virtualbox.org

Hello,

I have an Ubuntu12 VM hosted on a mac xServe (2008; 2x 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) running Lion (macOSX 10.7.5) in VirtualBox 4.3.34 that I want to migrate to a macPro (2009; 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) with Sierra (macOSX 10.12.3) installed as the OS. I have found information indicating either of these methods can be used to move a VM to a new server:

1. Export / Import

Power you VM on your old computer down.
From VirtualBox: Export your VM by going to "File"->"Export Applicance".
Copy the resulting .ova file to your new computer.
From VirtualBox: Import your VM by going to "File"->"Import Applicance".

2. Copy

Copy your VM-Folder to the new computer, including your .vdi or .vmdk file. (These are your virtual disks.)
In VirtualBox go to "Machine"->"Add" and select a .vbox file.

Can either of these methods be used for the VM migration I describe? Also, is there a specific version of VirtualBox that is recommended to be installed on the destination system running Sierra? Was thinking about installing the archived version of VirtualBox 4.3 from the download site...then maybe upgrading to the latest stable release 5.1.26, assuming that release can be installed on Sierra 10.12.3.

Thanks,

FAQ: Moving a VM. Pretty much it's method 2. The Export/Import changes UUIDs of the VM and the hard disks. Some OSes have issues with that, such as Windows with activation and Linux with Grub that boot based on the UUID of the HD. So, follow the FAQ.

As for the VirtualBox version, 4.3.x is way too old for OSX 10.12. Go for the latest and greatest, 5.1.28 as of this writing, or for the 5.2.0rc1, which pretty soon will become 5.2.0.

Thanks Socratis; not sure how I missed that HowTo.