Ubuntu – How to export and import VirtualBox VM images

virtualboxvirtualization

In VirtualBox you can create VM and it will store it on a folder inside the Default Machine Folder of VirtualBox.

For instance, after create an ubuntu-headless VM it will create an ubuntu-headless directory with a couple of files and more folders inside.

I want to get this VM working on another system with also VirtualBox, like a duplicate.

Will a simple copy/paste of this VM directory inside Default Machine Folder of the target system work?

TL;DR: How to transfer a VirtualBox image from one system to another?

Best Answer

Copy/pasting the VM files is not the way to go. You need to use the correct export/import feature of VirtualBox.

With the following instructions you will be able to transfer a VM across several different physical machines and it's also a good way to make backups.

Export

Open VirtualBox and enter into the File option to choice Export Appliance...

at the top left corner, then file and export appliance

You will then get an assistance window to help you generate the image.

Select the VM to export
Enter the output file path and name

You can choice a format, which I always leave the default OVF 1.
Finally you can write metadata like Version and Description

Now you have an OVA file that you can carry to whatever machine to use it.

Import

Open VirtualBox and enter into the File option to choice Import

You will then get an assistance window to help you loading the image.

Enter the path to the file that you have previously exported
Then you can modify the settings of the VM like RAM size, CPU, etc.

My recommendation on this is to enable the Reinitialize the MAC address of all the network cards option
Press Import and done!

Now you have cloned the VM from the host machine into another one

Access to shared folders in Virtual Box

Command line

By default, VirtualBox shared folders are created with read/write permission for the guest. This can be done from the command line on the host with:

VBoxManage sharedfolder add "VM name" --name sharename --hostpath "C:\test"

By adding the option --readonly we can restrict these for read-only access. Use the --transient option if you only want the shares to appear in the present session but not persistent for following sessions. There are some limitations for shared folders (see this question for details). If prerequisites are met we may mount these shared folders manually by running the following commands in the guest:

mkdir /home/<user>/vboxshare
sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 sharename /home/<user>/vboxshare

Of course, we can also use different mount options to mount as read/only or mount with read access only to root.

Auto-Mount through Virtual Box Manager

In case we enabled auto-mounting on creating a shared folder from the Virtual Box Manager those shared folders will automatically be mounted in the guest with mount point /media/sf_<name_of_folder>. To have access to these folders users in the guest need to be a member of the group vboxsf.

sudo usermod -aG vboxsf userName

The guest will need to restart to have the new group added.

Source and further reading: Virtual Box User Manual

Best Answer

Export

Import

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Access to shared folders in Virtual Box

Command line

Auto-Mount through Virtual Box Manager

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