Simple way to migrate from VMware Workstation Pro to Virtualbox?

Hi everyone,

Can anyone point me in the direction for a simple way to convert into a VMware Workstation format VM to Virtualbox? Preferably without the command line.

TIA!

swerd said:

Hi everyone,

Can anyone point me in the direction for a simple way to convert into a VMware Workstation format VM to Virtualbox? Preferably without the command line.

TIA!

Click to expand...

Not tried it myself, but it would seem that the OVF format would be the one to use for export/import.


VMWare export:
VirtualBox import:

@swerd
@Bree

I'd probably image the VM via Macrium or whatever to an external device, create a new VM within Virtual BOX, boot a stand alone restore version of Macrium and restore the image you took from Vmware from the external device, then via bcdboot recreate the boot loader on the EFI partition (on the vdisk in the Guest). (bcdboot y:\windows /s S: /f UEFI where y is the disk vol of the Windows system, and S is the disk vol of the EFI partition -- assign those letters etc via DISKPART -- Stand alone Macrium has a winpe command line or any windows install iso / device -- simply boot the device --> repair system -->command line).

After that Windows will update some of its drivers. Note also you need to ensure Virtual Box additions is installed on the Guest too.

Using things like OVF format are really fiddly and unreliable especially if your VMWare disk (vhdk) is not a single vhdk file but a load of them.

Note -- this method works in reverse too (VBOX>VmWare) and also if you want to run the VM (copy) to say KVM/QEMU on a linux host. Also you can do a V2P (Virtual to Physical conversion) this way too. Just boot the macrium restore disk, restore the image, re-install the boot loader and use Windows Update to update drivers for the physical system.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

@swerd
@Bree

I'd probably image the VM via Macrium or whatever to an external device, create a new VM within Virtual BOX, boot a stand alone restore version of Macrium and restore the image you took from Vmware from the external device, then via bcdboot recreate the boot loader on the EFI partition (on the vdisk in the Guest). (bcdboot y:\windows /s S: /f UEFI where y is the disk vol of the Windows system, and S is the disk vol of the EFI partition -- assign those letters etc via DISKPART -- Stand alone Macrium has a winpe command line or any windows install iso / device -- simply boot the device --> repair system -->command line).

After that Windows will update some of its drivers. Note also you need to ensure Virtual Box additions is installed on the Guest too.

Using things like OVF format are really fiddly and unreliable especially if your VMWare disk (vhdk) is not a single vhdk file but a load of them.

Note -- this method works in reverse too (VBOX>VmWare) and also if you want to run the VM (copy) to say KVM/QEMU on a linux host. Also you can do a V2P (Virtual to Physical conversion) this way too. Just boot the macrium restore disk, restore the image, re-install the boot loader and use Windows Update to update drivers for the physical system.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

This is over complicated.

1) install Macrium Reflect on host (trial version will do)

2) create Macrium Rescue Iso.

3) Attach iso as a cd drive in vmware.

4) attach an external drive to vmware

5) boot from cd (iso) in wmware

6) image backup all partitions from Windows drive to external drive

7) Create new vm in Virtualbox with blank hard drive (may need guest additions).

8) attach Rescue iso as cd drive.

9) attach external drive

10) boot from cd (iso)

11) restore image from extenal drive to blank cd drive.

12) shutdown vm, detach iso and restart vm.

It should boot automatically without any need to mess around with bcdedit commands It should also update drivers automatically but you may need to go to device manager to finish off updates.

If it fails to boot, reattach rescue iso, the boot into it again and select "fix windows boot problems".

The shutdown vm, remove cd(iso) and restart.

cereberus said:

This is over complicated.

1) install Macrium Reflect on host (trial version will do)

2) create Macrium Rescue Iso.

3) Attach iso as a cd drive in vmware.

4) attach an external drive to vmware

5) boot from cd (iso) in wmware

6) image backup all partitions from Windows drive to external drive

7) Create new vm in Virtualbox with blank hard drive (may need guest additions).

8) attach Rescue iso as cd drive.

9) attach external drive

10) boot from cd (iso)

11) restore image from extenal drive to blank cd drive.

12) shutdown vm, detach iso and restart vm.

It should boot automatically without any need to mess around with bcdedit commands It should also update drivers automatically but you may need to go to device manager to finish off updates.

If it fails to boot, reattach rescue iso, the boot into it again and select "fix windows boot problems".

The shutdown vm, remove cd(iso) and restart.

Click to expand...

Hi there
That's almost exactly the same as my suggestion !!! apart from using Macrium to "fix any possible boot problems" where I suggested using bcdboot. !!!!


Cheers
jimbo

What is it that needs to be 'converted', i.e. how many VMs and which OS's are involved? - Linux and similar don't normally present a problem because they don't usually complain about 'hardware UUID' changes, unfortunately not as straightforward with (activation required) Windows variants. The main thing to remember is to remove (uninstall) the VMware Tools/VMware Desktop add-ons from each VM before conversion. VMware and VirtualBox can also co-exist, although they cannot be active on a Windows PC at the same time, so it should be possible to transition gradually if there is a number of VMs that would need to be 'converted'; and it's also possible to keep/restore from an external VM backup until successful conversion has been confirmed.

OVF is one option, but not always as straightforward as one might hope, judging by questions I've seen arising on the VirtualBox Forum. It also creates the same issue with converting Windows VMs that 'rebuilding' new VMs from existing virtual disks displays, i.e. loss of license activation due to changed 'hardware', but that can usually be easily 'fixed' using the normal Windows Account management (change of hardware) procedure to link the 'new' VM with an existing activation registration.

Whilst VirtualBox's native virtual disk format is .vdi it does (now) fully support .vmdk so there should be no immediate need for a disk format conversion when choosing to rebuild VMs. However, if rebuilding VMs using an existing .vmdk there are VirtualBox command line options for disk format conversions; and also a much simpler option of using a third-party utility CloneVDI (a free portable Windows app) which can be used at any time to provide a 'complete' conversion to the VirtualBox native format.

Might simply just run on the same disk or a copy:
Will mostly depend on the OS but more recent systems simply support a move on the fly, as most virtual platforms.

So what I would first try is simpler:
- Copy the virtual disk (VMDK)
- Create new VM in VBox with same specs.
- And just use the copied disk there, start the VM and see if it boots.
EDIT: use same disk storage controllers in VM: example, use SATA or IDE if that was used before or use SCSI if that's what the VM expects.

There might not be any need for Macrium / bootfix and complicated stuff from VM to VM migration.
Windows 8.1+ and Linux will automatically detect / move most of the drivers anyway.
If the OS you migrate is older, then it might fail to get to the desktop and BSOD on the first run.

Virtualbox supports other disks formats, be it VHD or VMDK.

To be sure @cereberus steps are foolproof. I've done it like this and it works.

Hopachi said:

Might simply just run on the same disk or a copy:
Will mostly depend on the OS but more recent systems simply support a move on the fly, as most virtual platforms.

So what I would first try is simpler:
- Copy the virtual disk (VMDK)
- Create new VM in VBox with same specs.
- And just use the copied disk there, start the VM and see if it boots.
EDIT: use same disk storage controllers in VM: example, use SATA or IDE if that was used before or use SCSI if that's what the VM expects.

There might not be any need for Macrium / bootfix and complicated stuff from VM to VM migration.
Windows 8.1+ and Linux will automatically detect / move most of the drivers anyway.
If the OS you migrate is older, then it might fail to get to the desktop and BSOD on the first run.

Virtualbox supports other disks formats, be it VHD or VMDK.

To be sure @cereberus steps are foolproof. I've done it like this and it works.

Click to expand...

The big problem (or it used to be) with this method is that it required the "Virtual disk" to be a single vdmk file -- if you selected multiple == i.e at VM creation time you didn't specify the virtual disk size to be allocated at the start but just specified the maximum then multiple vdmk files are created during the life of the vm == e.g vmdk01, vmdkk02 etc. This is where copying the vmdk file method breaks down.

Might be fixed now - but in the past this certainly was a problem when copying VM's for use in other VM software.

@LeLibran

The vm drivers -- e.g virtual box additions / vmware tools makes no difference -- you don't need to uninstall -- even if creating a PHYSICAL system from the Virtual machine.

To preserve Windows activation you need to ensure that the UUID of the "copied VM" however you copy the VM is the same as that of the source VM. You can usually do this by editing the relevant VM's config file directly. In vmware it's an html file ( a .vmx file).

When you say move / copy a VM within vmware - on first boot of the copied / moved VM you'll get a two box prompt -- I copied it and I moved it. Choose I moved it and the UUID is kept and you don't lose windows activation --- OK not an answer to the original question but a trap for the unwary if copying / moving VM's using vmware.

cheers
jimbo

I believe that what @Bree suggested with OVF export it should keep everything intact at import, including activation, to be safe.
In Virtualbox is this a OVF or OVA file that can be imported of exported with whole VM data.
Note though that disks are included and converted within so it can be a big file per VM.

Good point @jimbo45 the uuid is being handled with a choice to the user. Usually during disk creation you also get the question to create one file or split it up in chunks. Otherwise you need a tool to convert the chunks to whole disk to be more practical. There are multiple tools available for disk conversion, use Virtualbox built-in conversion tool (command line or GUI disk clone tool), or CloneVDI utility or even qemu-img command line tool.

Regarding the uuid, manual migration is possible, if you don't mind messing with the config files.
See about uuid in VMware here:

Note the example below, using same uuid from VMware in Virtualbox or vice-versa.
The right formatting is needed, Virtualbox uses regular dashed uuid format while VMware needs this to be spaced out after each pair (two) characters. This all enclosed in double quotes " ", with spaces in between (in VMware) and begin-end brackets {} (in Virtualbox) like so:

VMware:
In vmx file (conf) as added entry uuid.bios -->

Virtualbox:
In vbox file (xml) as attribute in <Machine> tag at the top -->