How do I convert a VirtualBox VDI file to a VMware vdmk?

Question

I'm using VirtualBox 2.1.4 and want to convert a VDI file to load it in VMware Player (3.0.0 build-197124 on Vista Home Premium).

I think I can change the VDI format to vmdk with a tool provided by VirtualBox:

VBoxManage clonehd /vboxdata/old.vdi /vmwaredata/new.vmdk -format VMDK

Its also possible to get a vmdk file with:

qemu-img.exe convert -O vmdk hdd.vdi hdd.vmdk

But this does not generate the vmx file that VMware Player need. How do I get that file?

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For informational purpose, VMware Converter 4.0.1 says that the supported backup images or third-party virtual machines are:

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 or 2007

Microsoft VirtualServer 2005

Parallels Desktop 2.5, 3.0 or 4.0 for Mac

VMware Consolidated Backup

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 6.5, 7.0, 8.0

Symantec LiveState Recovery 3/6

Norton Ghost versions from 9 to 14

Acronis True Image Backup

ShadowProtect Desktop, Server, SBS, IT, etc versions from 2.0 to 3.2

Answer 1

This is an answer from http://communities.vmware.com/people/pajegan

You can use "VMware vCenter Converter Standalone" to convert your VDI files from virtualbox to .vmdk to use in vmware server. The following are the steps to do that:

Make sure that your virtual machine in virtualbox is up and running.

Once you open the application, click on "Convert Machine" and choose Powered-on Machine.

Choose remote machine

Give the IP address, username and password of the remote machine that you would like to convert and then hit next

Select Destination Type as VMware Workstation or other Vmware virtual machine.

Select Vmware product as Vmware Server 2.x

Choose a location for the virtual machine: It has to be a Network shared folder.

Hit Next and then check the settings and hit next again.

The task will take about an hour based on the size of your virtual machine.

Now you can copy the files to the vmware server datastore and add the VM to the inventory using the .vmx file.

PS: I wanted to do the following steps to use the Virtual machine in VMware Esxi server. However it is not working in ESXi. If anyone has had luck with migrating from Virtualbox to VMware esxi, please let me know the steps.

Answer 2

Here's an updated answer as of version 5.0.14, shown below:

From the main window, click the File menu and select "Virtual Media Manager" or simply use the shortcut Ctrl+D.

Select the disk you want to convert and click "Copy" or use the shortcut Ctrl-O.

Choose a path and filename for the converted disk, along with the file type, and click "Copy."

Note: The source hard disk will already be selected if you chose it in the previous step.

In my case, I converted a VDI of Windows Server 2016 TP4 into a VMKD for hosting in a corporate VMware environment. Both source and destination files were Dynamically Allocated.

Answer 3

i think the only option is:

1) File->Export Appliance...

2) select the VM you want to export

3) save it(.ova file) to a backup folder somewhere (with a different name from the original perhaps)

4) use OVF 1.0 format and write a manifest file (2.0 does not work)

5) wait until export is finished and then import/open to VMware (for more waiting:)

because it seems that VMware does not like to import regular .vmdk files...

6) so the best option is to always use a .vdmk format in VirtualBox too?