VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004):Disk has no extension

[sanchit]

hi All,

I am trying to import the OVA image on to Virtual Box 6.1* and while importing the ova after sometime, it results in "Failed to import Appliance" with error description as The target disk 'C:\Users\sanch\VirtualBox VMs\castiron-virtual-appliance\apimgmt-disk1' has no extension with result code as below:

Result Code:
VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004)
Component:
ApplianceWrap
Interface:
IAppliance {86a98347-7619-41aa-aece-b21ac5c1a7e6}

Host:
Windows 10 Pro
Oracle Virtual box 6.1


I tried to download the OVA multiple time from my Vendor's website and the same issues with all the ova's.I tried to import other two ova's and it was successful.
This OVA got only problem.

Can anyone help me with its resolution or may be I have to do other things to fix this?

Appreciate for an early reply if possible.

Thanks
Sanchit Gupta

[mpack]

The error sounds self explanatory? You need to contact whomever created the OVA, and get them to do it properly. Typically OVA uses VMDK format disks, and the disk image files have a .vmdk extension.

Windows lies to you about file names, in particular it hides file extensions for registered file types. Naive Windows uses fall victim to this and think that the extensionless filename is the complete name, which it is not. They they build this mistake into other files that they generate - though I'd think you have to work hard to make that mistake when creating an OVA (e.g. the name would be complete if the VirtualBox export feature had been used).

[sanchit]

Thanks for your quick reply.

We used the same image to install to VMWare and it did installed successfully however when we tried to install on Oracle virtual box we faced this issue.

I am not sure if both of them expect the ova file in the same form or different. That's the only thing which we wanted to clarify as I am new to Oracle Virtual Box.

if somehow, we still reach to Vendor they will revert back to us by replying as its already working in VMWare .So just looking a way around of what may be wrong here.

Thanks
Sanchit

[mpack]

So just looking a way around of what may be wrong here.

We know what's wrong: the error message tells you.

Are you asking if there's a workaround? The answer is yes, but it may not be beginner level.

First, an OVA is just a renamed archive. If you add a ".tgz" extension to the file (but see the p.p.s below) then you can view the contents with your favorite archiving tool (I used WinRAR). You can unpack the contents to a temporary folder, rename the disk image to have a ".vmdk" extension, and then edit the ".ovf" file using a text editor (I used Notepad++), find the References section (usually near the top), and correct the disk image filename there as well. Save the changes. Finally Then right click the ".ovf" and open it with VirtualBox. That should import the VM. Note that there's no need to repack the appliance into a .tgz again since that step has always been optional - it's just often more convenient to have a single file.

p.s. The tar file might include a manifest (.mf) file which would list the other files and give checksums I imagine. It's best to delete the manifest file, since I have no idea what you need to do to correct it for renamed files. Obviously this is less secure - if this makes you unhappy then approach the originators for an OVA which is corrected at source.

p.p.s. You will have difficulty following the above procedure if you don't yourself fix the problem with Windows lying to you about filenames. To do that you need only open any Win10 file browser window, click the "\/" symbol to display the ribbon, select the "View" tab, and make sure that "File name extensions" is checked in the show/hide panel towards the right.

[sanchit]

Thanks Mpack.

Sorry for replying late.
I tried to unzip the ova,I do find the .vmdk files with its proper extensions. Hence I do not need to have them modified. But still I tired to ren file to some with its proper extension ie:.vmdk.But still no luck.

Hopefully,I am looking at the right place.

Not sure what else we need to change in order to work.

Attaching the screenshots for References and Unzipped files

files.PNG (68.77 KiB) Viewed 11105 times

references.PNG (33.67 KiB) Viewed 11105 times

Regards
Sanchit Gupta

[sanchit]

hi all,

Need a quick help on this issue ..

Can anyone share their thoughts on how to get this done ?

Thanks in Advance.

[mpack]

This is not really something that can be diagnosed remotely, the OVA clearly has incorrect contents. You should contact the vendor and get them to provide a fixed version of it.

One thought: if "extension" does not refer to filename extension then perhaps it refers to a missing segment of a file. Again, if that segment is necessary then only the vendor can diagnose and fix the problem.

A final thing you can try is to take the VMDK, convert it to VDI using VBoxManage (do not skip this step, it is necessary), then build a new VM around the VDI. This guarantees that you won't get any OVx import errors, but unfortunately it doesn't guarantee that the VM recipe will be suitable.

[Martin]

The second VMDK is very small. Can you open it in a text editor and show the text lines at the start of this file?

[fth0]

I cannot find the exact error message "Disk has no extension" inside the VirtualBox 6.1.26 sources. Since there are only more detailed error messages, it could be interesting to use the current VirtualBox 6.1.26, if you haven't done so already.

Another thought: If the OVA file is publicly available, someone else could try to import it, to see if the issue depends on your setup.

[mpack]

Just for info: in English at least, "extension" is not part of any VMDK terminology that I'm aware of, however "extent" most certainly is. All VMDKs can be broken into chunks called extents. For example a raw VMDK text descriptor can refer to multiple individual extents describing the boot sectors and partitions, or the split2g variant of course uses 2GB extents. When a VMDK is enlarged "online" then it's typically done by appending a new extent.

If the error message was incorrectly translated from another language then it may have really said something along the lines of "One or more VMDK extents are missing", and then the meaning would be plain, and it's easy to see how such a mistake could be made.

[sanchit]

The second VMDK is very small. Can you open it in a text editor and show the text lines at the start of this file?

Thanks Martin,

When I open the .vmdk file in text editor its displayed some gibberish values.

‹ íÚ¿Oað+ Ã%ÌŽ^ÊAE~$ˆÅh1ŠÝÎÞ+\€¶¹žDœØüïüœ\ܜԻ¶ÂÒUêç“ôÞÞû|ûöí=Ã
½'­ýé(ŠQ}Üœ­Ñy4Ô¸2FSÑ_¿G.²QœÌŃ\óI+ï%­Ðoy¯ìó㟆¢Ÿw;·“øÁãÖÆúZ;]]O«³^Z„NYϽIâvÒ2ìõÂF³_V''»½2?É?…¬™Äñ|²ý±¬>”d£ï¨Ž_´vŸ=}“Ü^Z^»·º²´”¼|~ÿÅËí¤y:¡¨–ˆK-žždGÍz•½Ã0ÚkZ¦ÉVÚI<ßjmÅq–½[L³´W†¢ÞE²‘4ó,4ó¡Óîfyç ž|µ÷pam8}º'¡,ÎÛgÇy'«~n¨¶³tçÞ•ÄaH³auåJ¥ÚÕÔVîk§yQ~H½Þ^Áº¶ÜŒÇu þ=3Õëüí¯q1&Ô ÿ·~6Æå˜Lƒþø15.ÇdôÿË÷éq9&SÝÿèæ·™q9&Ó ñ‡_oŒË19æ.½wã €ëíòÃ^üøÿ<iíì×}oº¿9[ϝj+ãå?ˆ?Æ‹l's±'áZù™©¯ .

[sanchit]

I cannot find the exact error message "Disk has no extension" inside the VirtualBox 6.1.26 sources. Since there are only more detailed error messages, it could be interesting to use the current VirtualBox 6.1.26, if you haven't done so already.

Another thought: If the OVA file is publicly available, someone else could try to import it, to see if the issue depends on your setup.

Thanks @fth0,

Somehow I looked and verified the version ..and found that I am using Version 6.1.25 r145934 (Qt5.6.2) as per your suggestion I will try to update the version to later. Hopefully it should get resolved.

I have asked the other teammates too, but none of them were able to deploy on Virtual box however they can import the same OVA using VMWare Workstation which sound like a suspicion to me if anything wrong with Virtual Box specifically for this OVA or something else.

[sanchit]

I cannot find the exact error message "Disk has no extension" inside the VirtualBox 6.1.26 sources. Since there are only more detailed error messages, it could be interesting to use the current VirtualBox 6.1.26, if you haven't done so already.

Another thought: If the OVA file is publicly available, someone else could try to import it, to see if the issue depends on your setup.

hi,

I just tried with Version 6.1.26 r145957 (Qt5.6.2) and still the same issue.
The target disk 'C:\Users\sanch\VirtualBox VMs\castiron-virtual-appliance\rel_apimgmt-disk1' has no extension .

[fth0]

The target disk 'C:\Users\sanch\VirtualBox VMs\castiron-virtual-appliance\rel_apimgmt-disk1' has no extension .

Now it's getting interesting: Not only the extension is missing, but note the prefix "rel_" and the "1" in the filename. This filename differs from both filenames you've shown so far:

Code: Select all

rel_apimgmt-disk1

    apimgmt-disk1.vmdk
rel_apimgmt-disk2.vmdk

The error message also shows another filename than in your original post, and one of your pictures shows a current timestamp for the OVF file, so I'm wondering if you're providing the correct information here. Can you provide the original OVF file?

[sanchit]

hi

The target disk 'C:\Users\sanch\VirtualBox VMs\castiron-virtual-appliance\rel_apimgmt-disk1' has no extension .

Now it's getting interesting: Not only the extension is missing, but note the prefix "rel_" and the "1" in the filename. This filename differs from both filenames you've shown so far:

Code: Select all

rel_apimgmt-disk1

    apimgmt-disk1.vmdk
rel_apimgmt-disk2.vmdk

The error message also shows another filename than in your original post, and one of your pictures shows a current timestamp for the OVF file, so I'm wondering if you're providing the correct information here. Can you provide the original OVF file?

Oh sorry, for that confusion. Actually I was trying some thing earlier with .ovf and renaming the .vmdk files ,so accidentally shared the files.
However, i just extracted all files and sharing the latest files with you.

Capture.PNG (19.71 KiB) Viewed 10609 times

rel_apimgmt.txt

(20.15 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

you need to rename the file to .ovf from .txt to see its content.
Also, attaching the screenshot for the disk1 and disk 2 names which was there in the original ova file

Regards
Sanchit