Importing an OVA created with VirtualBox

[ultrapain]

I have an OVA that was created in Oracle VirtualBox.  I'm trying to import the appliance into vSphere 5.1.  I've read all sorts of hacks and workarounds (none of which I've been able to make work, by the way).  The only way I've been able to import the appliance is by starting it in VirtualBox and then doing a P2V.  What I find notable/disturbing is that both OVA and OVF are supposed to be open virtualization formats.  I can import OVAs into both ESXi and VirtualBox (at least as an option).  Is it unreasonable to expect that it should work both ways???

Anyway, rant over.  Is there an 'official' way to import a OVA into ESXi that has been exported from VirtualBox?

[continuum]

> What I find notable/disturbing is that both OVA and OVF are supposed to be open virtualization formats.

That was a nice idea - but when the vendors do not use the same conventions on how to treat foreign formats the results can be  nasty.
Both VMware and Virtualbox simplify their native conf-files and print an xml instead.
The xml from Virtualbox contains entries that are not used by VMware - and when you try to read the Virtualbox xml-file VMware will produce errors instead of ignoring those entries.

You can prevent this by manually editing the foreign xml before you try to import/export it.
To find out which ones are the offensive entries carefully read the error-messages. Then find the xml-entry that most probably produced it.
With a bit of practice it becomes easy.

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> but when the vendors do not use the same conventions on how to treat foreign formats the results can be  nasty

Isn't that precisely the idea of the open format?  To use the same, open, standard conventions?  If not, why bother with the label?

Incidentally, I've beat on this for over 4 hours today.  Now I'm at a point where I can't import the OVF because ESXi doesn't like the sizing of the virtual hard disks as listed in the OVF template.  While I could molest those all day, I think it's utterly silly to have to do so.  Both of these vendors need to get up from the kiddy table and come sit with the adults.

[Dee006]

Hi,

Do you have come across this blog earlier Converting VirtualBox to VMWare ESXi | Tad-Do

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Thanks for the links.  It seems like quite a bit to go through for little gain.  I guess the most painless approach is to fire up the VM in virtual box and then use VMware's free P2V converter.