Vboxmanage export UBUNTUSERVER164 -o ubuntu_server_new.ova Locate the virtual machine you want to export (I’ll demonstrate with UBUNTUSERVER164 and name the appliance ubuntu_server_new) and then run the export command like so: The above command will list out all of your virtual machines ( Figure A). To do this, open up a terminal window (or log into your headless/GUI-less server) and issue the command: Before we do export an appliance, we have to see a listing of our current virtual machines. One of the reasons we do this is because it combines the virtual machine into a single file, which can then be transferred from machine to machine with ease. We will be exporting our virtual machine to the Open Virtual Appliance (.ova) format. The process of both exporting and importing virtual machines in VirtualBox is handled with the vboxmanage command.

This will come in handy when you’re dealing with a headless server or a server without a GUI frontend. This time around, however, I’m going to illustrate how this process can be achieved from the command line. Recently I illustrated how easy it is to export and import VirtualBox machines from within the app GUI. When, for whatever reason, you are faced with moving a virtual machine from one machine to another, it is important to know how to do that in different ways. You may also be using numerous machines to serve up those guest platforms. When your data center depends upon virtualization, you might well be employing a number of tools to make that so.

If you're working with a headless or GUI-less VirtualBox host, you can still import and export virtual appliances from the command line. How to import and export VirtualBox appliances from the command line

Vmdk to vbox