Uploading a virtual machine to OVF and OVA on ESXI 5.5

We go to yours or ESXI. Choose the right car for export. Make sure you have it turned off, this is a prerequisite.

Select the OVA format and where to export your virtual machine.

Please note that there is also an OFV format

The process of exporting a virtual machine will greatly depend on its size.

As a result, you will receive one file in OVA format; this is a compressed virtual machine, which you can now easily transfer and freely deploy into a working state; most educational institutions whose tasks include computer courses use these capabilities.

Uploading OVF and OVA via PowerCLI

Personally, I prefer this method of obtaining OVF and OVA templates. Very powerful tool to complete this task. Let's first of all upload a virtual machine named test into OVF format, to do this, enter the command in the PowerCLI console, do not forget to first connect to vcenter or ESXI using the Connect-VIServer server name command.

get-vm -name test* | Export-VApp -Destination C:\Temp\Export\ -Format OVF

Here you request a virtual machine named test, then export it to the path C:\Temp\Export\ in OVF format. IN this method, there is a huge plus, namely, that you can explicitly set the save directory for your OVF virtual machine, unlike the upload method in ESXI 6.5 and vCenter 6.5, which I will discuss below.

The same goes for the OVA format.

get-vm -name test* | Export-VApp -Destination C:\Temp\Export\ -Format OVA

Uploading OVF and OVA to vCenter 6.5 and ESXI 6.5

Exporting virtual machines to OVA and OVF template in vCenter 6.5 and VMware ESXI 6.5 is very similar to the first method, but there is a big problem, they removed the option graphical interface specify the save location, and by default everything is downloaded to the "Downloads" folder, and if you have a small system drive and a massive virtual machine, then you will have to change the download location for your browser.

To export to ESXI 6.5 and higher, right-click on the virtual machine; it must be turned off. In the context menu, select "Template - Export OVF Template".

Set the name of the exported machine and, if desired, you can slightly customize it, but choosing a save directory will not work here, as I wrote above. By clicking the "Ok" button, you will launch the export mechanism in OVF format.

As you can see, the export procedure itself is very simple and convenient; if you have questions, write them in the comments..

VMware vMotion is a feature of vSphere that allows you to migrate a running VMware virtual machine (VM) from one host to another without interfering with your production environment. VMware vMotion was first introduced in 2003 and is now included in almost all editions of VMware vSphere, except vSphere Essentials Kit, designed for small virtual environments.

VMware vMotion can be used in a variety of situations, from routine hardware maintenance, where you need to briefly move a VM to another ESX(i) host without stopping it, to migrating production VMs to more powerful servers. If your vSphere license includes VMware vMotion, congratulations, you're in luck! But what if your license does not provide this functionality OR if you only need it for one project? In this case, Veeam's Quick Migration technology can help you.

What is Quick Migration? - This is a feature of the free edition of Veeam Backup & Replication (without expiration dates!). Quick Migration is included in all editions of Veeam backup systems, but here we'll talk

• only about the free product, since this article describes the option of migrating running VMware VMs without additional costs: Install Veeam Backup Free Edition to a virtual or physical machine under Windows control . This process takes only 15 minutes and should not cause any difficulties. Step by step instructions
• you will find ; Before using Quick Migration, add the source and destination ESX(i) hosts to your infrastructure Reserve copy Veeam. User interface

is very simple, so this operation will not cause problems. But if you want to be sure that everything is done correctly, Ready. Next question:

How to migrate a VMware VM using Quick Migration technology?

Quick Migration technology allows you to migrate running VMs between different hosts and/or storages. Select the desired VM, then select Quick Migration from the context menu:

A wizard will open, including .

That's all!

1. Quick Migration technology can be useful when you need to migrate a VMware VM from one VMware ESX(i) host to another without causing significant disruption, and VMware function vMotion is not available OR when you need to move running VMs to another storage and the vSphere Storage vMotion feature is not available. In both cases, Veeam Quick Migration will help you migrate the desired VMs using proprietary SmartSwitch technology.
2. In fact, Quick Migration can work with VMware VMs in any state, but its main benefit is that it allows you to migrate a running VM without having a significant impact on the production environment, since there is no need to shut down the system.
3. Quick Migration can move multiple VMware VMs to a new location at the same time, rather than one at a time.
4. Quick Migration only works with VMware, not Hyper-V.
5. For Veeam work Backup Free Edition requires at least the simplest paid edition of VMware ESXi, since the functionality of the ESXi Free API is limited.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions or need help, please contact me, I will be happy to help.

You may also find the following materials useful:

• Article (2nd part of the article Detailed Guide on data protection and disaster recovery VMware)
• Veeam Help Center:

Reinstalling the operating system or changing a computer device does not mean the end of working with installed guest OSes in the program. True, an exception may be the case when files hard drives virtual machines are located on system disk computer, and the system itself cannot be restored after a critical failure. To continue working with existing guest OSes while maintaining their state, but on a reinstalled Windows or on another computer, the VirtualBox program has a tool for exporting the configuration of existing virtual machines for importing it later. Another option to continue working with existing guest OSes is to add new virtual machines based on existing files on their hard drives. We will consider all these processes below.

1. Universal virtual machine export file format

The configuration of an existing VirtualBox virtual machine is exported to the file " .ova" The ".ova" (Open Virtual Appliance) file is universal file storage of virtual machine data that can be used in various programs for virtualization operating systems. This , . The virtual machine exported to this file can then be imported by either VirtualBox, VMware Workstation or Microsoft Hyper-V within the guest systems supported by these programs.

Let's take a closer look at the process of exporting and importing the configuration of the VirtualBox virtual machine in the main Windows system.

2. Export a virtual machine

In the VirtualBox window, select a specific virtual machine to export, click the menu “ File" and select " Export configurations».

In the next window, click “ Next».

Exporting a configuration is only possible when the virtual machine is powered off, and if it is paused, VirtualBox will prompt you to reset the saved state to continue the process.

Next, the export options window will appear. We leave the preset format, but change the export file folder “.ova”, which is located on the system drive by default, to a folder, for example, as in our case, specially created on the non-system drive D.

In the next window, click “ Export».

We are waiting for the export process to complete.

The exported virtual machine in the “.ova” file will be located in the specified folder, from where it can be moved to another computer, removable media, cloud service. Or you can leave it, as in our case, in place - on a non-system drive, where this file will be stored during Windows reinstallation.

3. Import a virtual machine

After installing VirtualBox on new Windows or on another computer open the program and in the menu “ File» select « Importing configurations».

In the next window, specify the path to the “.ova” file with the exported virtual machine. Click " Next».

At the very end of the window, the path will be indicated where the “.vdi” hard disk file will be placed after import. By default, this is the system drive, and in order not to clutter it and prevent the loss of the “.vdi” file in the event of a system failure, you can change the path by specifying the storage folder on a non-system drive. Click " Import».

We are waiting for the import process to complete.

After which we will see the imported virtual machine in the list VirtualBox machines. All that remains now is to start the car.

The guest OS will start in exactly the state it was in at the time the virtual machine was exported.

4. Adding a new machine from an existing VirtualBox hard disk file

An alternative to exporting and importing a virtual machine is adding new car from existing file VirtualBox hard drive " .vdi" This method is in no way inferior to the procedure for exporting and importing a virtual machine. Moreover, if the ".vdi" file is located on a non-system drive, when reinstalling Windows on a physical computer you don’t even have to waste time exporting the configuration. We can simply transfer the “.vdi” file stored on the system disk to a non-system disk. By and large, the process of exporting and importing a virtual machine benefits only by saving the space taken up by the “.ova” file. For example, in our case, we exported a virtual machine with the Windows XP guest OS installed, and the weight of the “.ova” file at the output was 4,11 GB While the size of the hard disk “.vdi” file of the same system is 10 GB.

This space-saving benefit may be relevant if you transfer a virtual machine to another computer using cloud storage or removable media with a limited size. In our case, when we are talking about reinstalling Windows, the method of adding a new machine from an existing VirtualBox hard disk file is quite suitable.

Launch VirtualBox and click " Create».

Set the indicator random access memory. Click " Next».

In the hard drive selection window, select the option “ Use an existing hard drive", using the browse button, specify the path to store the ".vdi" file. Click " Create».

The virtual machine will appear in the VirtualBox list, we can launch it.

The guest OS will start exactly in the state in which it was saved in last time working with her.

Adding a new virtual machine from an existing “.vdi” file is also a way to move the guest OS hard disk file to a non-system drive of the computer if it was originally created on the system drive, and over time the space it occupied began to reduce system performance. To do this, you need to remove the virtual machine from the list in the main VirtualBox window. On the selected machine we call context menu and select " Delete».

Then in the window that appears, click “ Remove from list».

After this, you can search for the hard disk “.vdi” file on the system drive (usually the default path C:\Users\Username\VirtualBox VMs), move it to a non-system disk and add the virtual machine again.

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The paid version of VMWare has tools for hot migration of running servers from one VMWare host to another without interruption in operation. We are currently using free version VMWare ESXi. Those. there is no organized farm, but rather stand-alone servers running VMWare ESXi. We needed to move the virtual servers to another hardware in order to free up the current physical server (host) for repairs (an unclear problem arose with the HDD basket). We already have a lightly loaded server running on VMWare ESXi in operation, and we will temporarily raise another one nearby. So, step by step.

1. Hardware for the “new” VMWare ESXi server. Fortunately, we had a pretty decent new server at hand, which we didn’t yet have time to put into commercial operation. Configuration: HP ML350 G6, 3 HDDs of 300 GB, 8 GB of RAM. The process has already been described before; there is no point in repeating it.

2. Toolkit. Despite the fact that virtual machines are a set of files that can be copied from one server to another, I abandoned this idea for two reasons:
— Versions of the original virtual system and the new one did not match. The transfer took place from VMWars ESXi 4 to ESXi 5. In the fifth version, the format has also changed file system and the format of the virtual machines themselves.
- VMWare has released a wonderful and free converter"VMware vCenter Converter", which allows you to solve this task, so to speak, by standard means. Download the converter from the manufacturer’s website after logging into the site under your name (let me remind you, registration is free). Installing “VMware vCenter Converter” is quite trivial.

3. The transfer of virtual machines from one physical host to another occurs simultaneously with the conversion. “VMware vCenter Converter” can work with different sources, including restoring virtual machines from images of “foreign” formats. In our case, there were 2 main transfer options:
— transfer of an enabled server, regardless of whether it is a physical machine or a virtual one;
— transfer of a virtual machine as part of the VMWare infrastructure.

We had the opportunity to temporarily (during non-working hours) turn off all servers to be transferred, so we chose the second option in order not to waste time on synchronization and to simplify the process.

In the “VMware vCenter Converter” interface, click the button Convert machine, select source type: "VMware Infrastructure virtual machine." Enter the source server address and connection credentials. Select the server to transfer from the list. If this server is enabled, then the button Next will be unavailable, because In this mode, you can convert only switched off virtual machines. Now we choose destination type: “VMware Infrastructure virtual machine”, enter the address and credentials to connect to the “new” VMWare ESXi host. We set the name of the virtual machine as it will be displayed in the “vSphere Client” console, Next. On the next screen of the wizard, select the storage on the destination host (if there is more than one), and the version of the virtual machine. For VMWare ESXi 4 this is Version 4 or Version 7. Unless there is a good reason to stick old version, then choose the last one, Next. But here, BE CAREFUL!

On the screen Options You do NOT need to press the button immediately without looking Next. Even if the original virtual machine had a "thin" ( thin) HDD, whose file size is physical disk increases as needed, the converter will set the disk type thick. Click on this section Data to copy and choose desired type from the drop-down list. It is not possible to change the disk size here. Another important configuration section to pay attention to here is Advanced options. If you want the transferred virtual machine to start automatically after conversion, then check the top “Power on destination machine” checkbox. You can also set here automatic installation VMware Tools. Special attention The “Customize guest preferences for the virtual machine” switch deserves here. If it is installed, a NEW SID will be automatically generated for the new virtual machine. It is important to set this switch when cloning, when it is planned to leave both the original and converted virtual machines in operation. When installing this, an additional step appears in the conversion wizard Customizations, prompting you to set a new DNS name for the machine and configure other settings, including network settings. In the VMWare ESXi 4 version, it turned out to be useless to set domain membership parameters here; after conversion, you had to re-enter the domain. But in our case it was necessary postpone machine from one host to another “as is”. Therefore, we leave the “Customize guest preferences for the virtual machine” switch cleared. Next, Finish. Converter adds new task to your list and shows the progress of its implementation. From experience, the remaining time shown by “VMware vCenter Converter” is unreliable, even when the progress indicator is already halfway through.

While the conversion is taking place, one more important thing needs to be done - disable the automatic startup of the transferred virtual machine on the source virtualization host, so that it does not subsequently start accidentally, for example, after a power outage. Go to the root of the source system, Configuration tab, in the section Software click on the item Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown, link in the upper right corner Properties…, in the window that appears using the button Move Down transfer the converted virtual machine from the partition Automatic Startup to section Manual Startup.

4. Setting up the converted virtual machine. When transferring between different platforms and even between different versions One virtualization platform may change the virtual hardware on which the virtual machine is installed. In this case, when migrating from VMWare ESXi 4 to VMWare ESXi 5, the network adapters changed. In the fourth version these were Intel adapters, and in the fifth version - AMD. As a result, despite the fact that we left the “Customize guest preferences for the virtual machine” switch cleared and did not reconfigure the system, the virtual machine’s static IP address was not saved. The IP address belongs to the adapter, but it has changed. Moreover, if we now try to enter the previous address for a new adapter, we will receive a warning that such an address is already in use on another adapter and an address conflict may occur. In fact, this warning can be ignored, but for the sake of order, you can delete the settings of a non-existent adapter. Only for this we need to display hidden devices that are not visible in the hardware manager by default.

Display hidden devices . IN command line enter the command

Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Start DEVMGMT.MSC

In the menu window that opens View select item Show hidden devices.

Expand the tree Network adapters. Unavailable adapters will appear grayed out. Remove them. After this, you can safely configure the settings for new network adapters.

After migrating to another version of VMWare ESXi as a result of a change in virtual hardware, you may need to re-install Windows activation 2008 and Windows 7. To activate in local network useful to have . If it is not online, then it’s time to think about it, because... KMS does not count the number of activations, and the MAK key count decreases with each activation.

When working with virtualization, there is periodically a need to transfer virtual machines from one type of hypervisor to another. Since each virtualization system works with its own formats, it will not be possible to simply transfer the machine; you will need to convert it to the format of the desired hypervisor. Today we will tell you how to do this for the two most popular virtualization systems VMWare and Hyper-V.

Any virtual machine, regardless of the platform, consists of two main parts: the virtual machine itself - a text or XML file describing its configuration and the virtual hard drive. There is no point in transferring the virtual machine itself; we are not transferring hardware; if we need to run the system on another PC, it is enough to transfer the virtual disk.

The formats of virtual disks are also different for different hypervisors, but this is not difficult - you just need to use specialized software for conversion. The only subtlety is that the guest OS must be supported by both types of hypervisor. Otherwise, you will have to take additional measures to ensure normal operation, but this topic is beyond the scope of this article.

Let's look at the process real example. One of our clients purchased a boxed version of Megaplan, which the developers distribute very in an original way: in the form of a virtual machine image of the format Open Virtualization Format (OVF) which is supported VMWare And VirtualBox. Actually, the virtual machine contains Ubuntu 12.04 with a configured web server, DBMS and other components necessary for the operation of Megaplan, which is a regular web application. Wherein license agreement prohibits access to the guest OS.

Let's leave the licensing policy behind the scenes and we will only be surprised that while selling, at an expensive price, enterprise-level server software, developers completely ignore serious hypervisors in general, offering to use desktop hypervisors of the second type.

If the virtual machine was already running on the VMWare platform (as is most often the case), then remove VMWare Tools from it and turn off the machine.

Now you can start converting the virtual disk. For this we will use free utility StarWind V2V Converter. Its interface and use are extremely simple. Let's select the source virtual disk (file with the extension vmdk).

Once the conversion is complete, go to the properties of the hard drive again and select the VHDX image there, confirm the changes and start the virtual machine. Once you are sure that everything is working fine, you can remove the old VHD disk.

Converting Hyper-V virtual machines to VMWare is done in a similar way. We convert the virtual disk to VMDK; if a VHDX format disk was used, then it must first be converted to VHD using Hyper-V in the same way as we did above. Then we create in VMWare virtual machine for the guest system in use with identical parameters and in the disk settings we indicate to use the VMDK disk we converted. After starting the virtual machine, do not forget to install the VMWare Tools package necessary for the full operation of the guest system.

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