Starting VirtualBox from Command Line

Posted Thursday, 04 March 2010 at 03:43 by Andrew Liu
Tagged: linux | fedora | virtualisation
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If you use virtual machines enough, eventually you want to automate them with your server so that they startup when your server is restarted. That will save one of your technicians (ie. yourself) from having to remote in and boot it up. Fortunately, doing so is fairly easy.

Using the following command, we can see which VirtualBox images are available.

$ VBoxManage list vms
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Name:            Windows XP
Guest OS:        Windows XP
UUID:            f3661991-95ad-4ffb-b0a6-c9f784d88ba1
Config file:     /root/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
Memory size:     512MB
VRAM size:       12MB
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          off
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0 ms
Hardw. virt.ext: off
Nested Paging:   off
VT-x VPID:       off
State:           saved (since 2009-03-31T07:50:12.000000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
Floppy:          empty
SATA:            disabled
IDE Controller:  PIIX4
Primary master:  /root/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Windows XP.vdi (UUID: 5aa11c46-af05-4b3a-9783-0fb38742fb9b)
DVD:             /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (UUID: 02ac5e4e-8f88-4f5d-bf01-7f6ec0240d07)
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800279C1118, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps
NIC 2:           MAC: 080027093D8B, Attachment: Host Interface 'eth0', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
Audio:           disabled (Driver: Unknown, Controller: Unknown)
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
VRDP:            disabled
USB:             disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Shared folders:  <none>

Guest:

Statistics update:                   disabled

We only have one VMS here, but if you have multiple VMSs, then you will see this multiplied by each VMS you have. When you have identified the name of the VMS you wish to start, the command is simple.

$ VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP" -type vrdp

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Waiting for the remote session to open...
Remote session has been successfully opened.

If you want to install VirtualBox as a service using startup/shutdown scripts, see this very good post from Brendan Kidwell.