diff --git a/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning.java b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f0bea271b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning.java
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+/*
+ * *
+ *  * Licensed to jclouds, Inc. (jclouds) under one or more
+ *  * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ *  * distributed with this work for additional information
+ *  * regarding copyright ownership.  jclouds licenses this file
+ *  * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ *  * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ *  * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *  *
+ *  *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *  *
+ *  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ *  * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ *  * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ *  * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ *  * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ *  * under the License.
+ *
+ */
+
+package org.jclouds.virtualbox.functions;
+
+
+import com.google.common.base.Function;
+import com.google.common.cache.Cache;
+import org.jclouds.compute.ComputeServiceContext;
+import org.jclouds.compute.reference.ComputeServiceConstants;
+import org.jclouds.domain.Credentials;
+import org.jclouds.logging.Logger;
+import org.jclouds.net.IPSocket;
+import org.jclouds.predicates.InetSocketAddressConnect;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.VirtualBoxManager;
+
+import javax.annotation.Nullable;
+import javax.annotation.Resource;
+import javax.inject.Named;
+
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+
+import static org.jclouds.compute.options.RunScriptOptions.Builder.runAsRoot;
+
+public class StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning implements Function<URI, VirtualBoxManager> {
+
+   @Resource
+   @Named(ComputeServiceConstants.COMPUTE_LOGGER)
+   protected Logger logger = Logger.NULL;
+   private ComputeServiceContext context;
+   private String hostId;
+   private Credentials credentials;
+
+   public StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning(ComputeServiceContext context, String hostId, Credentials credentials) {
+      this.context = context;
+      this.hostId = hostId;
+      this.credentials = credentials;
+   }
+
+   @Override
+   public VirtualBoxManager apply(@Nullable URI endpoint) {
+
+      // TODO Really create new object here? Should we cache these instead?
+      VirtualBoxManager manager = VirtualBoxManager.createInstance(hostId);
+
+      if (new InetSocketAddressConnect().apply(new IPSocket(endpoint.getHost(), endpoint.getPort()))) {
+         manager.connect(endpoint.toASCIIString(), credentials.identity, credentials.credential);
+         return manager;
+      }
+
+      logger.debug("disabling password access");
+      context.getComputeService().runScriptOnNode(hostId, "VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null", runAsRoot(false).wrapInInitScript(false));
+      logger.debug("starting vboxwebsrv");
+      String vboxwebsrv = "vboxwebsrv -t 10000 -v -b";
+      if (isOSX(hostId))
+         vboxwebsrv = "cd /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/ && " + vboxwebsrv;
+
+      context.getComputeService().runScriptOnNode(hostId, vboxwebsrv, runAsRoot(false).wrapInInitScript(false).blockOnComplete(false).nameTask("vboxwebsrv"));
+
+      manager.connect(endpoint.toASCIIString(), credentials.identity, credentials.credential);
+      return manager;
+   }
+
+   private boolean isOSX(String hostId) {
+      return context.getComputeService().getNodeMetadata(hostId).getOperatingSystem().getDescription().equals(
+              "Mac OS X");
+   }
+
+}
diff --git a/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunningLiveTest.java b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunningLiveTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8b167a408a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/functions/StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunningLiveTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/*
+ * *
+ *  * Licensed to jclouds, Inc. (jclouds) under one or more
+ *  * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ *  * distributed with this work for additional information
+ *  * regarding copyright ownership.  jclouds licenses this file
+ *  * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ *  * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ *  * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *  *
+ *  *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *  *
+ *  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ *  * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ *  * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ *  * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ *  * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ *  * under the License.
+ *
+ */
+
+package org.jclouds.virtualbox.functions;
+
+import org.jclouds.compute.ComputeServiceContext;
+import org.jclouds.domain.Credentials;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.SessionState;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.VirtualBoxManager;
+
+import java.net.URI;
+
+import static org.jclouds.virtualbox.experiment.TestUtils.computeServiceForLocalhostAndGuest;
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+@Test(groups = "live", singleThreaded = true, testName = "startVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunningLiveTest")
+public class StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunningLiveTest {
+
+   @Test
+   public void testStartVbox() throws Exception {
+      Credentials localhostCredentials = new Credentials("toor", "password");
+      ComputeServiceContext localHostContext = computeServiceForLocalhostAndGuest("hostId", "localhost", "guestId", "localhost", localhostCredentials);
+
+      URI endpointUri = URI.create("http://localhost:18083/");
+
+      VirtualBoxManager manager = new StartVBoxIfNotAlreadyRunning(localHostContext, "hostId", localhostCredentials).apply(endpointUri);
+
+      assertEquals(manager.getSessionObject().getState(), SessionState.Unlocked);
+   }
+
+}