VirtualBox
Scripted
VM Creation

by Eric Fortis

This shell script creates a local virtual machine (VM). I use two of them for mimicking Uxtly’s Web Infrastructure.

Each VM has two dynamically allocated disks and two paravirtualized VNICs. In FreeBSD, they will be named:

  • Disks: ada0, ada1
  • VNICs: vtnet0 , vtnet1

Manual Setup

Define BRIDGED_NIC with your laptop’s NIC name. Then, for the internal network, create a vboxnet0 on 192.168.56.1/24, in VirtualBox → File → Host Network Manager. 

#!/bin/sh

mkdir ~/VirtualBox\ VMs
cd    ~/VirtualBox\ VMs

read -p "VM Name [ServerA]: " NAME
NAME=${NAME:=ServerA}
			
DISK_MB=$((8 * 1024))
MEMORY_MB=$((4 * 1024))
CPU_COUNT=2
BRIDGED_NIC=en0 # VBoxManage list bridgedifs

OS=FreeBSD_64   # VBoxManage list ostypes
DOWNLOAD=https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso


iso=$(basename $DOWNLOAD)
test -f $iso || curl -O $DOWNLOAD

disk0=./$NAME/$NAME.disk0.vdi
disk1=./$NAME/$NAME.disk1.vdi


VBoxManage createvm \
  --name $NAME \
  --ostype $OS \
  --register

VBoxManage createmedium disk --filename $disk0 --size $DISK_MB
VBoxManage createmedium disk --filename $disk1 --size $DISK_MB

VBoxManage storagectl $NAME \
  --add sata \
  --portcount 3 \
  --name SATA

VBoxManage storageattach $NAME \
  --storagectl SATA \
  --port 0 \
  --type hdd \
  --medium $disk0 \
  --nonrotational on

VBoxManage storageattach $NAME \
  --storagectl SATA \
  --port 1 \
  --type hdd \
  --medium $disk1 \
  --nonrotational on

VBoxManage storageattach $NAME \
  --storagectl SATA \
  --port 2 \
  --type dvddrive \
  --medium $iso


VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --cpus $CPU_COUNT
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --memory $MEMORY_MB

VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nic1 bridged
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nictype1 virtio
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --bridgeadapter1 "$BRIDGED_NIC"

VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nic2 intnet
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nictype2 virtio
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nicpromisc2 allow-all # For FreeBSD’s if_bridge

VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --boot1 disk
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --boot2 dvd
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --boot3 none
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --boot4 none

VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --vram 16
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --audio none
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --rtcuseutc on
VBoxManage modifyvm $NAME --nested-hw-virt on

VBoxManage startvm $NAME

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