Click the File menu in VirtualBox and select Export Appliance. Select the virtual machine you want to export and provide a location for it. VirtualBox will create a nOpen Virtualization Format Archive (OVA file) that VMware can import. This may take some time, depending on the size of your virtual machine’s disk file. For maximum compatibility I generally create VMs targeting Workstation 5 with ESX Server compatibility. This gives me a image that is 100% portable between Workstation 6, Fusion, ESX, VMWare Server and VMWare Player. If your images were created in Fusion, they'll be portable to Windows (i.e. VMWare Workstation 6.5) with no issues.

Applicable Products

• XenServer

Objective

This article describes methods for converting VMware virtual machines to XenServer.

Use the Citrix速 XenServer Conversion Manager to convert up to hundreds of virtual machines to XenServer 6.1. It saves time and storage by converting a virtual machine directly to XenServer 6.1 unattended.

Note: Login to your account and navigate to the XenServer downloads page. For customers who are eligibile, the Citrix速 XenServer Conversion Manager is available to download from the Enterprise Edition page.

Use export and import features to convert a single virtual machine to XenServer 6.0. Export and import a virtual machine in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) to retain the most virtual machine properties and simplify the transfer of virtual machines with multiple disk images. You can also create a virtual machine by importing a single disk image in the Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) format.

Requirements

• Administrator access to VMware Virtual Machine for conversion
• Administrator access to XenServer and XenCenter
• Experienced using VMware products, XenServer, and XenCenter

Instructions

1. To prepare VMware virtual machine, complete the following procedure:

2. Power on virtual machine and log on.

3. Uninstall VMware Tools.

4. Delete/uninstall any unnecessary data, drives, partitions, and applications.

5. Shutdown virtual machine.

The following VMware products support OVF package export: Road rash for mac.

• VMware Infrastructure

• VMware OVF Tool

• VMware Studio

To export VMware virtual machine, complete the following procedure:

Note: The following instructions are for VMware vSphere.

1. Open VMware vSphere Client and log on.

2. Select the virtual machine.

3. Select File > Export > Export OVF Template:

4. Select destination Directory (local hard drive is recommended).

5. Select format.

   1. Choose Single file (OVA) to use less disk space.

   2. Choose Folder of Files (OVF) to export in less time.

6. Wait for export to complete.

Additional Resources