Export, then Import -- Surprises & Questions

[socratis]

Oops... Missed that detail

(Note to self: never post before 07:30 or a 2nd cup of coffee, whichever happens later)

[markfilipak]

Thanks. And thanks to scottgus1. I'm attempting to use CloneVDI now.

Regards,
Mark.

This is markfilipak. I had to abandon my previous account because I couldn't change the email address that this forum had for me -- there's simply no way to do it. Bad email address was the reason I never got any notifications, so I had to abandon it and create a new account.

CloneVDI worked -- thank you, mpack ! Then 'gparted' worked. Then I was able to register the new, larger VDI with VirtualBox after much very frustrating struggle. So, there's now joy in my heart.

Apparently, VBox's "Export Appliance..." function automatically converts VDIs to VMDIs inside the exported '.OVA' file (this, in addition to converting the VM from fixed-size to dynamic-size, which is why I used "Export Appliance..." in the 1st place) -- why "Export Appliance..." converts the HD-image to VMDI is a mystery to me. That conversion certainly makes things difficult in the downstream processing (i.e., in "Import Appliance..."). The good (very good) news is that CloneVDI does not do any conversion, and I was able to resize the HD-image directly (without having to use the "Export Appliance..." function at all).

Congratulations, Don ! CloneVDI is very well crafted. Thanks so much.

Regards,
Mark.

[mpack]

why "Export Appliance..." converts the HD-image to VMDI is a mystery to me.

I believe you were already given the answer to that. The VDI is converted to VMDK because the OVF standard requires it (OVA == archived OVF). OVF is a cross platform portability standard supported by VMWare, VirtualBox and others. It is not something the VirtualBox devs can change as they please.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format.