Machine folder
Each virtual machine is associated with a (file system) directory which stores all files for that virtual machine.
Each virtual machine is associated with a
machine folder which contains the files required to run the virtual machine:
- An XML file that describes the virtual machine's settings and chararacteristics (extension
.vbox)
- Virtual disk image files that represent harddisks (extension
.vdi)
- Log files in the subfolder named
Logs
- Snapshots in the subfolder named
Snapshots (this location can be changed)
Additionally, it seems that the machine folder also stores (sometimes?)
- BIOS NVRAM file (?)
- Screen recordings files (in
.webm format)
The default location for the machine folder is
$HOME/VirtualBox VMs (that is
%USERPROFILE%\VirtualBox VMs on
Windows and
$HOME/VirtualBox VMs on
Linux.
This location can be changed with
VBoxManage setproperty machinefolder $dirMachineFolder
The current value for some few machine folder related configurations can be queried (in
PowerShell on Windows):
VBoxManage showvminfo $vmName | findstr /c:"Config file:"
VBoxManage showvminfo $vmName | findstr /c:"Log folder:"
VBoxManage showvminfo $vmName | findstr /c:"Snapshot folder:"
VBoxManage showvminfo $vmName | findstr /c:"BIOS NVRAM File:"