Difference between Export and Clone VM

[saran]

Hi,

Is there any difference between clone(existing VM) & export / direct export(existing VM) before import the appliance to other machines..

Because when I do direct export VM as appliance(.ova) and import to other machines then most of the time, it works however it failed in few hosts with the error "Failed to Import Appliance test.ova E_INVALIDARG(0x80070057)" .

But then it is success always when I make clone first and export the cloned VM and import to any hosts later.

Looking forward your advise as we need to rely on one technique consistenlty for deployment purposes.

Thanks & Regards,
Saran

[mpack]

Yes there is a difference. An exported VM will have the container format changed to VMDK. Some of the hardware features may be changed or lost if they are not supported by the OVA standard.

But a question: if you are simply copying VMs between VirtualBox hosts, then why are you doing either of those things? Howto: Move a VM.

[saran]

Thanks mpack for your reply.

One of the requirement is to keep the orginal VM in the source host before copy to multiple hosts. Will move preserve the copy in the source?

Regards
Saran

[mpack]

Will move preserve the copy in the source?

The built in "Move" feature provided by the manager is not what you want in this case. The FAQ describes an alternative which is what you should use, i.e. just copy the VM folder wherever it needs to be. You don't mention a guest OS, but of course if it's Windows then you must beware of activation issues when moving between hosts, however you'd have the same problem with cloning so I'm assuming there is no such issue.

[saran]

Sorry the host is windows and the guest is Ubuntu.
I will perform the FAQ way of copying the VM folder and test it out.

Thanks!!!