If you are new to VirtaulBox then the below commands will help you to gather information and control your VM’s :
How to show the VirtualBox VM info
root@server[#] VBoxManage showvminfo <vmname>
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage showvminfo vm1
How to show the VM Harddrive info
root@server[#] VBoxManage showhdinfo <filename>
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage showhdinfo vm1.vdi
How to list running VM
root@server[#] VBoxManage list runningvms
How to list available VM
root@server[#] VBoxManage list vms
How to list available VM Harddrives
root@server[#] VBoxManage list hdds
How to list available ISO’s
root@server[#] VBoxManage list dvds
How to Control VM
How to Start VM
use nohup command and & to run process in background,
so VM continues to run after exiting console.
root@server[#] nohup VBoxHeadless --startvm <vmname> &
for example
root@server[#] nohup VBoxHeadless --startvm vm1 &
How to pause VM
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> pause
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 pause
How to resume VM
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> resume
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 resume
How to reset VM
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> reset
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 reset
How to poweroff VM (hard poweroff eg. pull the plug)
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> poweroff
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1
How to send poweroff single to VM (tells VM OS to shutdown)
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> acpipowerbutton
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 acpipowerbutton
How to attach a DVD / CD to a running vm
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> dvdattach <filename>
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 dvdattach CentOS-5.7-i386-bin-DVD-1of2.iso
How to de-attach a DVD / CD from a running vm
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm <vmname> dvdattach none
for exampe
root@server[#] VBoxManage controlvm vm1 dvdattach none
How to find out the VM IP
root@server[#] VBoxManage guestproperty get <vmid>"/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"
for example
root@server[#] VBoxManage guestproperty get vm1 "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"
