Convert VMware image to Virtualbox image (Guest OS Windows Server 2008)

convertimagevirtualboxvmware-workstationwindows-server-2008

I am trying to convert several VMware images towards Virtualbox images. I have succesfully been able to convert my Windows Server 2003 image, but I haven't been able to convert any Windows Server 2008 image.

I found 2 solutions on the internet.

One solution involves creating a new image giving the previous .vmdk as hard disk. When I try to startup the image, I get a blue screen during booting. (I also tried to delete VMware tools before importing the image, which didn't work).

The other solution involved exporting the image to an OVF image and then open it with Virtualbox. This image got stuck in the "windows is loading" screen.

Host OS: Windows 7 Enterprise
Guest OS: Windows Server 2008

Best Answer

Stick with the first solution.

The HDD types need to match. If you were using SCSI on VMware you need to be using SCSI in VirtualBox. In rare occasions you actually need to experiment a bit with disk types (ie a SCSI VMware disk will work properly only on SATA controler in VirtualBox, go figure).

Another thing that causes instability and bootup problems are IO APIC and PAE/Nx settings under System. Experiment with those. It can take couple of boots till you get it right but so far I've never had a physical (or virtual) machine I couldn't get onto VirtualBox using VMware tools.

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2008 hangs up while booting

You can try to uninstall updates using Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset version 6.0 or 6.5 (Windows Server 2008 R2).

EC2 Windows 2008 VM import Not Working

I have successfully imported a Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise vmware workstation image into EC2 through the following steps:

1) Removed all snapshots in vmware

2) Converted the VM's disk device to IDE via the following steps:

a) add a new disk of IDE type (no file splitting)
b) use Acronis True Image boot image (or any disk cloning tool) to clone the SCSI partition to the IDE partition
c) remove and delete the SCSI volume and vmdk file(s).

3) Removed VMware tools

4) Enabled Remote Desktop Access

5) Converted VM to OVF using OVFTool

6) Created Import instance using EC2-import-instance

7) Uploaded VM using ec2-upload-disk-image

8) Waited until the Instance was converted. Started Instance.

9) Opened up RDP port using the security group's inbound rules.

10) Successfully connected via RDP.

It was a painful process, but it worked. Judging by what you revealed in your question, you may want to look into converting the disk type to IDE and well as streaming your image to OVF format.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2008 hangs up while booting

EC2 Windows 2008 VM import Not Working

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