Convert from Fusion to ESXi

[Kivikoski]

Hi

I am faced moving images from VMware Fusion to an ESXi environment.

I installed the OVF tools and tried to convert the tool with the command:

> ovftool image.vmx image.ovf

I am not sure this is the right command. Anyways it does not work for me - I get this error:

"Error: Failed to open disk: Virtual Disk.vmdk

Completed with errors"

My OS is obviously Mac OS X. VMware Fusion 5.0.1. OVF Tool 3.0.1

[Kivikoski]

Forgot the question

What am I doing wrong?

How is the correct way convert the image?

[continuum]

just upload the vmdk + vmx via scp.
Then import the vmdk with

vmkfstools -i "uploaded.vmdk" "esxi-compatible.vmdk"

after that exchange the vmdk-path and name in the vmx-file.

[Kivikoski]

Hi

Thanks for your reply!

I've got a breakthroug for 15 minutes ago. The issue was that the image wasn't properly shut down - so after another reboot i managed to convert to ovf with:

ovftool source.vmx target.ovf

But thanks for your time!

[continuum]

why you want to use OVF for such a task is beyond me

[Kivikoski]

Enlighten me!

I am pretty new in the virtualisation world - I have been adviced from VMware to use OVF-tool for this job.

What alternatives are there - what is the right way to make an image ready for ESXi?

[continuum · Accepted solution]

If VMware tells you to use OVF - then who am I to argue against that ?

Personally I think that OVF is a very stupid tool  - it oversimplifies the vmx-file you have and writes the result into an xml-file.
Several details of your VM get lost by that.
Then it converts your existing vmdk into a format that can not be used natively by ESXi.

Later on the ESXi the converted vmdk has to be imported / converted a second time.
The ovf-file then is interpreted another time and with a bit of luck the ESXi knows how to make a vmx of it ...

You can get more reliable results if you upload the vmx-file directly along with the vmdk - then you only need to convert the vmdk format once.
Most of the times the vmx needs no changes at all - so there really is no need to torture your innocent VM with OVF-tool