Since we have the "Group" feature added in Virtual Box, I meet some issues while I need to move my VMs.
If my memory is good, before it was easy by just going in the file manager and move the VM's folder in an other location.
But since we have the "group" feature, this method doesn't work well and I will have to go in the GUI, click right to the VM and choose the move item in the contextual menu to do it in a "safe" manner.
1) Group feature
I can see when we add a VM in a new group, it does not only add a group feature in the GUI but it also add a folder with the same name on the computer disk.
2) Paths
We have a VMs default path in settings.
As an example : D:\VirtualBox_VMs
So by default, when we want to group VMs, it will create a sub-folder in the the VMs' default path.
Example : We have 3 VMs in a group named Developpement.
Before Grouping :
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\VM_dev_01
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\VM_dev_02
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\VM_dev_03
After Grouping :
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\VM_dev_01
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\VM_dev_02
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\VM_dev_03
3) Issues
It seems we have a limitation in the folder depth.
If I have manually created several sub-folders in the VMs default path :
Example :
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Windows
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux
How to create a new VM in the following folder ? :
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux\Developpement
My sub-folder Linux is between the "root" VMs default path (D:\VirtualBox) and the "Group feature" folder (Developpement)
- If I create a new VM at the root level in the GUI, the new VM will be created in the VMs default path (D:\VirtualBox)
- If I create a new VM in the Developpement Group, an issue appears : a new Developpement folder in VMs default path (D:\VirtualBox) will be created instead of using the Developpement folder previously created in the sub-folder Linux.
by using the same previous scheme, It looks like :
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux\Developpement\VM_dev_01
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux\Developpement\VM_dev_02
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux\Developpement\VM_dev_03
D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\VM_dev_04
-> VM_dev_04 is the new VM created.
If I now want to move VM_dev_04 from D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\ to D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Linux\Developpement\ by using the safe method (via VirtualBox GUI) and delete the D:\VirtualBox_VMs\Developpement\ folder, some issue randomly appear.
Sometimes it will move in the right folder, sometimes it will create a new group folder inside the same existing group folder, sometimes it will move only the .vbox file but not the .vdi file.
The behaviour is like there is a wrong folder index somewhere.
It is often a nightmare to have the expected result.
I think there is trouble about the design of the Group's feature when it was introduced.
In my mind, it shouldn't mix the Virtual Group displayed in the GUI and the Disk Folder Tree.
- either we use the Disk folder tree and display all sub-folders folders from the VMs default path. In this case, we display also all "sub-group" in the GUI. (In my mind, the best way)
- either we allow only one group level in a virtual way in the GUI and keep the user to manually place VM's folder where he want to do.
Currently, it seems the application only manage well one folder level depth.