4.0.2 Import ".ova" fail: shared folder ...is not absolute

[hank]

My coworker sent a 5.09 GB "XP_2007_build.ova" file created with /Appliance/Export. He is using a Mac OSX host.

On a Win7, 64-bit machine, I attempted to import this appliance using VirtualBox 4.0.2

The import fails with an error message "Failed to import appliance"

I'm following what appears to be a very similar topic about a failure with an "OVF" file: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 61#p171687

I started a separate topic in case a fix for the problem with the ".ova" file I have differs from the "OVF" file already being discussed there -- not sure if there is a difference.

[hank]

I see the ".ova" format differs from the ".ovf" format, from the Export dialog:

"If you use an ova file name extension, then all the files will be combined into one Open Virtualization Format Archive. If you use an ovf extension, several files will be written separately. Other extensions are not allowed."

So I'd guess there's no way to uncombine these and we need to start over -- different from the advice in aother topic about getting the pieces out of an "OFV" file.

Coworker who sent the .OVA file says:

" ... mine had a shared folder. The error was explicitly that it cannot be imported with that. (Well, technically it can be, if the same path could be constructed on the Windows system.) But the upshot is that for cross-platform export/import, we cannot have shared directories configured when exporting."

He confirms he used /Appliance/Export from his Mac host -- and that the dozen or so .ova files I created on my Windows host have the same problem going the other way.

How is this problem avoided, going forward?

I think -- disconnect the shared directory (we use it to transfer files between VMs); then do the /Appliance/Export; then reconnect the shared directory.

If that's in the manual, pointer, please, I missed that.

EDIT: since I'm talking to myself here, in case it helps anyone else, I will report back once we test out my guess. Don't follow my lead, youngsters, I'm a stranger here myself and just guessing out loud to push back the dark.

[chris7825]

I'm having the same problem also. When going from Linux/Unix to Windows, the OVA format can not be imported due to the hard-coded shared path. Is this a bug in the Windows version of VirtualBox? Or is this part of ova standard?

Thanks

[hank]

No answer yet (still poking at it; re-exported without shared folder, sent it to my coworker, 8 hours transmit time, waiting to hear if it will import for him now).

Google finds more people today than yesterday afflicted by this feature. We're not alone.

Those who exported as ".OVF" can recover (see "4.0 Import Appliance fails: shared folder ...is not absolute" )

A related question -- for me a shared "machine" folder caused the problem.
I haven't tried exporting with a shared "transient" folder-- anyone know if that is also a problem?

[logullo]

EDIT: since I'm talking to myself here, in case it helps anyone else, I will report back once we test out my guess. Don't follow my lead, youngsters, I'm a stranger here myself and just guessing out loud to push back the dark.

Naah... you're not the only one I had the same problem with a similar cross-platform migration (an XP VM from Windows 7 to Solaris); found this thread, and since my VM migration was local it took a lot less than 8 hours to repeat.

I'm happy to report that just deleting the shared folder setting before the export allowed the import to succeed. I trust you'll have similar luck.

I do think this should be something that the --dry-run should catch and flag... it would save at least half of the turnaround time.

[hank]

Yes, deleting the shared folder setting before the export allowed the import.

[srisan_msc]

I got same problem.

Solution: edit the .ovf file and search for share.
remove every thing and replace this with "<SharedFolders/>".
save the OVF file and import. problem solved.

regards,
Srisan.

[hank]

What editor did you use?

[mpack]

Notice that he says he edited the ovf. I don't think he noticed that you said .ova.

[rwbowen]

Having the same problem importing an OVA that was built using Windows into VBox on Linux. Not sure if you've got a workaround or not but here's what I found.

I came across info that said the OVA file is basically a TAR file with the separate components of an OVF export all in one. So I gave it a go to extract the OVA using the tar command and it extracted the files and now you can go edit the OVF, remove the offending shared directory reference and import the virtual machine as an OVF instead of OVA.

Good luck.