Folders to organize VMs

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Tonatiuh
Posts: 11
Joined: 19. Aug 2012, 04:28

Folders to organize VMs

Post by Tonatiuh »

I'm trying to move from VMware Workstation to VirtualBox, but I have found a critical (for me) issue. I cannot find any way to create folders (in the left panel of the VBox window) to organize my VMs. When you have more than 50 VMs for different purposes or different OS or different versions, etc., it is critical to have them VERY WELL organized.

Is it possible to create folders for this kind of organization?
Any other way to organize my VMs to access them quickly and easily?

Regards,
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Folders to organize VMs

Post by socratis »

You select the VMs that you want to group, right-click and select "Group". You can rename the group to have its own unique, identifiable name. From ch. 1.3. Features overview:
VM groups. Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a groups feature that enables the user to organize and control virtual machines collectively, as well as individually. In addition to basic groups, it is also possible for any VM to be in more than one group, and for groups to be nested in a hierarchy. This means you can have groups of groups. In general, the operations that can be performed on groups are the same as those that can be applied to individual VMs: Start, Pause, Reset, Close (Save state, Send Shutdown, Poweroff), Discard Saved State, Show in File System, Sort.
For more details see ch. 1.10 Using VM Groups.

Do NOT try to create the folders in the filesystem manually. VirtualBox will do that for you. If you start moving things manually, you'll break it.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Tonatiuh
Posts: 11
Joined: 19. Aug 2012, 04:28

Re: Folders to organize VMs

Post by Tonatiuh »

Hi Socratis,

That creates ONLY a folder in my Fnder/FileExplorer, but not in my VBox main Window.

What is important to me is th get that organization into the main VBox window. And in addition to that, I cannot group groups to imitate a complete folder tree.

What I want to see into my main VBox Window is something like this (more than 50 VM under dozens of folder/subfolders, and those that are to come):

* Oracle
- Database
- 11.1
- 11.2
- Managing Locks Test VM
- SQL Fundamentals Test VM
- RAC Test VM
...
- 12.1
- 12.2
- OEM
- WebLogic
* Windows
- WinXP VM
- Win7 VM
- Win10 VM
- WinSvr2012R2 VM

Using Only VBox groups, I will still scroll a single plain list of more than 50 VMs to find what I'm looking for, in the VBox window. My first perception at this pint is that VBox is not intented to support serious/intense environments (like VMware Workstation is).

I hope to be wrong and someone can provide a good way to organize tons of VMs for quick finding into the VBox window.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Folders to organize VMs

Post by socratis »

Tonatiuh wrote:That creates ONLY a folder in my Fnder/FileExplorer, but not in my VBox main Window.
Post a picture of your main window with the newly created group showing. Again, you select two or more VMs and you group them, right?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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