treffynnon / vboxtool

A fork of vboxtool by Mark Baaijens to make compatible with VirtualBox 4+, fix the backup functionality and improve efficiency.

VBoxTool

VBoxTool currently consist only of a set of scripts. With this scripts, virtual machines of VirtualBox in a Linux headless server can be controlled. Start, stop, save, backup and show status of sessions in batch mode from the command line.

Usage and installation is tested only on Ubuntu. Please report if a specific function is not working in another environment, say OpenSUSE, Fedora, etc.

Installation

Note: Precede commands with sudo when not operated as root.

1. Place the main script, vboxtool, in /usr/local/bin
2. Make vboxtool executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/vboxtool
3. Place the vboxtoolinit script in /etc/init.d
4. Make vboxtoolinit executable: chmod +x /etc/init.d/vboxtoolinit
5. Activate the vboxtoolinit: update-rc.d vboxtoolinit defaults 99 10
6. Create a folder /etc/vboxtool. In here, two config files have to be created, see configuration section below, type vboxtool help for more instructions.

Note: To remove vboxtoolinit from autostart: update-rc.d -f vboxtoolinit remove

Configuration

Note: Configuration from vboxtool does not taking place on running sessions, so save or stop all sessions before issueing the autostart command.

• Create /etc/vboxtool/machines.conf: <session name>,<VRDP-port>

  The VRDP-port enables RDP-clients like rdesktop to connect. It may be left blank.

• Create /etc/vboxtool/vboxtool.conf: vbox_user='<user name>'

• Issue the following command: vboxtool autostart

  VBoxTool will configure sessions (VRDP-port). By now, session(s) should be up and running and configured.

• Check if sessions or running, with the assumed vrdp-port: vboxtool show

  Show only the running sessions: vboxtool showrun

• Check if sessions configured in /etc/vboxtool/machines.conf are be automatically started at reboot. Reboot your system, check with: vboxtool showrun

Upgrading from 0.2

Sorry for breaking things here, but it's all in the name of naming consistency...

• Config folder is moved from /etc/vbox to /etc/vboxtool. Rename this folder.
• Main script 'vbox' is renamed to 'vboxtool'

Usage

After installation, type vboxtool help for more info.

Help

• Type: vboxtool help
• See http://vboxtool.sourceforge.net for more details.