Migrate VM from VMware Player to VirtualBox

I had to migrate a VM from VMware player to VirtualBox once. VMware player does not provide any "Export" option from the GUI, but there is a conversion tool called OVF tool in the C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\OVFTool location.

Open the command prompt and go to the location of the OVFTool. This tool takes two arguments - the source VM (its .vmx file) and the destination VM (a .ovf file). Type in the source .vmx file (the VMware VM's) file location as source and provide the destination path where the .ovf file should be created.

ovftool "C:\VMWare VMs\Ubuntu.vmx" "C:\VirtualBox VMs\Ubuntu.ovf"

Its takes a long time to create the OVF file. Once done you should be able to load the VM in VirtualBox using "Import Appliance" feature.

While importing I encountered an error:


....unknown element "Config" under Item element, line 47.
Result Code: VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004)
Component: Appliance
Interface: IAppliance {3059cf9e-25c7-4f0b-9fa5-3c42e441670b}


This happens because there are some additional configurations embedded in the created OVF file which VirtualBox does not recognise. To solve this error, just open the .ovf file using a text editor (its a simple xml file) and delete the lines containing the "Config" tag. Now you should be able to import the VM to VirtualBox.

References:
1. http://www.howtogeek.com/125640/how-to-convert-virtual-machines-between-virtualbox-and-vmware/
2. http://sharepointtherapy.blogspot.com/2012/12/converting-vmware-workstation-machines.html

resize vmdk/vdi virtualbox

When using VirtualBox, you might come across situations when you need to resize the hard disk space.
The VM resize feature provided by VirtualBox only works for VDI & VHD and must be a dynamic drive.


Using VBoxManage clonehd you can convert the drive image from VMDK to VDI, and then use modifyd to change the virtual disk size. 


See Chapter 8.23 VBoxManage clonehd & then 8.22 VBoxManage modifyhd instructions in the reference.

References:
1. https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46852
2. http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html