Working With VirtualBox Via Command Line

Virtualbox is a great way of running different opeating systems and testing out software or running software that is not available on your *main* operating system of choice.

I run linux as my primary OS but I keep several windows virtual machines around to do various tasks. All of them I can remote desktop into however not always am I on or have access to the terminal of the machine hosting the virtual machines...this is where manipulating virtual box and its VM's via command line comes in handy. Below are some quick guides on how to do the basic tasks via command line / ssh. Replace anything inside <> with your corrent names.

Make a Snapshot

VBoxManage snapshot <Name_of_VM> take <Name_of_Snapshot>

Restore A Snapshot

VBoxManage snapshot <Name_of_VM> restore <Name_of_Snapshot>

List Snapshots For a VM

VBoxManage snapshot <VM_NAME> list

Start A VM

VBoxManage startvm "<NAME_OF_VM>" --type headless