virtualbox.org

I'm using Bitvise WinSSHD on my Windows XP box. I can issue VboxManage commands from the SSH sessions. However, the view of the VMs is not consistant with what I see locally. VBoxManage list vms shows a consistent list, but VBoxManage list runningvms only shows the VMs started in same environment: if I started the VM locally, I see it locally but not in the SSH session; if I started the VM in an SSH session, I see it in the SSH session, but not locally. For some reason, VBoxManage always looks in the following directories for Machines and HardDisks (according to VBoxManage list systemproperties:

Default machine folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\.VirtualBox\Machines
Default hard disk folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\.VirtualBox\HardDisks

I couldn't change this behavior, even when setting VBOX_HOME_USER to where the harddisks and machines and XML file exists. So, I moved everything to C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\.VirtualBox and defined VBOX_HOME_USER to point to it. This got me a consistant list ov VMs and the ability to start and stop, but not a consistent view of the status of the VMs. My guess is this is a result of the WinSSHD service running using the local system account, but I try using another account, I get an error about not holding required privilege for running CreateProcessAsUser.

You're running a set up that is not supported by VB. This is not the default way to manage VMs on Windows. Sorry, but we can't help you with this.

What would I need to change to make it supported?

Either run Linux as Host or use RDP or VNC like remote control software so you run VB as your actual user.