diff --git a/lib/str_util.cpp b/lib/str_util.cpp
index b13ceac8f9..1d9bfee816 100644
--- a/lib/str_util.cpp
+++ b/lib/str_util.cpp
@@ -717,3 +717,26 @@ char* lf_terminate(char* p) {
     p[n+1] = 0;
     return p;
 }
+
+void parse_serialnum(char* in, char* boinc, char* vbox, char* coprocs) {
+    strcpy(boinc, "");
+    strcpy(vbox, "");
+    strcpy(coprocs, "");
+    while (*in) {
+        if (*in != '[') break;      // format error
+        char* p = strchr(in, ']');
+        if (!p) break;              // format error
+        p++;
+        char c = *p;
+        *p = 0;
+        if (strstr(in, "BOINC")) {
+            strcpy(boinc, in);
+        } else if (strstr(in, "vbox")) {
+            strcpy(vbox, in);
+        } else {
+            strcat(coprocs, in);
+        }
+        *p = c;
+        in = p;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/lib/str_util.h b/lib/str_util.h
index a1adaf9a6f..263c604268 100644
--- a/lib/str_util.h
+++ b/lib/str_util.h
@@ -75,6 +75,13 @@ extern int string_substitute(
 //
 extern void mysql_timestamp(double, char*);
 
+// parse host.serialnum into component parts.
+// Given a string of the form
+// [BOINC|7.2.42][CUDA|GeForce GTX 860M|1|2048MB|34052|101][INTEL|Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600|1|1752MB||102][vbox|4.2.16]
+// split it into the BOINC, vbox, and other (coproc) parts
+//
+extern void parse_serialnum(char* in, char* boinc, char* vbox, char* coprocs);
+
 // take a malloced string.
 // if \n is not last char, add it.
 //
diff --git a/sched/db_dump.cpp b/sched/db_dump.cpp
index c56ce0f8d8..97c8dd8328 100644
--- a/sched/db_dump.cpp
+++ b/sched/db_dump.cpp
@@ -345,14 +345,30 @@ void write_host(HOST& host, FILE* f, bool detail) {
     );
 
     // host.serialnum stores coprocessor description
+    // and client and vbox versions.
     //
-    if (strlen(host.serialnum)) {
-        char serialnum[1024];
-        xml_escape(host.serialnum, serialnum, sizeof(serialnum));
+    char boinc[256], vbox[256], coprocs[256];
+    char buf[1024];
+    parse_serialnum(host.serialnum, boinc, vbox, coprocs);
+    if (strlen(boinc)) {
+        xml_escape(boinc, buf, sizeof(buf));
         fprintf(f,
-            "    <coprocs>%s</coprocs>\n", serialnum
+            "    <boinc_version>%s</boinc_version>\n", buf
         );
     }
+    if (strlen(vbox)) {
+        xml_escape(vbox, buf, sizeof(buf));
+        fprintf(f,
+            "    <vbox_version>%s</vbox_version>\n", buf
+        );
+    }
+    if (strlen(coprocs)) {
+        xml_escape(coprocs, buf, sizeof(buf));
+        fprintf(f,
+            "    <coprocs>%s</coprocs>\n", buf
+        );
+    }
+
     if (detail) {
         fprintf(f,
             "  <create_time>%d</create_time>\n"