virtualbox.org

Hey Guys,

Virtualbox is just awesome, thanks for creating it, I often prototype systems (including entire labs) in virtualbox and then migrate it over to production running VMware ESXI, but I have had real trouble importing appliances exported from VirtualBox.

As a work around for getting the Vbox virtual machine into ESX I have used VMware Converter and told it to "Convert a physical machine", which has worked well, but this is time consuming and not ideal.

I have experimented with various methods using ovftool, legacy 0.9, editing the .ovf file and a few other creative ideas, but no success

Is anybody on the forums importing appliances created from VirtualBox into ESXi successfully ?

Using ovftool would be excellent for deploying multiple appliances to ESXi in a scripted fashion.

Can somebody whack me with a cluebat ?

Your profile states that you use Linux and Windows as Guest OSes. For Linux, it's pretty easy: use VBoxManage clonehd <VDI file> <output file> --format VMDK --variant ESX and tell ESX to use the existing VMDK as hard drive. Linux is very tolerant for hardware changes, so this gives you the least amount of problems.
For Windows, it's a bit harder. You have to prepare it for a hardware move. I haven't done that much, so I can't really tell you how to do that. You might want to check the sysprep utility.

Hey thanks for your post Sasquatch, I use linux more than anything, particularly when taking projects to ESX, windows mainly runs as a guest OS in VBox due to the office environment i'm in, and for running vsphere client.

Will try the VBoxManage clonehd method and report back.

ovftool deployment would be the most ideal solution though, especially using things like turnkey linux appliances etc.

Cheers.

Just thought i'd follow up and say that the conversion has been a success, thanks for the tip

You can easily import a VBox exported OVF into an ESXi server via the VI client or via VMware OVFtool.
When exporting the VM keep it's devices neutral. That is to say don't use the VBox SATA controller, or virtio net devices for example. Instead use things like the SAS controller or Intel NIC cards which are both inherently native to VMware as VM devices. The SAS controller in VMWare is the preferred device performance wise only next to the pvscsi controller anyways. Linux is easy to switch these devices out, side for boot for which you may have to rebuild your boot image (initrd, See: mkinitrd or dracut) to include the necessary driver at boot time. For windows boot devices simply install the LSI SAS driver for example and reboot at least once with the new disk controller to make sure windows is made aware of the new controller and respective device driver.
Also be sure to elminate, shared folders, USB mapped devices and sound controllers (anything VBox specific that VMware will not like at the time it parses the OVF XML)
Additionally uninstall the VBox paravirtual drivers (VBoxGuestAdditions).

Now you can simply export the VM using the VBox OVF export.
Choose to export the VM and when you get to "Appliance Export Settings" choose a location and choose to export .ovf instead of OVA. Make sure to feed the dialog "/path/to/nameofvm.ovf" for example.
After the VM has exported simply edit the .ovf XML and find the tag <vssd:VirtualSystemType>virtualbox-2.2</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
and change it to
<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (Assuming you are using vSphere 4.x)

Save the changes to the file.

Now simply use the VI client to login into your vCenter or ESXi server and import the OVF you just created. Remember such things as to tell VMWare to import the disk as thin for example if the original VBox VDI was dynamic.
Same thing applies to using the vmware OVF tool to import the VM to an esxi server or vCenter wherever you are choosing to send it to.

crash0veride wrote:You can easily import a VBox exported OVF into an ESXi server via the VI client or via VMware OVFtool.
When exporting the VM keep it's devices neutral.
<SNIP>
Now you can simply export the VM using the VBox OVF export.
Choose to export the VM and when you get to "Appliance Export Settings" choose a location and choose to export .ovf instead of OVA. Make sure to feed the dialog "/path/to/nameofvm.ovf" for example.
After the VM has exported simply edit the .ovf XML and find the tag <vssd:VirtualSystemType>virtualbox-2.2</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
and change it to
<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (Assuming you are using vSphere 4.x)

I've been attempting this with a Windows Server 2008 VM, and found it isn't quite so simple. VMware ovftool seems to be picky about the order of Item sub-elements. I had to edit my VirtualBox (4.1.6) generated legacy OVF according to this suggestion on the VMware communities page: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1892628#1892628 .

This worked, though hand editing xml to get this working seems pretty ridiculous given how mature both of these products are... Presumably the OVF spec covers this and either the VirtualBox or VMware tools are not compliant.