- This process is actually fairly straightforward and the pain involved is proportionate to the number of VMs one has in VirtualBox
Remove ALL VMs
- This will remove vbox file associations and links so things are closed & insulated from the move
Clean out Virtual Media associations (hdd & cdrom isos)
- This might cause some headache, but just record the values & any snapshots
Move VM Folder
- With the associations within vbox removed, it is safe to move the VM Folder
- MOVING is orders of magnitude FASTER than COPYING or EXPORTING/IMPORTING appliances & clones
Update Preferences > Default VM Folder
- Now update the vbox Preferences to reflect the new Default Virtual Machine folder
- VMs make relative references to dependencies, so long as the artifacts INSIDE the VM folder remain the same, no issues should arise
Shared Folders might need updating
- If shared folders link to the VM folder, they will need updating as well
ADD VMs from new location
- With everything now ported to the new location, simply....
- Add > Virtual Machine & select the *.vbox file from this new location
- SHARED VDI/VDMKs will need their URI specs changed also
VMs will keep their 'Groups' if they aren't moved within the VM folder
- Any VMs that are in subfolders will automatically be grouped
Restart VBox
- To ensure the configuration update is saved, good idea to restart VBox to ensure an app crash won't lose all these new changes..
- Things can get complicated & ugly if this occurs and VMs have been used & snapshots get out of sync
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