virtualbox.org

Hi folks -- I am trying to convert a .VDI (Centos 7 guest) on a Windows 7 VB 5.0 host to a .VHD. The exact command I'm using is (short of the xxx.xxx subfolder name): vboxmanage.exe internalcommands converthd -srcformat vdi c:\users\xxx.xxx\virtualbox\centOS 7.vdi -dstformat VHD e:\doublewall.vhd. The command errors out with: Syntax error: Invalid parameter 'e:\doublewall.vhd' . What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

McSkyguy wrote:What am I doing wrong?

You're using an undocumented, internal command instead of the supported "VBoxManage clonehd". Try that one...

Thanks Socratis, that worked!

Glad it worked!

Using the clonehd command worked to convert the format from vdi to vhd but when I created a guest VM on my Windows 2012 host using the newly converted .vhd the system doesn't run like the original. It looks like mounts aren't working right. To recap my situation:
- Have a Centos 7 guest that is configured as an RSA authentication manager that is working perfectly as a guest on my Windows 7 workstation running VB 5.0.14
- Run the clonehd command and get the vhd
- configure a new guest on my Hyper-v (Windows 2012) server using the cloned .vdi ->.vhd file
- New guest attempts to start but doesn't get mounts configured as the original
Is there some switches I need to incorporate on the CloneHD command that will correct the situation?

Note also that I tried using that vhd on a new guest configured on VB and it doesn't work either.

Can you explain why you wanted to convert from the robust native VDI format to the inferior performing, fragile, and not as well supported VHD format?

Just this week I had to explain to someone that I couldn't fix his catastrophically failed VHD because VHD is a third party format and we have no great expertise with it here.

Sure mpack. For the reasons you stated I use VB on my systems at home and my workstation at work. I use it at work so I can easily build test systems for desktop app testing and cyber security testing. At work we are in a rather strictly controlled government contracting IT environment and for reasons centered around that we operate primarily in a Windows environment. Because I believed that a VB quest could be converted to a .vhd rather easily I built this system (on my workstation) to replace a Linux based RSA appliance that would allow the import of the replaced system's configuration and then be hosted on a MS Hyper-V host. Now, I would really hate to duplicate all the efforts that went into building it to build it again on that Hyper-V host so I'm hoping for an answer here. Thanks for the read!