Find the "vbox.log" File to Facilitate Troubleshooting VirtualBox

Maclean Liu(刘相兵

How to Find the "vbox.log" File to Facilitate Troubleshooting Oracle xVM VirtualBox

Applies to:
Oracle VM VirtualBox - Version: 2.x to 3.2 - Release: 2.0 to 3.0
Information in this document applies to any platform.
Goal
When troubleshooting technical issues with VirtualBox, it is often important to collect debugging information which can be analyzed by a Service Engineer at Oracle.  This document describes the most common form of initial diagnostics, specifically the content and location of the VBox.log file.

Background
Every time VirtualBox starts up a VM, a so-called "release log file" is created containing lots of information about the VM configuration and runtime events. The log file is called VBox.log and resides in the VM log file folder.

The release log file (VBox.log) contains a wealth of diagnostic information, such as Host OS type and version, VirtualBox version and build (32-bit or 64-bit), a complete dump of the guest's configuration (CFGM), detailed information about the host CPU type and supported features, whether hardware virtualization is enabled, information about VT-x/AMD-V setup, state transitions (creating, running, paused, stopping, etc.), guest BIOS messages, Guest Additions messages, device-specific log entries and, at the end of execution, final guest state and condensed statistics.

Note: When starting a VM, the configuration file of the last run will be renamed to .1, up to .3. Sometimes when there is a problem, it is useful to have a look at the logs. Also when requesting support for VirtualBox, supplying the corresponding log file is mandatory.

For convenience, for each virtual machine, the VirtualBox main window can show these logs in a window. To access it, select a virtual machine from the list on the left and select "Show logs..." from the "Machine" window.
Solution
When opening a new support request ticket (SR) with Oracle's Desktop Virtualization team, the user may elect to provide a VBox.log file to facilitate the new investigation.

It is important to understand that the dataset compiled by this utility is in no way exhaustive; it is intended only to aggregate the most common diagnostic data necessary to properly baseline a new investigation. Your support representative may request additional information specific to your report as they continue with your case.

VBox.log Location
The location of the release log file, (VBox.log) may vary, depending upon the version, and the installation architecture of VirtualBox.
VirtualBox 2.x - 3.2

    Windows : On Windows installations, the path takes the form of:
    %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\\.VirtualBox\\Machines\\<vm name>\\Logs;
    In practice, this may look like:
    C:\\Documents and Settings\\JSmith\\.VirtualBox\\Machines\\Windows XP\\Logs\\vbox.log

    Mac OS X : On OS X installations, the path takes the form of:
    $HOME/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/<vm name>/Logs
    In practice, this may look like:
    /Users/JSmith/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Logs/vbox.log

    Linux, Solaris : On Unix-like systems (Linux, Solaris), the path will take the form of:
    $HOME/.VirtualBox/Machines/<vm name>/Logs
    In practice, this may look like:
    /home/JSmith/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Logs/


VirtualBox 4.x
In VirtualBox 4.x, we worked to standardize logfile location across architectures.  This path is configurable, but by default the path to the release logfile will be:

    $HOME/VirtualBox VMs/{machinename}/Logs