VBoxManage

Reference

See Chapter 8 in the VirtualBox Manual.

Cheat Sheet

This is just a short list of some possible commands. All of these commands have many more options or variants, so refer to the documentation or command help.

To get a list of all the available commands, enter VBoxManage in your console.

VBoxManage -v

print version number

VBoxManage list --long vms

List available machines

Without the --long option, this will show you just the name and UUID of the machine.

E.g. "vagrant_default_1418918147177_40503" {874b812c-f37d-4f98-84a8-06460d3104f8}

The name (or UUID) is used in most commands to specify which VM you are interacting with.

VBoxManage showvminfo vmname --details

Show the details of your machine

Upon first look, this command seems to be the same as list --long, but there is a bit more information in showvminfo

For comparison, try meld <$(VBoxManage list --long vms) <$(VBoxManage showvminfo vagrant_default_1418918147177_40503 --details)

PS C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox> ./VBoxManage showvminfo 'RL8 Freephile'
Name:                        RL8 Freephile
Encryption:     disabled
Groups:                      /
Guest OS:                    Red Hat (64-bit)
UUID:                        f7e056c0-289d-483c-bf51-eafea0bc8fcd
Config file:                 C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\RL8 Freephile.vbox
Snapshot folder:             C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\Snapshots
Log folder:                  C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\Logs
Hardware UUID:               f7e056c0-289d-483c-bf51-eafea0bc8fcd
Memory size:                 8192MB
Page Fusion:                 disabled
VRAM size:                   16MB
CPU exec cap:                100%
HPET:                        disabled
CPUProfile:                  host
Chipset:                     piix3
Firmware:                    BIOS
Number of CPUs:              1
PAE:                         enabled
Long Mode:                   enabled
Triple Fault Reset:          disabled
APIC:                        enabled
X2APIC:                      enabled
Nested VT-x/AMD-V:           disabled
CPUID Portability Level:     0
CPUID overrides:             None
Boot menu mode:              message and menu
Boot Device 1:               Floppy
Boot Device 2:               DVD
Boot Device 3:               HardDisk
Boot Device 4:               Not Assigned
ACPI:                        enabled
IOAPIC:                      enabled
BIOS APIC mode:              APIC
Time offset:                 0ms
BIOS NVRAM File:             C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\RL8 Freephile.nvram
RTC:                         UTC
Hardware Virtualization:     enabled
Nested Paging:               enabled
Large Pages:                 enabled
VT-x VPID:                   enabled
VT-x Unrestricted Exec.:     enabled
AMD-V Virt. Vmsave/Vmload:   enabled
IOMMU:                       None
Paravirt. Provider:          Default
Effective Paravirt. Prov.:   KVM
State:                       powered off (since 2024-01-03T00:10:59.509000000)
Graphics Controller:         VMSVGA
Monitor count:               1
3D Acceleration:             disabled
2D Video Acceleration:       disabled
Teleporter Enabled:          disabled
Teleporter Port:             0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Tracing Enabled:             disabled
Allow Tracing to Access VM:  disabled
Tracing Configuration:
Autostart Enabled:           disabled
Autostart Delay:             0
Default Frontend:
VM process priority:         default
Storage Controllers:
#0: 'IDE', Type: PIIX4, Instance: 0, Ports: 2 (max 2), Bootable
  Port 1, Unit 0: Empty, temp eject
#1: 'SATA', Type: IntelAhci, Instance: 0, Ports: 1 (max 30), Bootable
  Port 0, Unit 0: UUID: 1d6190dd-5b96-4f1e-8caf-08e40e42b85b
    Location: "C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\RL8 Freephile.vdi"
NIC 1:                       MAC: 080027A7A249, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: allow-all, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = SSH, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 2222, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       MAC: 0800276B5DD7, Attachment: none, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled
Pointing Device:             PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device:             PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:                      disabled
UART 2:                      disabled
UART 3:                      disabled
UART 4:                      disabled
LPT 1:                       disabled
LPT 2:                       disabled
Audio:                       enabled (Driver: Default, Controller: AC97, Codec: AD1980)
Audio playback:              enabled
Audio capture:               disabled
Clipboard Mode:              Bidirectional
Drag and drop Mode:          disabled
VRDE:                        disabled
OHCI USB:                    enabled
EHCI USB:                    enabled
xHCI USB:                    disabled
USB Device Filters:          <none>
Bandwidth groups:            <none>
Shared folders:              <none>
Recording enabled:           no
Recording screens:           1
 Screen 0:
    Enabled:                 yes
    ID:                      0
    Record video:            yes
    Record audio:            no
    Destination:             File
    File:                    C:\Users\greg\VirtualBox VMs\RL8 Freephile\RL8 Freephile-screen0.webm
    Options:                 vc_enabled=true,ac_enabled=false,ac_profile=med
    Video dimensions:        1024x768
    Video rate:              512kbps
    Video FPS:               25fps
* Guest:
Configured memory balloon:   0MB

VBoxManage modifyvm vmname --memory 2048

Give the vm 2 GB of RAM (Note that this will not persist if your VM is defined by Vagrant. To persist changes in Vagrant, you would modify the Vagrantfile-extra.rb file)

VBoxManage import <ovfname/ovaname> --dry-run

import an appliance that you exported somewhere else

Basic Input Output System. The part that executes when a computer is first booted and hardware is detected.