Some vboxmanage commands
        vboxmanage list vms
        vboxmanage list runningvms
        vboxmanage showvminfo vmname --details
        vboxmanage startvm --type headless

Notes on setting up a Debian Virtualbox host for my employer

Overview

virtualbox.org - manual/

blogs.oracle.com - new commercial license for oracle

Oracle VM VirtualBox Enterprise - Named User Plus - $50 per named user
Oracle’s standard processor licensing, $1,000 per processor socket

Setting up the host box.

How to autostart vms

forums.virtualbox.org - Start VMs at boot (new in 4.2.0)

lifeofageekadmin - Good guide to setting up autostart

Log

First you need to create the file /etc/default/virtualbox and add a few variables.

/etc/default/virtualbox
        VBOXAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox
        VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=/etc/vbox/vbox.cfg

Create the file /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg With one line.

/etc/vbox/vbox.cfg
        default_policy = allow

Set permissions on directory to the vboxuser group and make sure users can write to the directory as well as sticky bit.

Set permissions and mode on /etc/vbox
        chgrp vboxusers /etc/vbox
        chmod 1775 /etc/vbox

Add administrator to the vboxusers group.

Add administrator to the vboxusers group.
        groups administrator
        administrator : administrator sudo
        
        usermod -a -G vboxusers administrator
        
        groups administrator
        administrator : administrator sudo vboxusers

Every user who wants to enable autostart for individual machines has to set the path to the autostart database directory with

VBoxManage setproperty autostartdbpath /etc/vbox

List the vms


        VBoxManage list vms
        "craigdeb" {0e7bca8b-b552-4ebb-9e39-bb1f6fb19d5c}


        administrator$ VBoxManage modifyvm craigdeb --autostart-enabled on


        root# update-rc.d virtualbox defaults

Debian Virtualbox Host