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I have created an OVA file from VirtualBox 4.2.12, and someone tried to import this ova file into VMWare ESX 4. When he was doing so, VMWare ESX 4 promopted:

Line 25: Unsupported hardware family 'virtualbox-2.2'.

I assumed that the OVA file can be universally imported into VirtualBox, VMWare Workstation and VMWare ESX, but now it turned out not the case.

Now, step back a little, I want to know: Is it possible to create from VirtualBox VM, an OVA or OVF file that can be imported into all of the following product without error?

  1. VMware Workstation 6 or above?
  2. VMware ESX 4 or above?
  3. VirtualBox 4.2.12 or above?
pimgeek
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  • why are you using such old versions? they're bound to impact on portability options. – Chopper3 Sep 05 '13 at 07:47
  • I have checked the closed question http://serverfault.com/questions/448056/transfer-vm-machine-created-in-virtualbox-to-vmware-player , and not sure if there are better answers, so I started another question. – pimgeek Sep 05 '13 at 07:48
  • @Chopper3, which version of VirtualBox do you suggest I use? – pimgeek Sep 05 '13 at 07:49
  • `Something Like` isn't really good enough; messages are there for a reason. I think Chopper3 is referring to the old version of ESX not VB. – user9517 Sep 05 '13 at 07:53
  • I will verify that information, thanks for your help! – pimgeek Sep 05 '13 at 07:56
  • and here is the ticket found on VirtualBox official site, I didn't find a solution there: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/7982 – pimgeek Sep 05 '13 at 08:01
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    @PIMGeek - as suggested I did indeed mean the 3+ year old versions of ESXi (5.5 is the latest) and Workstation (9 is the latest) - both significantly improve on importing options. – Chopper3 Sep 05 '13 at 08:20
  • @Chopper3 Thanks very much for being helpful. :) We were trying to satisfy some clients who insist on using old version... We ourselves usually use the latest stable versions. (And sorry for having asked amateur-style question here.) – pimgeek Sep 19 '14 at 08:20

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There is an article on VMware knowledge base trying to explain a similar issue but on ESXi 5.x.

Try to modify the XML manifest of your OVA/OVF appliance:

  1. Open the OVA/OVF file in some editor
  2. Search for the XML Tag <VirtualSystemType>virtualbox2.2</VirtualSystemType>
  3. As you want to import it to ESX 4, replace the string virtualbox2.2 with vmx-06
  4. Try import again
dsmsk80
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  • I used `vmx-08` for ESXi 5.5. (as it is not retro-compatible with `vmx-06`, strangely enough) – lapo Sep 07 '15 at 13:47