Is it possible to import Parallels VMs?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
wpeterk
Posts: 1
Joined: 23. Jan 2019, 15:23

Re: Is it possible to import Parallels VMs?

Post by wpeterk »

SOLUTION FOR READING FILES (not booting)

I had problem that VirtualBox could not boot from *.hdd file (previous *.hds in Parallels), so I did the following:

1. I have created completely new Ubuntu machine in VirtualBox with completely new HDD
2. I have added my existing *.hdd file as second HDD in machine settings
3. command sudo mount /dev/sdb1 ~/hdd2 has mounted my prev disk into Ubuntu machine
4. then I could at least copy old files from old HDD into my newly created VM's HDD
5. Removed Parallels Lite from my computer (out of dissatisfaction)

Notes:
In step 3: /dev/sdb1 is for second HDD, /dev/sdc1 would be for third HDD, etc
and also directory ~/hdd2 must exists before mounting
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Is it possible to import Parallels VMs?

Post by mpack »

I'm not sure your procedure belongs here. It simply outlines how to copy files off an Ubuntu filesystem. The "sudo mount xxxx" command is about mounting a partition on the drive, it does not mount the container file in VirtualBox, so it can't work if VirtualBox doesn't recognize the hdd container format, which has been the topic of discussion here.

If the container format is recognized by VirtualBox then an Ubuntu guest would normally be able to boot directly, being much more forgiving of hardware changes than Windows would be.

Mind you, hdd v2 containers don't have embedded UUID fields, so VirtualBox would have to invent one and store it as drive metadata in the control file. If your Ubuntu VM was using a grub boot and identifying the boot drive using UUID then it's possible this could cause a boot failure. The fix would be to edit the grub boot script: correct the UUID or better yet get it to boot using a device name instead of a UUID, otherwise any form of cloning will create the same problem.
vitaly9
Posts: 10
Joined: 1. Feb 2019, 02:04
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Debian 9, Windows 7
Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: Is it possible to import Parallels VMs?

Post by vitaly9 »

I migrating to VirtualBox from Parallels using it several years on macOS and that's was an issue to manage all my VMs...
According to @Jummy post got here, I've start to dig this topic and found possibility to extract and merge with about 7 types of hypervisor disks configurations.
So my tries to import HDD images of Parallels' VM from version 9 to version 14 was successfully done with positive results...
Now starting to move completely all my VMs from Parallels' Hypervisor to VirtualBox...
Confirm this is possible with success without any issues, just need to shutdown VM, deinstall Parallels Tools before starting merging, merge it and install VirtualBox Extension Packs later...
MacBook Pro Late 2013 Retina, 2,4Ghz Intel i5, 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz, Intel Iris 1536MB, macOS X Mojave 10.14.2 (18C54), Kernel Darwin 18.2.0 > Ignitions sequence start done and works well
Guests: Windows 7, Windows XP, Debian 7 x86, Debian 9 amd64, DOS 6.22,
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