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
--longoption, 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 inshowvminfo - 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