How to convert ova and vmdk to qcow2 tutorial.

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Table

1. Prerequisites
2. Summary
3. PC Prerequisites
4. Linux Terminal Steps
5. qemu-units installation
6. .OVA Convert Section 1
7. .vmdk Convert Section 2

Prerequisites

1. Have a Virtual Machine install
2. Have Kali install

Summary

This tutorial allows you to convert ova and vmdk virtual machines to qcow2 to used it in environments that used qcow2 format as VMs.

Type of VMs	Description
VM	Stand for Virtual Machine
name.ova	The .ova file is one type of VM extension mainly used in Virtual Box or VMware.
name.vmdk	The .vmdk file is one type of VM extension mainly used in VMware and it have two extra files with it .ovf and .mf

PC Prerequisite

1. Make sure that if any disk was mounted to the VM that is removed from the device setting on the Virtual Machine program (Virtualbox, VMware) and that the display setting is set to auto since I have seen that give problem when the resolution is set to a specific resolution. Any extra device that was mounted needs to be remove too.

• First make sure the VM is power off.
• On VMware right click on the VM you want to convert and click on setting.
• Then make sure that CD/DVD (IDE) is set to Auto detect.
• Then make sure that Display is set to Auto detect as well.

• On Virtualbox go to setting on the top left area of the program.
• Then go to storage and make sure is empty like the picture bellow.
• Here as long as you did not change the display setting that should be ok if you did set to default again.

Start the Conversion on a linux (Ubuntu,Kali,Other) Terminal

1. First step is to export the machine you want to convert to either
   

VM Formats to conversts
vm.ova
vm.vmdk

• Make sure that the VM file you want to converts is on the a Linux machine that have qemu.utils install to make it easier to convert the vm.

Make sure qemu-utils are install

1. To make sure you have qemu-img install.

• open terminal
• type qemu-img and press enter
• you should get sometime alone the line of qemu-img: not enought arguments this will let you know that qemu-utils are install on your linux computer
• otherwise on the same terminal run sudo apt-get update after that is done run sudo apt-get install qemu-utils
• Next step is to navigates to the folder that have the VM you exported and want to convert.
• if you have vm.ova follow section 1 otherwise go to section 2

Section 1

1. Here is how to extract a .ova to .vmdk so you can continue on section 2

• After navigating to the folder run tar -xvf inputVM.ova the VM.ova would be the name of your vm that you want to covert so that might vary for you VM.
• This might take a while to decompress depending on the side of the vm.
• This will give you the .ovf .mf .vmdk that you need to convert now you can move to section 2

Section 2

1. Here is the step to convert .vmdk to .qcow2

• First step when you have the VM.vmdk is to run the qemu-img command to convert from .vmdk to .qcom2
• Open terminal and navigate to the folder that have the VM.vmdk you want to convert.

• Then run the command qemu-img convert -O qcow2 inputVM.vmdk outputVM.qcow2.
• This will take some time depending on the size of the VM and computer processing power.

And your done!!!

Now you can import this new VM.qcow2 to any KVM Hypervisor like Antsle box and the VM will be read and write and not only read.

Well your done!!!! any question email me!!!!! Any feedback email me!!!! Any spelling error sorry and email me!!!! Thanks!!!!!

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