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mike147
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After update, opening OVAs did not pass OVF specification; opening existing VMs get internal error

I last used VMWare Workstation Pro 15.5 in March 2020 for one class. I had a number of VMs created from OVA and ISO files that worked fine before. When I first opened VMWare yesterday, I updated to the latest version (15.5.6 build-16341506). Windows has updated numerous times since I last ran VMWare. I have made some system settings changes since then to reduce Windows leaking information (unfortunately did not log them). Core isolation, credential guard, device guard are all disabled.

Capture.PNG

Per class instructions, I downloaded four OVA files from college's server. No hash values were provided but same problem with 4 different files over 3 attempts plus second issue so don't think it is corrupt files (it certainly still could be). When trying to install I received the error message shown in Capture2 saying the OVA file did not pass OVF specification performance. I clicked the "Retry" button and received the error message shown in Capture 3 that it could not create the destination directory. I deleted the four downloaded OVA files and repeated the process twice more. Same results each time.

Capture1.PNGCapture2.PNGCapture3.PNG

 

I then tried to open some of my previous VM's. For each one, I received the message shown in Capture5 that the VM's could not be opened due to "internal error" and asking me if I wanted to remove them from the library. I did this for each one. I then ran VMWare-->File-->Scan for Virtual Machines to add them back in the library and tried again. Same results.

Neither can I create a new VM. When I try, I get the error message "file not found." This is shown in the Capture6 file.

Capture4.PNGCapture5.PNGCapture6.PNG

This led me to believe it could be a corrupt update installation, even though VMWare appears to be running normally otherwise. I tried repairing the installation in Windows Control Panel-->Programs-->Uninstall and repeated all of the above processes with same results.

My only other thought was a file permission issue. My user (regular user, not admin) account has "full control" of my User folder, subfolders, and VM files. Not enough of a Windows Admin to know what else to check. When I log into my administrator account and run VM or if I run it from user account as admin, I get the same errors trying to open my old VMs (Capture7) and installing the OVA files (Capture8) as before. Of note was as administrator VMWare opened the VM startup screen (background in Capture7 & 😎 where it did not as a regular user.

Capture7.PNGCapture8.PNG

Any recommendations on how to solve this issue?

Thank you in advance for your time and expertise.

v/r

Mike

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mike147
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A big thanks to continuum for his suggestion to try unzipping/extracting the OVA files before importing them into VMWare Workstation Pro. This led unexpectedly to solving both issues, although I do not fully understand why it worked.

Continuum suggesting unzipping the OVA files first as they were essentially archive files. So, I installed Zip7 and unzipped the first two OVA's and then opened them in VMWare. Everything worked fine. I then tried opening the other two OVA files without unzipping them. They now imported fine. I could also now open my previous VMs.

The only thing that comes to mind is I had WinRAR installed from a class in Sep '19. I installed VMWare for the first time in Jan. '20. Last time I used VMWare before this was Mar. '20. Sometime in the last two months, I uninstalled WinRAR, as the trial had expired. Perhaps there was some file or setting VMWare needed to extract the OVA files.

This theory explains why VMWare would not open the OVA files. Not sure it explains why it would not open previous VMs, unless they are stored compressed as well.

It certainly does not explain (at least not with my level of understanding) why when I uninstalled and reinstalled VMWare, VMWare opened the first few OVAs and previous VM's it worked but then stopped. If anyone has any ideas why this would fix all three issues I was experiencing, I would be curious to know.

However this is just academic. VMWare now appears to be working. My only concern is if it stops opening previous VM's while trying to complete a lab assignment for class.

Thanks for all who took time to consider this problem and especially to scott28tt and continuum for their helpful suggestions.

-mike147

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scott28tt
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You are definitely going to need to open the folders where your VM files reside and post some screenshots...


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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mike147
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Scott,

Thanks for the quick holiday reply. Attached are the screen shots of the folders where the VM files reside as requested. Note the OVA files were in the Downloads folder when I first tried to import them. Let me know if you need anything else.

Mike

Capture10.PNGCapture11.PNGCapture12.PNGCapture13.PNGCapture14.PNGCapture15.PNGCapture16.PNGCapture17.PNG

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mike147
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I uninstalled (deleted config file; kept license info) and attempted to reinstall VMWare as admin. This solution initially worked with one small fix while reinstalling, but then same problems as before.

When attempting reinstall, I got the error message shown below. I created the directory manually and installation appeared to proceed as normal.

Capture20.PNG

Once reinstalled, after reboot, and still as admin, I was able to open a couple of my previous VMs. I logged out as admin and logged back in my user account. I was able to open a couple other previous VMs. I then started importing the four OVA files I need for class.

I was able to import two (Kali & WinXP) but on the third (Metasploitable2) and fourth (Ubuntu 10), I got the same error message as before. Retry also failed, as before.

Capture8.PNG

In addition, I can no longer open previous VMs. Not sure if VMWare failed after certain number of opening previous VM's or OVAs or from trying to open the Metasploitable2 OVA.

Capture2.PNG

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated. I spent most of yesterday trying to determine the solution but was unable to find a permanent one.

Mike

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continuum
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OVA packages are basically TAR-archives.

If the import fails for what ever reasons extract the tar archive yourself with 7zip for example.

Then import the vmdks with vmware-vdiskmanager and create a vmx-file manually.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

mike147
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A big thanks to continuum for his suggestion to try unzipping/extracting the OVA files before importing them into VMWare Workstation Pro. This led unexpectedly to solving both issues, although I do not fully understand why it worked.

Continuum suggesting unzipping the OVA files first as they were essentially archive files. So, I installed Zip7 and unzipped the first two OVA's and then opened them in VMWare. Everything worked fine. I then tried opening the other two OVA files without unzipping them. They now imported fine. I could also now open my previous VMs.

The only thing that comes to mind is I had WinRAR installed from a class in Sep '19. I installed VMWare for the first time in Jan. '20. Last time I used VMWare before this was Mar. '20. Sometime in the last two months, I uninstalled WinRAR, as the trial had expired. Perhaps there was some file or setting VMWare needed to extract the OVA files.

This theory explains why VMWare would not open the OVA files. Not sure it explains why it would not open previous VMs, unless they are stored compressed as well.

It certainly does not explain (at least not with my level of understanding) why when I uninstalled and reinstalled VMWare, VMWare opened the first few OVAs and previous VM's it worked but then stopped. If anyone has any ideas why this would fix all three issues I was experiencing, I would be curious to know.

However this is just academic. VMWare now appears to be working. My only concern is if it stops opening previous VM's while trying to complete a lab assignment for class.

Thanks for all who took time to consider this problem and especially to scott28tt and continuum for their helpful suggestions.

-mike147

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scott28tt
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VMware is a company, Workstation Pro is the product you are using.

That‘s like referring to an Xbox, a Surface Pro, and Word all as “Microsoft” 😉


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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continuum
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Mike

you are still missing an important aspect.

It is very very unlikely that WS fails to extract your OVA package.

Look in the WS program-directory. There you should find a file named 7za.exe. That is a minimal commandline 7zip tool.

OVA does not pass OVF specification does not mean that WS cant expand your OVA - it means that it does not want to !!!

Note the difference!!

OVA/OVF export/import is a sunny weather tool that is supposed to handle moving / porting VMs  from platform A to platform B.

When you create such a package on platform A ut does the following:

1. it converts all required vmdks into the so called "streamlineOptimized" format.

2. it reads the local vmx-file or the equivalent used by VirtualBox and translates it into an xml-file with the extension *.ovf.

While doing that it looks up every vmx-parameter used on the source VM and if that parameter is supported it creates an xml-entry.

So this vmx-parameter:

scsi0:0.present = "True"

scsi0:0.fileName = "VMware-vcops-5.0.0.0-554150-system.vmdk"

will be translated into these ovf-file entries:

<File ovf:href="VMware-vcops-5.0.0.0-554150-system.vmdk"

          ovf:size="1152572928"

          ovf:id="system.vmdk_id"/>

In theory this is fine ...

In more practical terms this means that every parameter that is unknown to the current OVA/OVF library either gets dropped silently while packaging - or it creates an error.

So in practice creating an OVA/OVF package over-simplifies the vmx-entries from the source.

When importing such a package the same can happen:

If the library of the importing application (Workstation X in this case) knows the xml-parameter everything is fine.

If not - that parameter is either dropped or you recieive an error like you reported it.

If the importing tool has nothing to complain it creates the vmx-file for you - in most cases the new vmx-file is not identical to the source but good enough to work.

If the tool has managed to create a vmx-file it next deals with the vmdks.

The "streamlineOptimized" vmdk format is designed to be created once - and then when it arrives on the target platform it will be extracted to the format that is used by the local VMware application.

With ESXi "streamlineOptimized" will be converted into the "VMFS" vmdk format.

With Workstation "streamlineOptimized" vmdks will be converted into the monolithicSparse  or  twoGbMaxExtentSparse format.

On Workstation "streamlineOptimized" will usually work - but the preferred format is monolithicSparse or its split version.

This summary leaves out all other functions - like policies or setup related questions ....

But for this purpose this is what you need to know ...

So make sure you convert the vmdks if this is not done - or be aware of the consequences !


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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