diff --git a/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailable.java b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailable.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4be1bf7b74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/main/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailable.java
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+/*
+ * 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.predicates;
+
+import static org.jclouds.compute.options.RunScriptOptions.Builder.wrapInInitScript;
+
+import javax.annotation.Nullable;
+import javax.annotation.Resource;
+import javax.inject.Named;
+
+import org.jclouds.compute.ComputeServiceContext;
+import org.jclouds.compute.reference.ComputeServiceConstants;
+import org.jclouds.logging.Logger;
+import org.jclouds.ssh.SshException;
+
+import com.google.common.base.Predicate;
+
+/**
+ * 
+ * @author Andrea Turli
+ */
+public class SshAvailable implements Predicate<String> {
+
+   @Resource
+   @Named(ComputeServiceConstants.COMPUTE_LOGGER)
+   protected Logger logger = Logger.NULL;
+
+   private final ComputeServiceContext context;
+
+   public SshAvailable(ComputeServiceContext context) {
+      this.context = context;
+   }
+
+   @Override
+   public boolean apply(@Nullable String nodeId) {
+      boolean sshDaemonIsRunning = false;
+      try {
+         if (context.getComputeService()
+               .runScriptOnNode(nodeId, "id", wrapInInitScript(false).runAsRoot(false))
+               .getExitCode() == 0) {
+            logger.debug("Got response from ssh daemon running on %s", nodeId);
+            sshDaemonIsRunning = true;
+         }
+      } catch (SshException e) {
+         logger.debug("No response from ssh daemon running on %s", nodeId);
+         return sshDaemonIsRunning;
+      } 
+      return sshDaemonIsRunning;
+   }
+
+   @Override
+   public String toString() {
+      return "sshAvailable()";
+   }
+
+}
diff --git a/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailableLiveTest.java b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailableLiveTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..123f9c01e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox-apis/virtualbox/src/test/java/org/jclouds/virtualbox/predicates/SshAvailableLiveTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+package org.jclouds.virtualbox.predicates;
+
+import static org.jclouds.virtualbox.experiment.TestUtils.computeServiceForLocalhostAndGuest;
+import static org.jclouds.virtualbox.util.MachineUtils.applyForMachine;
+import static org.jclouds.virtualbox.util.MachineUtils.lockSessionOnMachineAndApply;
+import static org.virtualbox_4_1.LockType.Shared;
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+import org.jclouds.compute.ComputeServiceContext;
+import org.jclouds.domain.Credentials;
+import org.jclouds.net.IPSocket;
+import org.jclouds.predicates.InetSocketAddressConnect;
+import org.jclouds.predicates.RetryablePredicate;
+import org.jclouds.virtualbox.BaseVirtualBoxClientLiveTest;
+import org.jclouds.virtualbox.domain.ExecutionType;
+import org.jclouds.virtualbox.functions.IsoToIMachine;
+import org.jclouds.virtualbox.functions.LaunchMachineIfNotAlreadyRunning;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.IMachine;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.IProgress;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.ISession;
+import org.virtualbox_4_1.VirtualBoxManager;
+
+import com.google.common.base.Function;
+import com.google.common.base.Predicate;
+
+@Test(groups = "live", singleThreaded = true, testName = "IsoToIMachineLiveTest")
+public class SshAvailableLiveTest extends BaseVirtualBoxClientLiveTest {
+
+   private boolean forceOverwrite = true;
+   private String vmId = "jclouds-image-iso-1";
+   private String osTypeId = "";
+   private String controllerIDE = "IDE Controller";
+   private String diskFormat = "";
+   private String adminDisk = "testadmin.vdi";
+   private String guestId = "guest";
+   private String hostId = "host";
+
+   private String vmName = "jclouds-image-virtualbox-iso-to-machine-test";
+   private String isoName = "ubuntu-11.04-server-i386.iso";
+
+   @Test
+   public void testSshDaemonIsRunning() {
+      VirtualBoxManager manager = (VirtualBoxManager) context
+            .getProviderSpecificContext().getApi();
+      ComputeServiceContext localHostContext = computeServiceForLocalhostAndGuest(
+            hostId, "localhost", guestId, "localhost", new Credentials("toor",
+                  "password"));
+
+     getNodeWithSshDaemonRunning(manager, localHostContext);
+      ensureMachineIsLaunched(vmName);
+      RetryablePredicate<String> predicate = new RetryablePredicate<String>(
+            new SshAvailable(localHostContext), 5, 1,
+            TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+      assertTrue(predicate.apply(guestId));
+      
+      lockSessionOnMachineAndApply(manager, Shared, vmName, new Function<ISession, Void>() {
+
+         @Override
+         public Void apply(ISession session) {
+            IProgress powerDownProgress = session.getConsole().powerDown();
+            powerDownProgress.waitForCompletion(-1);
+            return null;
+         }
+
+      });
+   }
+
+   private IMachine getNodeWithSshDaemonRunning(VirtualBoxManager manager,
+         ComputeServiceContext localHostContext) {
+      try {
+         Predicate<IPSocket> socketTester = new RetryablePredicate<IPSocket>(
+               new InetSocketAddressConnect(), 10, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+         return new IsoToIMachine(manager, adminDisk, diskFormat, vmName,
+               osTypeId, vmId, forceOverwrite, controllerIDE, localHostContext,
+               hostId, guestId, socketTester, "127.0.0.1", 8080).apply(isoName);
+      } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
+         // already created
+         return manager.getVBox().findMachine(vmName);
+      }
+   }
+
+   private void ensureMachineIsLaunched(String vmName) {
+      applyForMachine(manager, vmName, new LaunchMachineIfNotAlreadyRunning(
+            manager, ExecutionType.GUI, ""));
+   }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file