VirtualBox under console (VBoxManage)

I need to have virtual machines in servers without GUI. In this case I must configure virtual machines only with VBoxManage utility.

In first step i make/install MV under GUI version of VirtualBox and after that copy on guest server.
After that we need to register virtual machine.

vboxmanage registervm /path-to/vbox file

and start
VBoxManage startvm "Test" --type headless

When we need to shutdown virtual machine:
VBoxManage controlvm "Test" acpipowerbutton
or
VBoxManage controlvm "Test" poweroff

To view some information about virtual machine:
vboxmanage showvminfo /opt/vm/Test/Test.vbox

When we need to modify number of CPU. Stop virtual machine and afler that:
VBoxManage modifyvm "Test" --cpuhotplug on
VBoxManage modifyvm "Test" --cpus 4

To modify memory:
VBoxManage modifyvm "Test" --memory 4096

To delete network interface:
VBoxManage modifyvm "fbsd" --nic1 none

To add bridged interface:
VBoxManage modifyvm fbsd --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 em1

To modify IP address
only if you have vboxguestadditions installed
# VBoxManage guestproperty get "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"
No value set!
# VBoxManage guestproperty set "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP" 192.168.101.215
# VBoxManage guestproperty get "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"
Value: 192.168.101.215
# VBoxManage guestproperty get "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Netmask"
No value set!
# VBoxManage guestproperty set "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Netmask" 255.255.255.0
# VBoxManage guestproperty get "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Netmask"
Value: 255.255.255.0
# VBoxManage guestproperty get "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Gateway"
No value set!8
# VBoxManage guestproperty set "Test" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Gateway" 192.168.101.1


To add virtual machine in bridge with network interfcace:
VBoxManage controlvm "Test" nic1 bridged em1


When we have this error:
==================
Waiting for VM "Test" to power on...  VBoxManage: error: VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole
===================
 must enable Virtualisation Technology in BIOS.


To view all os types supported by VBoxManasge
VBoxManage list ostypes (guest)

A short example: VBoxManage modifyvm "vm" --ostype Linux24_64

If you have following error:
This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable to boot – please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU

Just enable:
VBoxManage modifyvm "vm" --longmode on

To make a screenshot via console:
VBoxManage controlvm "vm" screenshotpng screen-shot-dev-006.png

Other posibile problems:

If you have:

# VBoxManage startvm "vm"
VBoxManage: error: Invalid frontend name: 'GUI/Qt'

can try

vboxmanage startvm vm --type headless

Waiting for VM "vm" to power on...

or if you have 

vboxmanage startvm vm --type headless

Waiting for VM "vm" to power on...

VBoxManage: error: Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-bce0' (VERR_SUPDRV_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND).

VBoxManage: error: Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_SUPDRV_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND)

you can try:

load module vboxnetflt

In my case:

kldload vboxnetflt

root@# kldstat

Id Refs Address            Size     Name

 1   14 0xffffffff80200000 17bc680  kernel

 2    2 0xffffffff819bd000 7b9a8    vboxdrv.ko

 3    1 0xffffffff81c11000 29d86    vboxguest.ko

 4    1 0xffffffff81c3b000 358d     ums.ko

 5    1 0xffffffff81c3f000 2a02     vboxnetflt.ko

 6    2 0xffffffff81c42000 ba02     netgraph.ko

 7    1 0xffffffff81c4e000 4123     ng_ether.ko

root@# vboxmanage startvm vm --type headless

Waiting for VM "vm" to power on...

VM "vm" has been successfully started.

root@#

Mapping Ports

VBoxManage setextradata "vm" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/guestssh/Protocol" TCP 
VBoxManage setextradata "vm" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/guestssh/GuestPort" 22 
VBoxManage setextradata "vm" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/guestssh/HostPort" 2222

If you install phpVirtualBox and have problems with login steps you can try to start virtualserver manually in verbose mode.

 vboxwebsrv -v

If you have error VBOX_E_INVALID_VM_STATE

you can try: VBoxManage startvm "vm" --type emergencystop
and start the virtual machine again.

Linux bridge not forward multicast traffic

As it turns out, it's a bug in the igmp snooping code in the kernel that's
the problem with multicast traffic not being forwarded.

This seems to affect recent versions. To check if it's turned on, run
cat /sys/devices/virtual/net//bridge/multicast_snooping

If it's 1, it's highly this is the culprit causing the non-propagation of
the multicast traffic. The solution is to turn it off by setting it 0.

In my case:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/virtual/net/br0/bridge/multicast_snooping

Source