <para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
3816 remove one:<screen>
3817$ VBoxManage list extpacks
3818Extension Packs: 1
3819Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
3820Version: 4.1.12
3821Revision: 77218
3822Edition:
3823Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
3824VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
3825Usable: true
3826Why unusable:
3827$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
38280%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
3829Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
3830 </sect1>
3831</chapter>
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