Converting OVF files to VMX for use with VMware Converter

The VMware OVF Tool converts an OVF VM image into VMX format, so the VM image can be used with VMware Converter.

Notes

You don't need this tool if you're importing images directly from a VMware hypervisor, such as ESXi, VMware Workstation, or VMware Fusion into Skytap.
Some VirtualBox OVA files are incompatible with VMware products. For more information, see OVA file made with VirtualBox 4.0 can't be read by VMware ovftool.

Downloading and installing the OVF Tool

You can download the free VMware Open Virtualization Format Tool (ovftool).

Install this utility on the local machine where the VM images reside. Create separate directories for the original and converted VM images. The following is an example of these steps on a Windows machine:

Download and install ovftool.
Create a directory for the image that you want to convert, for example src_dir.
Create a separate directory where the tool can put the converted VMX image, for example dest_dir.

Converting the OVF file to VMX

To convert the OVF file to VMX

Open a command prompt.
Navigate to where OVF Tool is installed:
Run the OVF Tool:

ovftool {src_dir}/{filename}.ovf {dest_dir}/{filename}.ovf

The first section of the command includes the name and location of the source OVF file. The second section determines where the VMX file will be created.

To see all of the help options for the OVF Tool, type ovftool --help.
If the OVF converter tool reports an error similar to the following:
```
Error: OVF Package isn't supported by target:
Line 41: Unsupported hardware family 'virtualbox-2.2'.
```
try adding the --lax flag. For example,

ovftool --lax {src_dir}/{filename}.ovf {dest_dir}/{filename}.ovf

Converting OVF files to VMX for use with VMware Converter

Contents

Downloading and installing the OVF Tool

Converting the OVF file to VMX

To convert the OVF file to VMX