Exporting & Importing VMWare Virtual Machines

1) Exporting VMware .OVF files

a. Launch VMware Workstation Player or Professional

b. Power down VM designated for export

c. Right Click -> Edit Settings

i. Verify ‘CD/DVD drive 1’ is set to ‘Client Device’

d. Right Click -> Template -> Export OVF Template

e. Save all prompted pop-up files and wait for downloads to complete

For example:

ii. VMname.mf

iii. VMname.vmdk

iv. VMname.ovf

v. VMname.nvram

NOTE: ‘.vmdk’ file is large and will show a ‘.vmdk.part’ until downloaded

2) Importing .OVF Files into VMWare Workstation

a. Verify that the downloaded files are accessible in the same folder

b. Launch VMware Workstation Player or Professional

c. Select ‘Open’

i. NOTE: if a compatibility exception is thrown, select ‘Try Again’

d. Navigate to where the .ovf file was saved and select it.

e. Wait for import to complete

3) Resolving Additional VM Configuration issues, if you receive any error messages upon trying to launch the virtual machine.

a. Navigate to /home/username/vmware/”Name_of_VMFolder”

i. Edit the.vmx file

ii. Find and remove line “nvram = “ovf:/file1/file2”

iii. Save

1. NOTE: This resolves ESXI compatibility issue

2. VM allocated Hardware can also be modified here