Comments on VBoxHeadless - Running Virtual Machines With VirtualBox 2.0 On A Headless Ubuntu 8.04 Server

VBoxHeadless - Running Virtual Machines With VirtualBox 2.0 On A Headless Ubuntu 8.04 Server This guide explains how you can run virtual machines with Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.0 on a headless Ubuntu 8.04 server. Normally you use the VirtualBox GUI to manage your virtual machines, but a server does not have a desktop environment. Fortunately, VirtualBox comes with a tool called VBoxHeadless that allows you to connect to the virtual machines over a remote desktop connection, so there's no need for the VirtualBox GUI.

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By: Anonymous

How can I start VMs without logging in during bootup?

How could I write an init script to do this?

 

Thanks.

James

By: Richard Gomes

Insert these lines in your /etc/rc.local :

for vm in `ls /root/.VirtualBox/Machines` ;do
  VBoxManage startvm $vm -type vrdp
done

Obs: I have a .VirtualBox under my /root. See what applies to your environment.

Hope it helps

Richard Gomes
http://www.jquantlib.org/index.php/User:RichardGomes

By: Richard Gomes

Insert these lines in your /etc/rc.local :

for vm in `ls /root/.VirtualBox/Machines` ;do
  VBoxManage startvm $vm -type vrdp
done

Obs: I have a .VirtualBox under my /root. See what applies to your environment.

Hope it helps

Richard Gomes
http://www.jquantlib.org/index.php/User:RichardGomes

By: Brian

hi,

having tryed a few different ways, of starting a virtual machine from remote and then exiting the rsh connection to the remote host. the method below is the one that works for me in solaris.

VBoxManage startvm <session name> -type vrdp

Brian,

By: Opieum

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=888454&highlight=paradexes

What you described could just as easily apply to VMware as well. VMware may not be FOSS but it is at least free in price.  And TBH I find it to be more rock solid in terms of quality with more robust Virtual hardware support. The new web interface can give you a very good opportunity at creating and managing VMs. Or you could use Vmware 1.0 and install the client portion on a remote machine to manage the server. Both products are free. Or if you have compatibile hardware install ESXi which would be the best option if you are going to run headless.  

 

By: a non-emouse

to do the same thing, you could run

screen  VBoxHeadless -startvm dev1

 then hit control A then D

 and it will run happily in the background, and even log out from the desktop or terminal session.

 screen -dr will happily bring it back to the foreground when you want it, even from a remote session.

By: Joseph Moreland

How about 

nohup VBoxHeadless -startvm dev1 &

 then logout without worry.

 

By: Shane watson

i  have  found this  article http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/important-information-about-hyper-v.html

about insatling VMWare on window platform. its sounds goods working on window i think linux would be the better platform.

By: markba

The VBoxHeadless command can also be issued like this:
VBoxManage startvm <session name> -type vrdp

It works flawlessly, it is not necessary to add a '&' after the command to regain console control.

For easy control of controlling VirtualBox sessions in a headless Linux environment, I'm currently developing a management framework: VBoxTool. As of now, it consist a script with which you can mass start, save, backup and configure (vrdp port) vbox sessions.
http://vboxtool.sourceforge.net/

By: Sean Stoops

I use this everyday, thought I usually append an ampersand on the end so kick it into the background.

 VBoxHeadless -startvm dev1 &

Just make sure you don't go closing that terminal session or else your VM will go down with it.

By: Daniel

Excellent article! Is it possible to run VirtualBox as described in this article but access desktop VMs on the same machine instead of remotely? Servers I can see, but how would one invoke a VM running, say, Xubuntu? I want to have a good base server OS that never gets modified, and on top of it run a network of VMs (graphical and otherwise) to do my web development.

By: marmellat

it works perfectly on my debian lenny , thanks

By: 2iR0n

# For vms installed by a normal user (not root) this works on a Ubuntu 9.04 host machine.

for vm in `ls /home/USER/.VirtualBox/Machines`

do

/bin/su -l USER -c "nohup /usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm $vm --type vrdp"

done

# If more than one vm is to be started you will need to set different ports for vrdp to work. Eg...

VBoxManage modifyvm VMNAME --vrdpport 3390

rdesktop xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3390

# for Windows TS client you have to edit the freakin' registry... LOL

 

By: Anonymous

Thanks for this script.  Suitably modified, it was exactly what I was looking for.

By: Limey

This is exactly what I'm trying to do, but won't...


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential virtualbox-2.0


...install all the dependencies of Virtual Box as well, i.e. all the X (GUI) stuff which you don't want on the server?

By: Anonymous

Dont forget to set your bridge Interface:

VBoxManage modifyvm "WindowsXP" --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 eth0