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torontoguy
Contributor
Contributor

need help, convert .vmdk appliances into .ovf to use on 3i?

currently testing esx 3i and trying to use virtual applicances from the vmware site.

however, when trying to import/open, I seem to only have the option for .ovf files, but the appliances are in vmdk files.

Can they be converted? what am i doing wrong?

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Chamon
Commander
Commander

Are you using the ovf tool from VMware? If so here is a pdf and look at page 4. It says to run this command to convert you vmdk to ovf

You can use the OVF Tool from the command line on Linux or Microsoft Windows. Specify the source input

file and the destination directory.

ovftool

For example, to convert a virtual machine in VMware runtime format (.vmx) to an OVF package, you might

issue this command.

ovftool f:\myvms\BigDemo.vmx x:\ovf\BigDemo

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ovf_tool.pdf

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oddcastcb
Contributor
Contributor

I was able to successfully create an OVF on kubuntu of my WinXP image, but the import failed with the following errors:

The hardware family of the OVF package is not supported: vmx-06
The OVF package contains an IDE harddisk, which is not supported: Harddisk 0.

Would you have any insight in to why this might happen and how I might be able to work around it?

The image in question was created with workstation onthe Ubuntu machine, has been used in player on the same computer and is now ready for use on our ESX server.

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R2AD
Contributor
Contributor

I also have this problem after converting a Solaris 10 instance to an OVF file. I was able to get it uploaded after modifying the ovf file manually and changing the type to vmx-04.

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType>

See: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ovf_whitepaper_specification.pdf

I submitted some feedback to DMTF, hoping for some clarifcation on this value as it seems to be currently up to the vendor.

As a workaround, try using VMware Converter to upload your machine to the server. That's what I'm also going to try if the uploaded ovf does not work out well for me.

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