You might be surprised that VirtualBox can be perfectly managed from the command line, you can create VMs, modify VM settings, startup/shutdown VMs, take snapshots …etc

Here is the collection of commands I commonly use for my VirtualBox VMs:

• “VBoxManage list vms” –> List the existing VMs as well as their IDs
• “nohup VBoxHeadless -s VM_NAME &” –> Start the VM in the background, and isn’t dependent on your session, i.e. when you logout, the VM will not terminate. Note: This command starts the VRDP server automatically (available only with the extension pack installed), even if it’s not enabled
• “VBoxManage controlvm VM_NAME poweroff” –> Shut the VM down
• “VBoxManage snapshot VM_NAME take snapshot_name” –> Take a snapshot of your VM