Can I run same vm on different host machines

[iamageneralist]

Well, partial success.

I took the eSATA drive back to the laptop and the VM opened fine, however, when I bring it back to the desktop I run into the same error related to the file permissions. It only takes about 30 seconds to go in and reset them so I can work around it but it would be nice to figure out why it is doing that and how to eliminate that little snag.

[Ganapathy]

I've followed sasquatch's advice as it is, but didnt help! Any other suggestions?

I have Windows 7 & OpenIndiana151a installed in my pc. Both has vbox 4.0.4 installed.

On Windows7:
- VBox has two guest OS; Windows XP SP2 & Ubuntu 9.04
- Windows partitions are C:, D:, E:, F: (vdi for both guests are located in F:\VBox\winxp.vdi and F:\VBox\ubuntu.vdi)

On OpenIndiana151a:
- have used ntfs-3g to mount the F: drive (i.e., 3rd logical drive of my HDD) under ~\win_f
- have created two new virtual machines and for hard disks just selected from ~\win_f\VBox\winxp.vdi & ~\win_f\VBox\ubuntu.vdi) [no problem till here]
- when 'Windows XP' guest is started, it shows the initial XP loading screen but just getting crashed before showing login screen
- when 'Ubuntu' guest is started, its getting crashed even before showing any window. Just back to VirtualBox main window but no error message.

[brandonheat]

Sasquatch, thank you for your response.

I have over a hundred fairly 'heavy' programs that I use regularly (GIS mapping, database, graphics, CAD, etc) and trying to keep them updated and same version on multiple machines is a struggle.

This sounds like a good solution.

Some of what you mention I will need to become familiar with (snapshots, saved states, virtual NICs) but I am confident that I can work my way through it with the manuals, FAQ and forums.

Again, thanks.

I guess this is the solution you're looking for
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48429

[Old Badman Grey]

So is there a full guide to do this? I have a win 7 vm on a windows 10 host and I want to be able to use it when I duel boot into ubuntu 15.

[mpack]

So is there a full guide to do this?

Hardly. There's a huge potential variety in guest and host OS's, and VM settings, so nobody is ever going to list every possible detail.

You move the VM folder to a drive that will be accessible to both. See Howto: Move a VM.

With two hosts you have to register it twice, however you have a problem that your two hosts use incompatible device names etc, so you may need to copy and hand tailor the vbox file on one side to keep the machine UUIDs the same (otherwise the Win7 guest will lose activation), while having a common path to the VDI. Of course I'm assuming you avoided snapshots, linked clones etc.

If this sounds difficult then it may be better for you to have two separate Win7 VMs.