diff --git a/tools/appliance/Gemfile b/tools/appliance/Gemfile
index dae53be6dd0..b1f23416bb9 100644
--- a/tools/appliance/Gemfile
+++ b/tools/appliance/Gemfile
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@
 source 'https://rubygems.org'
 gem 'veewee', :git => 'https://github.com/jedi4ever/veewee.git'
 gem 'em-winrm'
+gem 'sys-proctable'
diff --git a/tools/appliance/build.sh b/tools/appliance/build.sh
index b0bea414294..736768af392 100755
--- a/tools/appliance/build.sh
+++ b/tools/appliance/build.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ Usage:
      (or use command line arg, default i386, other option amd64)
    * Set \$ssh_key to provide root ssh public key to inject
      (or use command line arg, default set in the veewee definition its authorized_keys.sh)
+   * Set \$clean_vbox to try pretty hard to remove all our vms and disk from
+     virtualbox before and after running the rest of the build. This should
+     not be needed since we try hard to use VBoxManage nicely, but, various
+     error conditions / timing issues are quite hard to fully contain
    * Set \$DEBUG=1 to enable debug logging
    * Set \$TRACE=1 to enable trace logging
    * Set \$VEEWEE_ARGS to pass veewee custom arguments
@@ -115,6 +119,9 @@ export VM_ARCH="${arch}"
 # server control
 ssh_key="${6:-${ssh_key:-}}"
 
+# whether to attempt to clean up all our virtualbox vms/disks before/after run
+clean_vbox="${clean_vbox:-}"
+
 # while building with vbox, we need a quite unique appliance name in order to prevent conflicts with multiple
 # concurrent executors on jenkins
 if [ -z "${branch}" ] ; then
@@ -266,6 +273,17 @@ function setup_ruby() {
   bundle check || bundle install ${bundle_args}
 }
 
+function stop_vbox() {
+  log INFO "stoppping all virtualbox vms for ${USER}"
+  bundle exec ./vbox_vm_clean.rb
+}
+
+function clean_vbox() {
+  log INFO "deleting all virtualbox vms and disks for ${USER}"
+  bundle exec ./vbox_vm_clean.rb --delete
+  bundle exec ./vbox_disk_clean.rb
+}
+
 function prepare() {
   log INFO "preparing for build"
   setup_ruby
@@ -283,9 +301,11 @@ function veewee_destroy() {
 function veewee_build() {
   log INFO "building new image with veewee"
   bundle exec veewee vbox build "${appliance_build_name}" ${VEEWEE_BUILD_ARGS}
-  # vbox export wants to run vbox halt itself, so don't halt!
-  # bundle exec veewee vbox halt "${appliance_build_name}" ${VEEWEE_ARGS}
-  bundle exec veewee vbox export "${appliance_build_name}" ${VEEWEE_ARGS}
+}
+
+function veewee_halt() {
+  log INFO "shutting down new vm with veewee"
+  bundle exec veewee vbox halt "${appliance_build_name}" ${VEEWEE_ARGS}
 }
 
 function check_appliance_shutdown() {
@@ -300,6 +320,41 @@ function check_appliance_shutdown() {
   return ${result}
 }
 
+function check_appliance_disk_ready() {
+  log INFO "waiting for veewee appliance disk to be available..."
+  # local hdd_path="vboxmanage showvminfo '${appliance_build_name}' --machinereadable | \
+  #   egrep '(SATA|IDE) Controller-[0-9]+-[0-9]+' | grep -v '.iso' | \
+  #   grep -v '="none"' | egrep -o '=".*"' | sed 's/=//' | sed 's/"//g'"
+  local hdd_path=`vboxmanage list hdds | grep "${appliance_build_name}\/" | grep vdi | \
+      cut -c 14- | sed ${sed_regex_option} 's/^ *//'`
+  disk_state=`vboxmanage showhdinfo "${hdd_path}" | egrep '^State:' | sed 's/State://' | egrep -o '[a-zA-Z]+' | awk '{print tolower($0)}'`
+  if [ "${disk_state}" == "notcreated" ]; then
+    log ERROR "disk ${hdd_path} in state notcreated"
+    return 1
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "created" ]; then
+    log INFO "disk ${hdd_path} in state created"
+    return 0
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "lockedread" ]; then
+    log INFO "disk ${hdd_path} in state lockedread"
+    return 1
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "lockedwrite" ]; then
+    log INFO "disk ${hdd_path} in state lockedwrite"
+    return 1
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "inaccessible" ]; then
+    log INFO "disk ${hdd_path} in state inaccessible"
+    return 1
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "creating" ]; then
+    log WARN "disk ${hdd_path} in state creating"
+    return 1
+  elif [ "${disk_state}" == "deleting" ]; then
+    log WARN "disk ${hdd_path} in state deleting"
+    return 1
+  else
+    log WARN "disk ${hdd_path} has unknown disk state ${disk_state}"
+    return 1
+  fi
+}
+
 function remove_shares() {
   log INFO "removing shared folders from appliance..."
   set +e
@@ -407,12 +462,21 @@ function hyperv_export() {
 ###
 
 function main() {
+  if [ "${clean_vbox}" == "1" ]; then
+    clean_vbox --delete
+    add_on_exit clean_vbox --delete
+  else
+    stop_vbox # some extra encouragement for virtualbox to stop things
+  fi
   prepare
   create_definition
   veewee_destroy # in case of left-over cruft from failed build
   add_on_exit veewee_destroy
   veewee_build
+  veewee_halt
+  stop_vbox # some extra encouragement for virtualbox to stop things
   retry 10 check_appliance_shutdown
+  retry 10 check_appliance_disk_ready
   retry 10 remove_shares
 
   # Get appliance uuids
@@ -427,7 +491,7 @@ function main() {
   kvm_export "${hdd_path}"
   vmware_export "${machine_uuid}" "${hdd_uuid}"
   hyperv_export "${hdd_uuid}"
-  log INFO "BUILD SUCCESSFUL"
+  add_on_exit log INFO "BUILD SUCCESSFUL"
 }
 
 # we only run main() if not source-d
diff --git a/tools/appliance/vbox_disk_clean.rb b/tools/appliance/vbox_disk_clean.rb
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..f7464e3b4dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/appliance/vbox_disk_clean.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+lines = `VBoxManage list hdds`
+disks = lines.split(/\n\s*\n/)
+disks.each do |disk|
+  disk_lines = disk.split(/\n/)
+  disk_config = {}
+  disk_lines.each do |line|
+    pair = line.split(/:\s*/)
+    disk_config[pair[0]] = pair[1]
+    # if pair[0] == 'Location'
+    #   location = pair[1]
+
+    #   if location.include? '/Snapshots/'
+    #     disk_config['is_snapshot'] = true
+    #   end
+    #   if location.include? '/VirtualBox VMs/'
+    #     disk_config['vm_name'] = location.split('/VirtualBox VMs/')[1].split('/')[0]
+    #     disk_config['disk_name'] = location.split('/')[-1]
+    #     disk_config['is_virtualbox_vm'] = true
+    #   else
+    #     disk_config['is_virtualbox_vm'] = false
+    #     disk_config['disk_name'] = location.split('/')[-1]
+    #   end
+    # end
+  end
+
+  if disk_config.include? 'Location'
+    cmd="VBoxManage closemedium disk '#{disk_config['Location']}' --delete"
+    puts cmd
+    `#{cmd}`
+  end
+end
diff --git a/tools/appliance/vbox_vm_clean.rb b/tools/appliance/vbox_vm_clean.rb
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..bbbc85a5c08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/appliance/vbox_vm_clean.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+# script that tries hard to forcibly shut down all vms
+
+# gem install sys-proctable
+require 'sys/proctable'
+
+include Sys
+
+do_delete = (ARGV.include? 'delete' or ARGV.include? '--delete' or ARGV.include? '-d')
+
+lines = `VBoxManage list vms`
+vms = lines.split(/\n/)
+vms.each do |vmline|
+  vm_info = /\"(.*)\"[^{]*\{(.*)\}/.match(vmline)
+  vm_name = vm_info[1]
+  vm_uuid = vm_info[2]
+
+  cmd="VBoxManage controlvm #{vm_name} poweroff"
+  puts cmd
+  `#{cmd}`
+  if do_delete
+    sleep(1)
+    cmd="VBoxManage unregistervm #{vm_name} --delete"
+    puts cmd
+    `#{cmd}`
+  end
+
+  sleep(1)
+  # ps x | grep VBoxHeadless | grep systemvm64template-4.4.0 | egrep -o '^\s*[0-9]+' | xargs kill
+  ProcTable.ps { |p|
+    next unless p.cmdline.include? "VBoxHeadless"
+    next unless p.cmdline.include? vm_name
+    # VBoxManage should only list _our_ vms, but just to be safe...
+    next unless p.ruid == Process.uid
+
+    puts "kill -SIGKILL #{p.pid}"
+    begin
+      Process.kill("KILL", p.pid)
+    rescue => exception
+      puts exception.backtrace
+    end
+    sleep(5)
+    puts "kill -SIGTERM #{p.pid}"
+    begin
+      Process.kill("TERM", p.pid)
+    rescue => exception
+      puts exception.backtrace
+    end
+  }
+end