What are the steps to export a VM from KVM to ESXi

I want to be able to export a KVM based VM to an ESXi 5.1/5.5 host.

My current methods ends up with the VM not being able to boot on the ESXi host.
(I have tried importing the same .ova on VirtualBox 4.3 and here VirtualBox claims the size of the vmdk is 895bytes, though the acutal vmdk is close to 2GB).

These are the steps I take:

1. Stop the KVM VM
2. qemu-img convert -O vmdk my.qcow2 -o adapter_type=lsilogic,subformat=streamOptimized,compat6 my.vmdk
3. Generate the my.ovf
4. printf '\x03' | dd conv=notrunc of=my.vmdk bs=1 seek=$((0x4))
5. tar my.ova my.ovf my.vmdk
6. on vSphere using File -> Deploy OVF Template

The Deployment is a "success", but the machine can't boot.

I'm using:

• F23 x86_64
• qemu-img version 2.4.1
• ESXi 5.1
• vSphere 5.1

The VirtualBox I've tried is 4.3.10 on a Windows 7 Host.

Any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks.

It seems that step 4 is required until this patch has been applied: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2015-09/msg04514.html

I found step 4 from: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1299116
From this conversation it seems to me that it was addressed back in 2014? https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/359685/

Excerpts from the my.ovf:

Describes the set of virtual disks

<OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="101" vmw:osType="otherLinux64Guest">
  <!-- TODO make this a configurable string. -->
  <Info>RHEL 6</Info>
</OperatingSystemSection>

<VirtualHardwareSection>
  <Info>1024MB, 1 CPU, 1 disk, 3 NICs - Virtual Machine.</Info>
  <System>
    <vssd:ElementName>Virtual Hardware Family</vssd:ElementName>
    <vssd:InstanceID>0</vssd:InstanceID>
    <vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>GLS</vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>
    <!-- possible types:
           kvm
           Linux:KVM
           virtualbox-2.2 - VirtualBox 4.3.10.
           vmx-08 - ESXi 5.0
           vmx-07
           vmx-04
      -->
    <vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-08</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
  </System>

  <Item>
    <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
    <rasd:Caption>scsiController0</rasd:Caption>
    <rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
    <rasd:ElementName>scsiController0</rasd:ElementName>
    <rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
    <rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
    <rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
  </Item>

  <Item>
    <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
    <rasd:Caption>disk1</rasd:Caption>
    <rasd:Description>Disk Image</rasd:Description>
    <rasd:ElementName>disk1</rasd:ElementName>
    <rasd:HostResource>/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>
    <rasd:InstanceID>7</rasd:InstanceID>
    <!-- The Parent is the Instance ID of the controller, here the SCSI controller. -->
    <rasd:Parent>5</rasd:Parent>
    <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
    <!-- TODO should write-though be optionally be requested in vmware with vmw:Config -->
  </Item>