Publish VirtualBox VMs to Amazon

[mhoyman]

I am trying to upload a Virtualbox image from 4.3.12 to Amazon EC2 and I am following these procedures

VBoxManage internalcommands converttoraw vboximage.vdi ec2.img

Is VBoxManage converttoraw still supported as the command below is failing

8.4. VBoxManage list
8.5. VBoxManage showvminfo
8.6. VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm
8.7. VBoxManage createvm
8.8. VBoxManage modifyvm
8.8.1. General settings
8.8.2. Networking settings
8.8.3. Serial port, audio, clipboard and USB settings
8.8.4. Remote machine settings
8.8.5. Teleporting settings
8.9. VBoxManage clonevm
8.10. VBoxManage import
8.11. VBoxManage export
8.12. VBoxManage startvm
8.13. VBoxManage controlvm
8.14. VBoxManage discardstate
8.15. VBoxManage adoptstate
8.16. VBoxManage snapshot
8.17. VBoxManage closemedium
8.18. VBoxManage storageattach
8.19. VBoxManage storagectl
8.20. VBoxManage bandwidthctl
8.21. VBoxManage showhdinfo
8.22. VBoxManage createhd
8.23. VBoxManage modifyhd
8.24. VBoxManage clonehd
8.25. VBoxManage convertfromraw
8.26. VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata
8.27. VBoxManage setproperty
8.28. VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove
8.29. VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove
8.30. VBoxManage guestproperty
8.31. VBoxManage guestcontrol
8.32. VBoxManage debugvm
8.33. VBoxManage metrics
8.34. VBoxManage hostonlyif
8.35. VBoxManage dhcpserver
8.36. VBoxManage extpack

[Perryg]

Don't know for sure but years ago you used it as an internal command.
Example:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage internalcommands converttoraw your.VDI yourvdi.RAW

[michaln]

Is VBoxManage converttoraw still supported as the command below is failing

It's not supported, never was and never will be. At times, 'internalcommands' may do something but it's not supported.

That said, 'VBoxManage clonehd' with '--format RAW' is a supported method of producing raw images.

[mpack]

Raw format doesn't seem like a good choice for cloud storage. You're going to choose the most I/O intensive image format and store it on the slowest possible storage medium? It doesn't sound practical or safe. I hope it's a small image.

[Martin]

I don't think they are talking about cloud storage.
Amazon EC2 is a virtual server in the Amazon cloud data center.

[mpack]

I don't use Amazon EC2, but I gather that - at least in this case - it's just being used for generic cloud data storage (I don't see how a VM could benefit from distributed computing). The OP seemed to be asking about exporting a disk image to raw format for the purpose of copying to that storage. I imagine the goal is to be able to access the VM from anywhere, and from multiple devices, though in that case I don't know why the image needs to be raw. Am I missing something?

[Martin]

I read the question this way: He wants to convert the harddisk so he can transfer a VM from Vbox to Amazon to be able to run the whole VM there.
So we have to wait for mhoyman to clarify his question.

[mhoyman]

Sorry for the delay, I did not have email notification enabled.

Yes I just need the VirtualBox image of an oel5.8 os to run on the Amazon Cloud. I was not able to publish a URL on the boards as I am new. This blog is supposed to be the most authoritive for publishing images to the EC2 on Amazon.

http://www.niftiestsoftware.com/2011/09 ... n-ec2-ami/

[Perryg]

That tutorial was created 3 years ago and a lot has changed.
First, as michaln stated you should use clonehd these days.
After that you would need to consult the tutorial author for other instructions.

[mhoyman]

That is what I figured. I dont know how to use clonehd. Can I get the syntax and any recommendations vmdk or vdi?

[mhoyman]

I checked the documentation on Clonehd. Here is my syntax. My command prompt crashes. I can also run this on Ubuntu if you think it will be better.

C:\temp>C:\"Program Files"\Oracle\VirtualBox\Vboxmanage ec2.raw --format --varia
nt Standard --dbfw_1212.vdi

[Perryg]

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.h ... e-clonevdi

Code: Select all

VBoxManage clonehd         <uuid|inputfile> <uuid|outputfile>  --format raw

[mhoyman]

Yes I sourced the documentation and my command prompt crashes. Please see my syntax. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

[Perryg]

Did you try the one i posted?

[mpack]

Please see my syntax. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Well, for one thing you have omitted the "clonehd" command.

Also, I doubt very much that the command prompt crashes. If you see an error message then please report it accurately.