virtualbox.org

I set up an image to be used by my co-workers who can configure it however they like, I call it the Pristine image. I have an image of this, (my Working image), that is no longer pristine and useful for co-worker distribution. The problem I'm having is that allthough my Working and the Pristine images have different filenames Virtual Box sees them as the same image. So I cannot switch between them without permanently losing access to one of the images.

On occassion I need to do this to update the Pristine image with releases, maintenance, etc., and then re-distribute it to co-workers. I've looked in a lot of places and haven't found any information on how to do what would seem to be a common practice, can anyone help?

Thanks,
Kirk

10 reads so far no responses eeeek

Ok 17 views and I guess maybe another approach might work. Wondering if the way you could do this is through some swapping of the Virtual Box config/settings files when I need to change?

If I understand what is really happening here you created an image and then copied it to create another image, correct?
If so then this would explain why you can not have both images registered at the same time since they would both have the same UUID.
The only way to fix this is to generate a different UUID in the second copy. However this will more than likely trigger a renewal of the authentication of Windows ( thank you very much MS ). The easiest way to generate a copy of an image that has a unique UUID is to clone or export the image. See your VirtualBox users manual for further instructions .

Yes I think it is the UUID since the file names are different. Will try the export and let everyone know how that goes. Thanks very much for the response Perry.

Don't export. Too complicated and error prone for your needs. Download the CloneVDI tool from the sticky in "Windows Hosts".

Ah okie will use that tool, just did complete an export but do recall co-workers saying export is not so good. In response we have just been zipping up the vdi file for distribution.
Yet I discovered other issues I will be having. When I “Remove” the non-pristine VM I receive this warning dialog…



The remove does complete and the non-pristine is no longer visible in VirtualBox Manage. However, and the crux of the problem, when I try to load the pristine version I get the error…



If the file deletion weren’t disabled this might work. So now I’m wondering if I can delete those registry keys without burning the house down?

Leave the VM intact, do not remove. There is no registry item to delete, because the error message is explicitly telling you that it can't register a second VDI because of a conflicting UUID. Just create a clone with a different UUID, as you've already been told, and mount that clone in the VM.

Already did the remove and lost my non-pristine VM, fortunately I've backed up all my projects and mitigated the disaster. I re-mounted the VM after that remove but I think it remounted the pristine VM before I did that export, hoping now it was the non-pristine one.

Good news is the Export I did was still my non-pristine version, so no lost. Also the VirtualBox Export/Import process worked fine, maybe its been improved, I'm using VB version 4.0.8. Because it worked so well I'm going to hedge my bets and do both export and clone on both images. I had to delete the settings folder to get the import to finalize and have VB not think it already existed.

My VM is a Windows server 2008R2 DC and has CRM 2011, Sharepoint 2010, Visual Studio 2010. more.

Have read all the docs, etc., and ended up having to learn this process through trail and error. Thanks for the assist guys, what was unknown is now known.