OVFs from virtualbox

Hey

This is a short writeup on what is needed to import OVF produced with VirtualBox 2.2.4 (and 2.2.2)

You should tell VirtualBox to export in 0.9 format.

By default it produce OVFs for vmx-06 so if you want to import this OVF into VMware vSphere 4 with esx 3.5.x and esx 4.0 hosts

you will have to change this to either :

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for a esx 4.0)

or

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for esx 3.5.x and 4.0 hosts)

If you are using VMware OVF tool to convert it to a vmx for workstation you dont have to change this.

Needed changes to import the OVF with VMware OVF tool.

Change soundcard to non-required (esx boxes do not support virtual soundcards and  the hostresource value is not in the DMTF std for rasd elements)

Change the rasd item to:

<Item ovf:required="false">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>35</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

of if you really need the soundcard to:

<Item ovf:required="true">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>1</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

(Skip the next if you are converting to a vmx file (used for VMware workstation)) 

Disks on IDE Controllers are only supported by newer VMware products so it will be a good idea to add the following to the OVF

<Item>

<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>10</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>1</rasd:BusNumber>

</Item>

and change the disk to point to this by changing the parent in the disk rasd element e.g.

<Item>

<rasd:Caption>disk1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Disk Image</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>8</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:HostResource>/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>

<rasd:Parent>10</rasd:Parent>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

Will the VM work after the changes? That depends if your vm have driver for the scsi controller etc but atleast you can import it.

Feel free to comment