Virtualization: Virtualbox command line options and control
Controlling the VirtualBox VM
Now that we have VirtualBox installed and a VM guest created we need to control and modify the VM
How to List VM information
How to show the VirtualBox VM info
vmadmin$ VBoxManage showvminfo <vmname>
How to show the VM Harddrive info
vmadmin$ VBoxManage showhdinfo <filename>
How to list running VM
vmadmin$ VBoxManage list runningvms
How to list available VM
vmadmin$ VBoxManage list vms
How to list available VM Harddrives
vmadmin$ VBoxManage list hdds
How to list available ISO’s
vmadmin$ VBoxManage list dvds
How to Control VM
How to Start VM
nohup and & to place process in background, so VM continues to run after closing console.
vmadmin$ nohup VBoxHeadless –startvm <vmname> &
How to pause VM
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> pause
How to resume VM
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> resume
How to reset VM
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> reset
How to poweroff VM (hard poweroff eg. pull the plug)
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> poweroff
How to poweroff VM (Save State)
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> savestate
How to send poweroff single to VM (tells VM OS to shutdown)
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> acpipowerbutton
* Be certain to set your power options inside of your guest OS to respond to the power button.
How to attach a DVD / CD to a running vm
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> dvdattach <filename>
How to de-attach a DVD / CD from a running vm
vmadmin$ VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> dvdattach none
By: Fabio Milano, additions by Tim Conrad
