Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

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Ransom
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Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

Hello guys,

even though I’ve been an enthusiastic PC/laptop user for 27 years, to this day I can’t stand a smartphone and don’t own one (just a “normal” cell phone for calling).

I never thought that I would ever need WhatsApp, but if you are just looking only for a dog over the Internet, 99% of the owners ask if you have WhatsApp, and if you can only show an eMail address, it is not uncommon that you don’t get any further message (with desired further pictures of the dog).

All right, I thought, surely there is a desktop version for WhatsApp, and indeed, there is. But oh dear, you need for the verification – a cell phone. But there is another option: installing genymotion, a mature Android emulator based on VirtualBox. Everything worked great, both the installation of genymotion and WhatsApp on an emulated cell phone.

Now, of course, I wanted to backup the device, which – according to the manufacturer – also seems to be quite easy. The “normal” appliance export doesn’t work, but a right click on the appliance and “Export to OCI” should normally work. You just have to make sure to select “Open Virtualization Format 1.0” as the format. But as soon as I try this, the error message comes up:
Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)
I can’t find any solutions on the internet specifically for this error. Can anyone here do anything with this problem?

Greetings
Ransom
scottgus1
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by scottgus1 »

I can't help with the problem, but I can do a Stack-Exchange-style "frame challenge" :D

Export is not good for backup, since the VM is converted into a non-Virtualbox-standard format called OVF. It is for moving a VM to other hypervisors. The converted file is not bit-for-bit identical to the original, so it cannot be checked for integrity as a reliable backup.

A copy of the shut-down (not save-stated) VM folder with all files therein, as well as the VM's disk files if they are not in the VM folder, serves as a complete backup of the VM. You can FC file-compare the backup to confirm the copy. If the original is lost, move a copy of the backup back to the original location and the VM will be ready again. The copy can be used on a different host PC too, just by registering the VM's .vbox file.

Also, "Export to OCI" is exporting to an Oracle 'cloud' service, which you have to sign up for and possibly pay for.
Ransom
Posts: 37
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

Hello guys,

Small feedback: Exporting (and also importing) a device works perfectly fine under VirtualBox 6.0.24, i.e. you don’t even need the special OCI mode (although that works too). I just tried it out.

The before described error occurs in Version 6.1.14, 6.1.16 and 6.1.22

Greetings
Ransom
Ransom
Posts: 37
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

Hello guys,

really no one has any more an idea how to backup the Android emulator “Genymotion” even in the current 6.1 line of VirtualBox, so that no error message as described in #1 appears?

If indeed nobody has an idea: Is it actually possible to install a VM in an already existing VM? I ask because Genymotion has no problems with the 6.0 line, so I would like to install VirtualBox 6.0.24 in a Windows Guest running VirtualBox 6.1.16.

Greetings
Ransom
mpack
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by mpack »

Genymotion has their own support forum I believe, perhaps you might have better luck there with getting Genymotion help.

And... nobody said that export and import would not work, at least from an appearance point of view. But it's the wrong tool for backing up a VM, because it changes the VM. The whole idea of a backup is to preserve a working state, not to change it.
scottgus1
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by scottgus1 »

Ransom wrote:really no one has any more an idea how to backup the Android emulator “Genymotion” even in the current 6.1 line of VirtualBox, so that no error message as described in #1 appears?
Yes, read the topic again:
scottgus1 wrote:A copy of the shut-down (not save-stated) VM folder with all files therein, as well as the VM's disk files if they are not in the VM folder, serves as a complete backup of the VM.
Note this is for if you are truly trying to back up. Exporting is not for backing up, as Mpack points out.

If you want to export but not for backing-up purposed, then that's a different matter. I successfully exported an XP VM using OVF 1.0 in Virtualbox 6.1.26. So Virtualbox Export is not broken, provided that all of the VM's settings are compatible with OVF.

At an uneducated first glance, RPC_E_SERVERFAULT sounds like failure to communicate with the OCI server, which could be because you need an account and authentication keys?
Ransom
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

Hm ... thank you first of all for your answers.

I think there is a misunderstanding.

First: I’ve been using VirtualBox on Win 10 (host) for a few years, setting up all sorts of guests from WinXP to Win 11 that I use to try out various things. In order not to lose their activation as well as carefully worked out installations, I have exported them all (or re-exported them after changes) so that I can re-import them at any time after removing them (which has always worked wonderfully so far).

The exported files have the extension *.ova, not *.ovf, as mpack thinks. If I import such a *.ova file, I find two files in the corresponding folder (C:\Users\Admin\VirtualBox VMs\guest’s name): guest’s name.vbox and guest’s name-disk001.vdi.

After following your hints a bit, I found out that Genymotion does not store its virtual files in the usual folder for VirtualBox (C:\Users\Admin\VirtualBox VMs\guest’s name), but in a folder specially created by Genymotion: C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Genymobile\Genymotion\deployed\virtual device.

So saving this folder is fully sufficient, you don’t need the “Export” function of VirtualBox.

Thanks for thinking along.

Greetings
Ransom
mpack
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by mpack »

Ransom wrote: The exported files have the extension *.ova, not *.ovf, as mpack thinks.
?? I don't see where I mentioned either extension in my post above.

In any case a .ova is just a tar.gz archive containing the .ovf, one or more .vmdk files, and sometimes a manifest text. VirtualBox has an option to convert the .vmdk to .vdi during the import, and apparantly you chose that option.
Ransom
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

mpack, you are of course absolutely right, nowhere did you mention either extension, my apologies.

“In any case” I have learned something again, because I did not know that *.ova files are “just a tar.gz archive”. I once unpacked one of my saved guests/installations with WinRAR – and indeed: I find an *.ovf-, a *.vmdk- and a *.mf-file (the latter is probably the one “containing […] a manifest text”).
scottgus1
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by scottgus1 »

Ransom wrote:In order not to lose their activation ... I have exported them all (or re-exported them after changes) so that I can re-import them at any time after removing them (which has always worked wonderfully so far).
Forum advice has always been to not export for backups, since the VM's UUIDs change, and change in some UUIDs can up-end activation.

Are you saying that your exports can re-import and still remain activated? If so, are you using standard OEM/Retail licenses? Or do you have access to volume licensing? Do you do anything special in the export or import process?
Ransom
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

scottgus1 wrote:
Are you saying that your exports can re-import and still remain activated?
Exactly, that works, why, I also do not know. I initially dealt with the reading and subsequent re-insertion of the UUID (or know the corresponding commands via Command Prompt), have also undertaken this once, twice, but I no longer need this for a long time. Exporting and importing works wonderfully, (probably) always the same UUID (I don’t check this anymore), in any case the activation remains.
scottgus1 wrote:
If so, are you using standard OEM/Retail licenses?
Yes.
scottgus1 wrote:
Or do you have access to volume licensing?
No.
scottgus1 wrote:
Do you do anything special in the export or import process?
No, not that I know of.
scottgus1
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by scottgus1 »

Ransom wrote:I initially dealt with the reading and subsequent re-insertion of the UUID (or know the corresponding commands via Command Prompt)
Ah, yes, this would have undone the UUID change and kept the activation.
Ransom wrote:I no longer need this for a long time.
Maybe the process has changed so the UUIDs are either preserved, or the activation-dependent UUIDs aren't changed. (I'd have to test some myself.)

I think there is a Virtualbox UUID for identifying the VM and a 'hardware' UUID that the OS" uses to identify the "motherboard". I don't know all of the various factors that Windows uses to trigger reactivation, but I think the motherboard was supposed to be the big hum-dinger, with other things at various times for various Windows versions. A change in hardware UUID would make Windows think the 'motherboard' had changed, and deactivate.

Could be that the important UUIDs can be preserved through import/export now.

Do you ever try to import multiples of the same activated VM? If so, do you try to run them at the same time?
Ransom
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

scottgus1 wrote:
Do you ever try to import multiples of the same activated VM? If so, do you try to run them at the same time?
I got the idea not too long ago to clone existing (and activated) VMs. This also works wonderfully, I can run the original as well as multiple clones at the same time (at least with Win 7 I tried this), no VM grumbles because of the activation. I also recently did an inplace upgrade to Win 11 from an activated Win 10 Home VM. Again, the activation did not grumble. I will now try both VMs (i.e. Win 10 and 11) once by running them simultaneously. Then I will let you know again.

Update: Yes, both VMs (Win 10 + 11, based on the same serial key) are activated in parallel mode.

By the way, my initial question was based on a similar consideration: So that I don’t have to have a WhatsApp account re-verified over and over again, I was looking for a way to back up the GenyMotion-VM so that I can re-import it over and over again without having to reinstall or re-verify WhatsApp in this Android emulator.
scottgus1
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by scottgus1 »

That's interesting! Seems the UUID thing may not be that big anymore. Will have to try some experiments myself. Thanks for the info!

One other aspect of backup that export/import does not handle, though, is backup integrity checking: being able to confirm that the backup wrote correctly. Since the OVA has a considerable change in data format and possible compression, one cannot confirm the backup with a file-compare or hash. And a backup that hasn't been confirmed isn't as reliable as one that has been confirmed: a backup that can't be restored is just a larger carbon footprint.

But it is good that activation may survive an export/import.

Regarding the original problem, backing up a WhatsApp VM, have you tried export/import to your local disk instead of OCI?
Ransom
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Re: Failed to prepare the export of the appliance. Callee RC: RPC_E_SERVERFAULT (0x80010105)

Post by Ransom »

Hello scottgus1,

I have to row back a little bit. I looked again in my old manual, which I had made especially to get a “hardened” VM, whose activation is no longer lost. And there I saw that it is a highly complicated process, where it is important to activate the VM at exactly the right time, after having exported, deleted and re-imported x times before, and also having to organize similar forward-backward actions after the activation. Since it’s been over two years since I activated (and “hardened”) the last VM (Win 10), it felt like everything was going much more smoothly now, even though a very complicated process is required when creating a new VM (with activation) for the first time.

@WhatsApp-VM/GenyMotion: I did manage to make a backup and also import it again, but when I then start the VM, an error message comes up. Since I do not like the whole thing with the Android emulator in the meantime, I have now considered to install the desktop version of WhatsApp after all and to use an old smartphone of a friend for verification, on which I install WhatsApp with my phone number before, to then get the desired QR code for verification.

Regards
Ransom
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