OVA import support?

wttw

I have some OVA packages exported from a relatively recent ESXi setup.

I'm trying to import them into xcp-ng, using either the xen orchestra web interface or the upload-ova script. I've tried several approaches with very limited success.

If I use the web interface (either installed from the quick deploy, or a build from github HEAD running locally on my mac) I can drag the ova file onto the upload area, get all the metadata displayed, but when I click the "Import" button it does nothing. Checking the browser console logs I see it's silently failed with:

TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'forwardsInflater.result.length')
resultStart — ova-read.js:306
(anonymous function) — ova-read.js:315

If I use the upload-ova tool instead, I get more interesting errors.

data {
  tables: { 'bastion-disk1.vmdk.gz': Promise { <pending> } },
  disks: {
    vmdisk1: {
      capacity: 171798691840,
      path: 'bastion-disk1.vmdk.gz',
      compression: 'gzip',
      descriptionLabel: 'No description',
      nameLabel: 'Hard Disk 1',
      position: 0
    }
  },
  networks: [
    '8283276e-2380-72cc-9920-72f755637053',
    '8283276e-2380-72cc-9920-72f755637053'
  ],
  nameLabel: 'bastion',
  descriptionLabel: undefined,
  nCpus: 1,
  memory: 8589934592
}
✖ invalid parameters
  property @: must have required property 'sr'
  property @./data: must have required property 'descriptionLabel'
  property @./data/disks/0: must NOT have additional properties

and in the orchestrator logs I see more details:

vm.import
{
  "data": {
    "tables": {
      "bastion-disk1.vmdk.gz": {}
    },
    "disks": [
      {
        "capacity": 171798691840,
        "path": "bastion-disk1.vmdk.gz",
        "compression": "gzip",
        "descriptionLabel": "No description",
        "nameLabel": "Hard Disk 1",
        "position": 0
      }
    ],
    "networks": [
      "8283276e-2380-72cc-9920-72f755637053",
      "8283276e-2380-72cc-9920-72f755637053"
    ],
    "nameLabel": "bastion",
    "nCpus": 1,
    "memory": 8589934592
  },
  "type": "ova"
}
{
  "code": 10,
  "data": {
    "errors": [
      {
        "instancePath": "",
        "schemaPath": "#/required",
        "keyword": "required",
        "params": {
          "missingProperty": "sr"
        },
        "message": "must have required property 'sr'"
      },
      {
        "instancePath": "/data",
        "schemaPath": "#/properties/data/required",
        "keyword": "required",
        "params": {
          "missingProperty": "descriptionLabel"
        },
        "message": "must have required property 'descriptionLabel'"
      },
      {
        "instancePath": "/data/disks/0",
        "schemaPath": "#/properties/data/properties/disks/items/additionalProperties",
        "keyword": "additionalProperties",
        "params": {
          "additionalProperty": "compression"
        },
        "message": "must NOT have additional properties"
      }
    ]
  },
  "message": "invalid parameters",
  "name": "XoError",
  "stack": "XoError: invalid parameters
    at Module.invalidParameters (/Users/steve/3rd/xen-orchestra/packages/xo-common/api-errors.js:26:11)
    at Xo.call (file:///Users/steve/3rd/xen-orchestra/packages/xo-server/src/xo-mixins/api.mjs:90:22)
    at Api.#callApiMethod (file:///Users/steve/3rd/xen-orchestra/packages/xo-server/src/xo-mixins/api.mjs:362:19)"
}

If I try and use --override to set one of the missing parameters I get:

➜ ./index.js --upload /Volumes/local/backups/esxi/bastion.ova --override descriptionLabel=whatever
✖ Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '$poolId')
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '$poolId')
    at Object.upload (/Users/steve/3rd/xen-orchestra/@xen-orchestra/upload-ova/dist/index.js:168:12)

If I import the OVA into virtualbox and then export it again then I can import it via the orchestra web upload with no issues, so it's clearly a problem with the structure of OVAs produced by VMWare.

On to the questions:

Is this supposed to work? i.e. is this a set of bugs or am I trying to do something that's not supported?

Should I be doing something different when creating the OVAs, either with different settings in ovftool or by editing the generated files?

Is this path for importing from VMWare something I should be using at all, or should I be using the "Import from VMWare" option to suck the brains out of a running vSphere instance? (I've not tried this, as I'm trying to migrate from an ESXi box to an xcp-ng box and don't have the hardware available to run both at the moment ¯_(ツ)_/¯).

olivierlambert

Yes it's supposed to work. Sadly, there's as much as different OVAs than VMs and VMware versions. Every time we are fixing new stuff when it's reported. Please provide the OVA somewhere so we can find why and fix it
Import from VMware should work if you have indeed the XCP-ng machine in extra for it. But we could fix the OVA already, at least as soon we can check what's wrong with the XML.

wttw

@olivierlambert said in OVA import support?:

Yes it's supposed to work. Sadly, there's as much as different OVAs than VMs and VMware versions. Every time we are fixing new stuff when it's reported. Please provide the OVA somewhere so we can find why and fix it

https://tupid.org/debian11.ova - it's about 850MB.

I just created this on ESXi 7.0U3, then exported it with

./ovftool --noSSLVerify --diskMode=thin --targetType=ova --compress=9 "vi://skull/debian11" .

(VMware ovftool 4.6.2 (build-22220919))

Import from VMware should work if you have indeed the XCP-ng machine in extra for it.

The hardware is on order, but I thought I'd start testing this weekend.

But we could fix the OVA already, at least as soon we can check what's wrong with the XML.

Here's debian11.ovf, for anyone who wants to look without downloading the ova.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--Generated by VMware ESX Server, User: root, UTC time: 2024-04-07T15:42:54.40766Z-->
<Envelope vmw:buildId="build-19482537" xmlns="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1" xmlns:cim="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/common" xmlns:ovf="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" xmlns:vmw="http://www.vmware.com/schema/ovf" xmlns:vssd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_VirtualSystemSettingData" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <References>
    <File ovf:compression="gzip" ovf:href="debian11-disk1.vmdk.gz" ovf:id="file1" ovf:size="856235944"/>
    <File ovf:compression="gzip" ovf:href="debian11-file1.nvram.gz" ovf:id="file2" ovf:size="1821"/>
  </References>
  <DiskSection>
    <Info>Virtual disk information</Info>
    <Disk ovf:capacity="16" ovf:capacityAllocationUnits="byte * 2^30" ovf:diskId="vmdisk1" ovf:fileRef="file1" ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized" ovf:populatedSize="2324692992"/>
  </DiskSection>
  <NetworkSection>
    <Info>The list of logical networks</Info>
    <Network ovf:name="VM Network">
      <Description>The VM Network network</Description>
    </Network>
  </NetworkSection>
  <VirtualSystem ovf:id="debian11">
    <Info>A virtual machine</Info>
    <Name>debian11</Name>
    <OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="1" vmw:osType="debian11Guest">
      <Info>The kind of installed guest operating system</Info>
    </OperatingSystemSection>
    <VirtualHardwareSection>
      <Info>Virtual hardware requirements</Info>
      <System>
        <vssd:ElementName>Virtual Hardware Family</vssd:ElementName>
        <vssd:InstanceID>0</vssd:InstanceID>
        <vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>debian11</vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>
        <vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-19</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
      </System>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>hertz * 10^6</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Number of Virtual CPUs</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>1 virtual CPU(s)</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>1</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>3</rasd:ResourceType>
        <rasd:VirtualQuantity>1</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>byte * 2^20</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>2048MB of memory</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>4</rasd:ResourceType>
        <rasd:VirtualQuantity>2048</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>SATA Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>SATA Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.sata.ahci</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>20</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="slotInfo.pciSlotNumber" vmw:value="34"/>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>4</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>VirtualSCSI</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="slotInfo.pciSlotNumber" vmw:value="160"/>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>USB Controller (EHCI)</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>USB Controller</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.usb.ehci</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>23</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="slotInfo.pciSlotNumber" vmw:value="32"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="slotInfo.ehciPciSlotNumber" vmw:value="33"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="autoConnectDevices" vmw:value="false"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="ehciEnabled" vmw:value="true"/>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>VirtualIDEController 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>6</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>VirtualIDEController 0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>7</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:ElementName>VirtualVideoCard</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>8</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>24</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="useAutoDetect" vmw:value="true"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="videoRamSizeInKB" vmw:value="4096"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="enable3DSupport" vmw:value="false"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="use3dRenderer" vmw:value="automatic"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="graphicsMemorySizeInKB" vmw:value="262144"/>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:ElementName>VirtualVMCIDevice</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>9</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.vmci</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>1</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="allowUnrestrictedCommunication" vmw:value="false"/>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:ElementName>CD-ROM 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>10</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>3</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.cdrom.atapi</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>15</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="connectable.allowGuestControl" vmw:value="true"/>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Hard Disk 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>11</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="backing.writeThrough" vmw:value="false"/>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>7</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:Connection>VM Network</rasd:Connection>
        <rasd:Description>VmxNet3 ethernet adapter on &quot;VM Network&quot;</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>Ethernet 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>12</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>VmxNet3</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="slotInfo.pciSlotNumber" vmw:value="192"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="wakeOnLanEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
        <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="connectable.allowGuestControl" vmw:value="true"/>
      </Item>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="cpuHotAddEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="cpuHotRemoveEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="memoryHotAddEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="firmware" vmw:value="bios"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="cpuAllocation.shares.shares" vmw:value="1000"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="cpuAllocation.shares.level" vmw:value="normal"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.syncTimeWithHost" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.syncTimeWithHostAllowed" vmw:value="true"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.afterPowerOn" vmw:value="true"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.afterResume" vmw:value="true"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.beforeGuestShutdown" vmw:value="true"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.beforeGuestStandby" vmw:value="true"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="tools.toolsUpgradePolicy" vmw:value="manual"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="powerOpInfo.powerOffType" vmw:value="soft"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="powerOpInfo.resetType" vmw:value="soft"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="powerOpInfo.suspendType" vmw:value="soft"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="nestedHVEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="vPMCEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="virtualICH7MPresent" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="virtualSMCPresent" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="flags.vvtdEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="flags.vbsEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="bootOptions.efiSecureBootEnabled" vmw:value="false"/>
      <vmw:Config ovf:required="false" vmw:key="powerOpInfo.standbyAction" vmw:value="checkpoint"/>
      <vmw:ExtraConfig ovf:required="false" vmw:key="nvram" vmw:value="ovf:/file/file2"/>
      <vmw:ExtraConfig ovf:required="false" vmw:key="svga.autodetect" vmw:value="TRUE"/>
    </VirtualHardwareSection>
  </VirtualSystem>
</Envelope>

olivierlambert

That's usually for @florent when he's around

florent

@wttw said in OVA import support?: