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Immortal
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OVFs from virtualbox

Hey

This is a short writeup on what is needed to import OVF produced with VirtualBox 2.2.4 (and 2.2.2)

You should tell VirtualBox to export in 0.9 format.

By default it produce OVFs for vmx-06 so if you want to import this OVF into VMware vSphere 4 with esx 3.5.x and esx 4.0 hosts

you will have to change this to either :

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for a esx 4.0)

or

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for esx 3.5.x and 4.0 hosts)

If you are using VMware OVF tool to convert it to a vmx for workstation you dont have to change this.

Needed changes to import the OVF with VMware OVF tool.

Change soundcard to non-required (esx boxes do not support virtual soundcards and the hostresource value is not in the DMTF std for rasd elements)

Change the rasd item to:

<Item ovf:required="false">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>35</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

of if you really need the soundcard to:

<Item ovf:required="true">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>1</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

(Skip the next if you are converting to a vmx file (used for VMware workstation))

Disks on IDE Controllers are only supported by newer VMware products so it will be a good idea to add the following to the OVF

<Item>

<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>10</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>1</rasd:BusNumber>

</Item>

and change the disk to point to this by changing the parent in the disk rasd element e.g.

<Item>

<rasd:Caption>disk1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Disk Image</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>8</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:HostResource>/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>

<rasd:Parent>10</rasd:Parent>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

Will the VM work after the changes? That depends if your vm have driver for the scsi controller etc but atleast you can import it.

Feel free to comment

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alastairhm
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the information.

By exporting as 0.9 format and changing the sound card entry I was able to convert it with the OVFTool.

The VMX create starts in the VMPlayer on my PC, although without keyboard or mouse support.

I need to copy the converted files to our VM server to see if they will work running on that.

Edit

Opened it on VMFusion on my Intel Mac, working better there, keyboard and mouse working so I was able to install the "VMWare Tools".

Couple of points,

CD/DVD drive didn't make it across the conversion so I had to add one.

OS Type was flagged as "Other" so had to be manually corrected.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

nice that it worked.

If you are using VMware server 2.x you can use ovftool to import the OVF direct.

By doing this you can also add an option about using sparse disks (and other goodies)

The syntax for installing an ovf to VMware server

ovftool path_to_ovf.ovf vi://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOSTNAME:8333/

if you do not provide a username/password you will be ask to type in a password or username.

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alastairhm
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I've run the tool to directly import the OVF into the server, but I am still getting the issue where is doesn't think there is a keyboard or mouse attached.

Any ideas? TIA

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admin
Immortal
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How is mouse and keyboard defined in the vm as PS2 devices or?

After the import can you see if there is defined a mouse and keyboard in the VM configuration?

I will take a closer look at how they are defined in virtualbox and report back when I have an idea of what's going on.

eske

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alastairhm
Contributor
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I think they are defined as USB keyboard & mouse in the source VirtualBox VM.

I'll just do another conversion and import and see if they appear.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

ah ok, in Workstation (,server, and esx) they are defined as PS2 devices.

normally the OS inside the VM should be able to find out that new devices was attached. What OS was inside the VM?

I will try to play around with it a bit and see if I can work up a solution.

eske

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