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    Cannot Import VMDK Through Import > Disk (migrating from ESXi, all methods not working)

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    • C Offline
      caponate @caponate
      last edited by caponate

      Here is what I get when trying to upload the exported vhd:

      Tried with 3 different browsers just in case.

      d5440a17-3ed3-490c-a1d0-1cfd312ad240-image.png

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      • olivierlambertO Offline
        olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
        last edited by

        Just to double check: are you in HTTPS in your browser?

        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • olivierlambertO Offline
          olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
          last edited by

          You could also try to import the VHD directly with xe on the host, and see if it works.

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          • C Offline
            caponate @olivierlambert
            last edited by

            @olivierlambert Yep. And I confirmed it today, it appears it is JUST the vhd files exported from Azure that don't work. I don't know what in the hell they do to them, but there's something messed up about them. Maybe I will export a generic one and post it for analysis.

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            • olivierlambertO Offline
              olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
              last edited by

              Interesting 🤔 Are you sure they are VHD and not VHDX? If it's possible to access the problematic VHD, we could take a look and see what's inside in terms of structure and headers.

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              • A Offline
                alexredston @planedrop
                last edited by

                @planedrop I have exactly the same issue. I've exported the disk as two files ( the flat one is 800GB) and the wheel is simply spinning 24 hours later. Did you manage to resolve this?

                The direct import from ESXi didn't work for me either. My biggest criticism of this would be that there is no feedback to indicate whether it it working or not, an orange task appears, clicking to see the logs hangs indefinitely. I'm not sure if there is a way to upload the pair of files that make up the VMDK to the machine over SCP and then kick off the import from there.

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                • S Offline
                  scottieIP @alexredston
                  last edited by

                  @alexredston Im stuck here too... did you get any where?

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                  • C Offline
                    caponate @scottieIP
                    last edited by

                    @scottieIP No, and it's entirely possible the issue has been fixed. I ended up just backing up the database from that VM and migrating it to a new VM on our cluster.

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                    • S Offline
                      scottieIP @caponate
                      last edited by

                      @caponate yup, I ended up doing the same

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                      • P Offline
                        piotrlotr1
                        last edited by piotrlotr1

                        Hi, I just tried to do a similar thing and it seems that the issue is still there.

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                        • olivierlambertO Offline
                          olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
                          last edited by

                          Hi,

                          Can you recap exactly what you did and the error message you had? Thanks!

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                          • P Offline
                            piotrlotr1
                            last edited by piotrlotr1

                            Yes, yes, of course.

                            So when I try to import .vmdk disk nothing actually happens.

                            I've left the whole thing for few hours but nothing changed.

                            Tried at the beginning with big disk but also after that tried with small one.

                            There is a "loading gear" and it's only spinning around (marked on below screenshot).

                            screenshot_06.PNG

                            No error, I've tried multiple times.

                            Not sure if that helps but in general .vmdk disks comes with a bit different shapes.

                            There can be a -flat one (zeroed or lazy), the one which is thin. As additional there may be a difference between disk exported to template directly from VMware vCenter and the .vmdk disk created via VMware Workstation. Disk can be created with different SCSI controller like LSI or VMware Paravirual. -flat.vmdk can be opened with 7zip but there is no way to do the same trick with thin .vmdk. - Does any from above matters from XOA point of view?

                            Q: Is there any specific requirement for that .vmdk disk to be imported to XOA?

                            I've also tried to export a VM from VMware vCenter into OVF, convert it to OVA and import it to XOA - and that worked fine. Connected .vmdk disk from that imported VM to a VM created in XOA and at the beginning the disk was NOT spotted. It was NOT visible in the system but after few tries I was able to initiate it and works perfectly fine now.

                            So the problem is with importing just a .vmdk file.

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                            • florentF Offline
                              florent Vates 🪐 XO Team
                              last edited by

                              hi, for now the disk import wizard can only handle monolithic vmdk ( and more precisely stream optimized vmdk)

                              you have two files, and the data file is a -ftat..vmdk, so basically a raw file

                              In your case, I think tou'll have to convert the vmdk file to a vhd, for exampe with qemu-img convert.

                              The v2v tool should be able to handle this, do you have any issue ?

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                              • P Offline
                                piotrlotr1 @florent
                                last edited by

                                @florent
                                monolithic flat sounds like a disk which cannot be created directly by vSphere (ESXi effectively). This is the type of a disk which comes from VMware Workstation or am I wrong? That's why you've mention about v2v tool or converting to vhd?

                                planedropP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • planedropP Offline
                                  planedrop Top contributor @piotrlotr1
                                  last edited by

                                  @piotrlotr1 Maybe I missed some context in this thread, so apologies if I did.

                                  But the V2V tool should handle this, is there a reason you are wanting to do it as a VMDK import instead?

                                  I've used the V2V a lot and it works quite well.

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                                  • P Offline
                                    piotrlotr1 @planedrop
                                    last edited by

                                    @planedrop
                                    It just says "Drop (...) VMDK (...) files here to import disks." so I thought I could simply drop it there and job done : - )

                                    But in general for example importing VM in OVA format works fine.

                                    planedropP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • planedropP Offline
                                      planedrop Top contributor @piotrlotr1
                                      last edited by

                                      @piotrlotr1 Most VMDK's should work, but the V2V tool is really what is meant for this. It lets you warm migrate from VMware to XCP-ng with very little downtime.

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                                      • florentF Offline
                                        florent Vates 🪐 XO Team
                                        last edited by

                                        we are reworking the import code , along the new backup code ( https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/10664/our-future-backup-code-test-it ) to unify the differetn disk transformation path

                                        For now:

                                        • V2V handles flat, cowd, sesparse, stream optimized vmdk in the format "metadata.vmdk and a data file ) and ova ( for VSAN)
                                        • disk import support monolithic vmdk ( cowd, sesparse, streamoptimized )
                                        • ova improt support only stream ova with streamoptimzed vmdk inside
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