Convert a VMWare Image to VirtualBox Image
Convert VMWare image called centos.vmdk to /tmp/centos.bin
$ qemu-img convert centos.vmdk /tmp/centos.bin
Now use VBoxManage to get back image in native format:
$ VBoxManage convertdd /tmp/centos.bin centos.vdi
Tag Archives: vmware
How to convert flat disk image to vmdk?
vmware – How to convert flat disk image to vmdk? – Stack Overflow.
apt-get qemu (installs QEMU on debian/ubuntu)
qemu-img convert imagefile.dd -O vmdk vmdkname.vmdk
I’m assuming a flat disk image is a dd-style image. The convert operation also handles numerous other formats.
VMX-file parameters
the shorter the better
Most of the times shorter vmx-files are better than long ones 😉
Don’t use parameters just because they were listed once in
a vmx-file created with vmxbuilder or easyvmx or Workstation.
These 3 tools usually write quite good vmx-files – anyway: homegrown is the best 😉
VMWare memory allocation weirdness
On a system with a lower amount of RAM you may find that ESXi allocates too much to run the vmkernel and system services not leaving sufficient memory for running VMs. In the below example, the host has 3 GB of memory. ESXi is showing about 2600 MB available for virtual machines. But an important number for virtual machines is the memory capacity shown on the Resource Allocation in the 2nd image below. This shows that my VMs have a total capacity of just over 1400 MB for VM memory overhead. A chart of memory overhead per vCPU / VM memory is shown below. VM memory overhead includes space for the VM frame buffer and virtualization data structures like shadow page tables. Once my running VMs have exhausted the 1400 MB of total capacity, I will not be able to start additional VMs even though ESXi may have plenty of free memory.
Converting VMWare Workstation images to VMWare ESXi 3.5
Use SCP to copy your Workstation files over to the ESX server. The path is /vmfs/volumes/YourDataStore. Next, ssh into your ESX server and run the following command:
vmkfstools -i sourcefile.vmdk /vmfs/vmfsname/destinationfile.vmdk
Once that process is complete you can point ESX at that file and start it up. Make sure you delete the source files so you aren’t wasting space on the ESX server.
via Righteous Hack » Converting VMWare Workstation images to VMWare ESXi 3.5.
This worked. The VMware converter failed on two VMs made with Workstation but copying them over and using this command does the trick. Problem solved! (I hope)
Converter completely failed on Windows 7 and apparently there’s a hack where the type of OS needs to be changed in Workstation settings for the VM.  My PBX in a flash vm wouldn’t boot from its hd after conversion because the converter lost its partition. I confirmed this by booting vm into knoppix and checking the partitions. IMHO, converter creates more work than just copying the vm manually. I fixed my piaf vm by manually copying the .vmdk file over and using the command above. Will do more experiments later.
Examples Using the VMware Virtual Disk Manager
The following examples illustrate how to use the virtual disk manager. You run the virtual disk manager from a command prompt.
Reassign a vswif to a new vmnic
VMware doesn’t like having two service console connections with different IP addresses in the same subnet, so I have two options.
1. Create a service console connection in a different subnet and access the host from that subnet using the VIclient.
2. Enter the commands directly on the host console.I recommend option two. Keep in mind that this process temporarily disrupts network communications to the host via the service console IP.
After obtaining physical access to the host’s console (or network access via a DRAC or ILO), log in and su – to establish root.
SIMPLE. Unable to network Vsphere in…
SOLVED. I hope this saves someone some time. OK, in ESX non free Vsphere , Bridged networking does not work as in other VM’s. Rather than choosing standard bridged, you have to choose the vmnet0 from the bottom and not bridged. Now it works.
via VMware Communities: SIMPLE. Unable to network Vsphere in….
Arghhhhh! Spent three hours on this… This solution worked although I though I did have the VM originally set to vmnet0 when all the network connectivity weirdness began.