Can VirtualBox run(!) OVF files?

[ams_tschoening]

In the past I hosted VMs on the server using VMware Server, currently VirtualBox, but my development machine uses VMware Workstation instead. Because of that, I have VMs containing VMDKs and VDIs currently on the server and can not easily import server-VMs in my Workstation. Instead, I need to export to OVF and import that at my notebook. During some research about which format is supported by both products, I came across the following text:

OVFs must be installed before they can be run; a particular virtualization platform may run the VM from the OVF, but this is not required.

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/ovf_whitepap ... cation.pdf

From my understanding, VirtualBox supports OVF only during an import/export cycle, while the VM is converted to some internal format. Is this correct or am I missing something? VMware seems to work the same. But I was wondering if there was some way to tell VirtualBox to e.g. import some OVF/OVA and keep using that to actually run the VM. At best with all support for snapshots, complex networks and all that stuff.

So is that possible? I guess not, but maybe I'm missing something. Thanks!

[socratis]

So is that possible? I guess not, but maybe I'm missing something.

The answer is a big no, and you're not missing absolutely nothing.

OVF is a way to exchange VMs between virtualizers. The specification does *not* talk about running a VM inside an OVF. Each and every virtualizer out there *has to* import the VM and adapt the "recipe" in the OVF in its own native environment.

Snapshots, networks and all that stuff

The snapshots are not part of the OVF specification AFAIK, and since I suspect that you're particularly interested in the snapshot feature; no, no, no. The VM gets "flattened" to its current state before it gets exported.

As for the networks, it depends on their complexity. Simple network descriptions should work. But anything else more than the basics, I expect will need some "massage" to get it correct in the new environment. For example the IP range of a HostOnly network.