Suppose you want to create and run virtual machines (VMs) on VirtualBox. However, a host machine does not support X11 environment, or you only have access to a terminal on a remote host machine. Then how can you create and run VMs on such a host machine without VirtualBox GUI? This can be a common situation for servers where VMs are managed from remotely.
In fact, VirtualBox comes with a suite of command line utilities, and you can use the VirtualBox command line interfaces (CLIs) to manage VMs on a remote headless server. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create and start a VM without VirtualBox GUI.
Prerequisite for starting VirtualBox VM without GUI
First, you need to install VirtualBox Extension Pack. The Extension Pack is needed to run a VRDE remote desktop server used to access headless VMs. Its binary is available for free. To download and install VirtualBox Extension Pack:
$ sudo VBoxManage extpack install ./Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.2.12-84980.vbox-extpack
Verify that the Extension Pack is successfully installed, by using the following command.
Extension Packs: 1 Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack Version: 4.2.12 Revision: 84980 Edition: Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support. VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP Usable: true Why unusable:
Create a VirtualBox VM from the command line
I assume that the VirtualBox' VM directory is located in "~/VirtualBox\ VMs".
First create a VM. The name of the VM is "testvm" in this example.
Specify the hardware configurations of the VM (e.g., Ubuntu OS type, 1024MB memory, bridged networking, DVD booting).
Create a disk image (with size of 10000 MB). Optionally, you can specify disk image format by using "--format [VDI|VMDK|VHD]" option. Without this option, VDI image format will be used by default.
Add an IDE controller to the VM.
Attach the previously created disk image as well as CD/DVD drive to the IDE controller. Ubuntu installation ISO image (found in /iso/ubuntu-12.04.1-server-i386.iso) is then inserted to the CD/DVD drive.
$ VBoxManage storageattach "testvm" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /iso/ubuntu-12.04.1-server-i386.iso
Start VirtualBox VM from the command line
Once a new VM is created, you can start the VM headless (i.e., without VirtualBox console GUI) as follows.
The above command will launch the VM, as well as VRDE remote desktop server. The remote desktop server is needed to access the headless VM's console.
By default, the VRDE server is listening on TCP port 3389. If you want to change the default port number, use "-e" option as follows.
If you don't need remote desktop support, launch a VM with "--vrde off" option.
Connect to headless VirtualBox VM via remote desktop
Once a VM is launched with remote desktop support, you can access the VM's console via any remote desktop client (e.g., rdesktop).
To install rdesktop on Ubuntu or Debian:
To install rdesktop on CentOS, RHEL or Fedora, configure Repoforge on your system, and then run the following.
To access a headless VM on a remote host machine, run the following.
If you use a custom port number for a remote desktop server, run the following instead.
Once rdesktop is successfully connected to the VM via remote desktop, you will see the initial installation screen.
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Man, you saved my day! I was struggling to get the VRDE going. And the extension pack just helps me a lot. You rock!
The remote desktop does not work. I installed Virtualbox in a remote machines. logged in to that machine with ssh. then I created a VM following the steps as given above. Everything went alright. I could run the headless VM from the command line in a remote machine. But I could not access the VM I created. That means, I could not connect to a headless VM.
Is there any way to connect to the headless VM from a remote machine (In my setting, Virtualbox is installed in a remote machine, and I can only access it through ssh)?
Verify the following on the remote server:
1) VRDE server is running okay.
2) There is no firewall blocking access to the TCP port that VRDE is running on.
If nothing still works, you could run VirtualBox GUI over ssh.
Does anyone know if a web based wrapper around virtualbox-cli exists?
phpVirtualBox - http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpvirtualbox
You can also try RemoteBox: http://xmodulo.com/2013/07/how-to-manage-virtualbox-vms-on-remote-headless-server.html
Thank you very much it was just what I need to start fun with VirtualBox.
Some other useful commands:
to stop/poweroff a VM:
$ VBoxManage controlvm "testvm" poweroff
to check an already created VM:
$ VBoxManage showvminfo "testvm"
thanks a lot for this guide. In case anyone else is having an issue with there not being any ethernet controllers inside the VM once you RDP into it (I was having some problems when connecting to a win7 vm) try setting up an additional network adapter:
VBoxManage modifyvm "testvm" --nic2 nat --nictype2 82540EM
This should get you online once inside the VM.
(I specified --nictype2 82540EM b/c using windows, --nictype2 Am79C973 might be fine as well)
I followed all the steps what you did, but while giving iso path,its showing error "Could not get the storage format of the medium". Can anybody help me to resolve this issue ??
Thanks in advance !!
Thank you very much Dan Nani, this is good tutorial i followed it and finaly i can view installation VM from rdesktop :)
thank you for this really great tutorial. the steps helped me create a vm without GUI. I'm now one step closer to becoming a command line addict.
@rene just specify the bridged adapter nictype as 82540EM, I've never had luck with any other nictype. This has nothing to do with nat vs bridged and everything to do with the nictype (82540EM is always default when using the gui I've noticed).