how to convert an .img file to VMWARE Fusion?

[mikele3]

Hello,

I am running an Ubuntu server on LINODE

I managed to download and .img file of it.

How do I convert it to a Virtual Machine that can be used in VMWARE Fusion 8?

Can I use the Converter Standalone?

[POCEH]

Converter can convert live *nux to ESX/VC target only.

HTH

[mikele3]

thank you for your reply POCEH

I am completely ignorant on the subject. I used google to understand what you said.

Is there a way to achieve my goal of converting the .img file into a Virtual Machine that can be used in VMWARE Fusion 8?

[POCEH]

I don't know what format the .img file is but Converter supports only .vmdk and .vxh disk file formats.

You need to find the image file converter to transform .img to .vmdk. In best case the resulting .vmdk file could be used as Fusion's disk, otherwise you can use Converter to transform .vmdk to Fusion's .vmdk.

HTH

[mikele3]

Thank you again POCEH.

I'll follow the direction you gave me and see if I manage to succeed,

[continuum]

An img file maybe a complete uncompressed image like you would get with
dd if=/dev/sda of=disk.img
If that assumption is right you can use it without any conversion.
Use  vmdk-type monolothicFlat and create a descriptorfile. Then it can be assigned to a Fusion or Workstation VM.
See VMDK-Handbook-Basics

[mikele3]

thank you Continuum.

I spoke with LINODE support and they said it should have been the case (complete uncompressed image)

I did try to create a descriptorfile as you suggested, but without luck... VMWare seems non responsive to it.

If I try to mount the .img file Macbook pro complains : "no mountable file system"

The best I've got from VMware Fusion, trying to use the image file to make a new VM were two error message: "No boot filename received" and "Operating System not found"

[continuum]

Can you access the img-file from Linux ?
Please provide the output of
sgdisk -p img-file
If that displays a valid partitiontable then please also provide the size of the img-file in bytes so that I can create a descriptorfile for it.

[mikele3]

thank you continuum!

I did copy the linode.img file over to an Ubuntu 14.05.5 server and run this command: sgdisk -p linode.img

this is the output:

Creating new GPT entries.

Disk linode.img: 100147200 sectors, 47.8 GiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): B1C5B678-3FE2-41AF-A915-744C3ECBFAAE

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 100147166

Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries

Total free space is 100147133 sectors (47.8 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

[mikele3]

I was forgetting file size, sorry!

51275366400 bytes

[continuum · Accepted solution]

that img-file is not full disk-image and so it is not usable as a flat.vmdk.
It may be possible that the partitiontable is damaged but I doubt that.

[mikele3]

thank you again for looking into it.

I doubt I would have ever figured out by myself.

I'll look into other options on how to have the same remote setup into a local VM.

Best regards.