Command to Create VirtualBox virtual machine

Replace the DEMO with whatever name you want to give your Virtual machine.

VBoxManage createvm --name DEMO --register

To Set type Linux and version 64-bit

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO --ostype Linux_64

Set RAM

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO --memory 1024 --vram 16

Assign the Number of CPU cores

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO  --cpus 2

Create Virtual storage and set size for it

VBoxManage createhd --filename DEMO.vdi --size 32768

Add Storage controller and attach hard disk + ISO Image to boot.

VBoxManage storagectl DEMO--name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAHCI

VBoxManage storageattach DEMO --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium DEMO.vdi

VBoxManage storageattach DEMO --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium "/home/demo/tails-amd64-4.16.iso"

Note: Change the ISO file path in the above command

Set Boot order

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none --boot4 none

Set Network NAT

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO --nic1 nat --nictype1 82540EM

For Bridge Network, use-

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO--nic1 bridged --nictype1 82540EM --bridgeadapter1 wlx000b819609d3

Turn on Physical Address Extension

VBoxManage modifyvm DEMO --pae on

Command to List Virtual Machines

To know what is the number of virtual machines created on Virtualbox so far using command terminal, type-

vboxmanage list vms

Output: As per the available VMs, the command will show something like below:

how2shout@ubuntu:~$  
"CentOS" {694b1226-4592-49c2-bcd0-ebb79efc8598}
"Ubuntu " {5644b8dd-ab01-46be-9265-404df4325c6b}
"WIndows 10" {abacf56d-60ee-4f88-bc35-b377964758ca}
"DEMO" {70285447-ff88-4f32-801c-8a72190b9a89}

Start VirtualBox VM via command

Now, we already have a list of all available virtual machines. So, if we want to start any of them, just type-

vboxmanage startvm virtualmachine-name

Replace virtual machine-name with the one you want to Power ON.

For example, in our list of all VMs, we have one- DEMO. To start that VM using the above command, it will be like this-

vboxmanager startvm DEMO

To run headless-

VBoxManage startvm DEMO --type headless

Stop Virtual machine using command

To power off some already running VirtualBox VM, we can directly use our command terminal, and to do that run-

vboxmanage controlvm VM-name poweroff 

Replace VM-name with the running machine you want to stop.

For example, if you consider DEMO as the running VM on VirtualBox. Thus, to stop it using the command terminal, we need to type-

vboxmanage controlvm DEMO poweroff

List all running VMs

In case you are not sure which VMs are running so that you can turn them off using your terminal, issue a command-

vboxmanage list runningvms

Remove VM

VBoxManage storageattach DEMO--storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium none
VBoxManage closemedium disk DEMO.vdi --delete
VBoxManage unregistervm DEMO --delete

Note: Replace DEMO with the Virtual machine name that you want to remove

Convert VDI / VMDK / VHD

To Convert one virtual hard disk type to another

# VMDK to VDI
VBoxManage clonehd "source.vmdk" "cloned.vdi" --format vdi
# VHD to VMDK
VBoxManage clonehd "source.vhd" "cloned.vmdk" --format vmdk
# RAW image to vdi
VBoxManage convertfromraw "source.hddimg" "cloned.vdi" --format vdi

Note: Replace source.xx with fie you want to convert and also can change cloned.xx with whatever you name you to want to give your converted virtual disk.

Resize virtual disk (resize in MB, here 256 GB)

Many times after installing OS in the virtual machine we need to expand the size of its virtual hard disk. For that, we can use the below command. Navigate to the folder where you have the virtual hard disk file for your virtual machine and then run the below command:

VBoxManage modifyhd "HDD.vdi" --resize 36000

Replace HDD.vdi with your virtual disk file name that size you want to increase. The size will be in MB, for example, 36000 given in the command, in GB it will be 360GB.