Importing an OVF or OVA File

Import an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) or an Open Virtual Appliance (or Application) (OVA) file from a system if you want to transfer a VM from one system to another, or if you want to transfer an image that you created back to the same system to restore or duplicate the original VM. (To migrate a physical machine (PM) or virtual machine (VM) to a system without using an OVF or OVA file, see Migrating a Physical Machine or Virtual Machine to a System.)

You can import or restore the VM. Importing a VM creates a new instance of the VM with unique hardware IDs. Restoring a VM creates an identical VM with the same hardware IDs (SMBIOS UUID, system serial number, and MAC addresses, if provided in the VM image) that your guest operating system and applications may require for software licensing. To prevent conflicts with the original VM, restore a VM only if you want to transfer it to the ztC Edge system and stop using it on the source system.

This topic explains how to import an OVF or OVA file from a local computer, a USB device, or a remote file system such as an NFS export or a Windows share (also known as a CIFS share, such as, for example, Samba). If you want to restore an existing VM on the same system to overwrite the VM and recover it from a previous backup copy, see Replacing/Restoring a Virtual Machine from an OVF File.

To import an OVF or OVA file

1. Log on to the ztC Console on the target system.
2. On the Physical Machines page (see The Physical Machines Page) of a system licensed for two nodes, verify that both PMs are in the running state and that neither PM is in maintenance mode or in the process of synchronizing.
3. If you are importing a VM from a USB device or network share (instead of the PC running the ztC Console), mount the device or share on the ztC Edge system as described in Mounting a USB Device or Network-mounted Folder on the ztC Edge System.
4. On the Virtual Machines page (see The Virtual Machines Page), click Import/Restore to open the Import/Restore Virtual Machine wizard.

5. Select one of the following:

   • Import from my PC—Imports the VM from the PC running ztC Console.

     Note: Browsing for VMware OVFs and OVAs is not supported when importing from a PC, but you can use any of the remaining methods to import VMware OVFs and OVAs.

     Click Next and then click Browse to locate the appropriate file on a local computer.

   • Import from USB—Imports the VM from a USB device mounted on the ztC Edge system.

     Click Next and then select a partition from the pull-down menu. Click List OVFs/OVAs and select the appropriate file from the pull-down menu. You can optionally search for a file by entering the file name or partial file name in the Search Files box.

   • Import from remote/network Windows Share(CIFS/SMB)—Imports the VM from a Windows share on your local network. Note that the maximum length of the path to the VM, including the VM name, is 4096 characters.

     Click Next and enter values for Username and Password. For Repository, enter a value in the format \\machine_URL\ShareName (for example, \\192.168.1.34\MyOVFsForImport). Then, click List OVFs/OVAs and select the appropriate file from the list.

   • Import from remote/network NFS—Imports the VM from an NFS share on your local network. Note that the maximum length of the path to the VM, including the VM name, is 4096 characters.

     Click Next and for Repository, enter the URL of the remote system in the format nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn/folder_name (do not include http:// or https://).

     Click List OVFs/OVAs to display a list of all files in the remote folder. Select the appropriate file to import. You can optionally search for a file by entering the file name or partial file name in the Search Files box, or you can reorganize the list by clicking a column heading (Name, Date Modified, or Size). Click the file name to select the file, and then click Next.

   If you have selected an OVA file, continue with the next step (import is the only option with an OVA file).

   If you have selected an OVF file, click Next. Messages appear confirming whether or not it is a ztC Edge-created file and whether or not you have the option to import or restore the VM. When selecting a ztC Edge-created OVF file, you have the option of importing or restoring the file, and you can optionally display the following message:

   Restoring a VM attempts to preserve the hardware ID and MAC addresses of all network interfaces. Select Restore only if you are specifically trying to restore a particular instance of a VM and that it will be the only copy of this VM running across all systems on your network. Typically a Restore is used to recover a VM from a previous backup. Select Import if you are trying to create or clone a VM from a "golden" image, as this will assign a unique hardware ID and MAC addresses.

6. Select Import (scroll down the window, if necessary). (For a ztC Edge-created OVF, you can also select Restore. See Replacing/Restoring a Virtual Machine from an OVF File for information.)

7. The wizard displays the Prepare for Importing Virtual Machine window, prompting you to upload additional files, if necessary. If prompted, select the appropriate file(s) to include for each volume associated with the VM.

8. If you have selected an OVF file, you can review and, if necessary, edit the information (you may need to scroll down the window):

   • Name, Boot Interface, CPU, and Memory

     Displays the name of the VM, the boot interface, the number of vCPUs, and the total memory the VM can use. Edit the information, if necessary. (You cannot modify the Boot Interface; the system imports this setting from the OVF or OVA file.)

   • Storage

     Displays the name and size of each volume. In the Create column, select a box for a volume to allocate storage for the volume on the system (the boot volume is required). In the Restore Data column, select a box to import data for a volume from the VHD file.

   • Network

     Displays the available networks. You can remove a network or add one that is not already allocated. You can also specify a MAC address for each selected network. A minimum of one network is required.

     The total number of networks cannot exceed the number of business networks on the ztC Edge system. If you import the VM from an OVF file, you can select which networks to remove in the wizard. If you import the VM from an OVA file, the system automatically ignores the excess networks during the import process. In either case, you can connect more business networks to the ztC Edge system before or after importing the VM to restore the network connections.

9. Optionally, clear the check box for Auto start Virtual Machine after import if you need to reprovision the VM before starting it for the first time.

10. Click Import to begin importing the VM. You can optionally click Cancel to cancel the procedure.

    The wizard displays progress information. When the transfer is complete, click Done to close the wizard.

    Note: Imported volumes begin to appear on the Volumes page of the ztC Console while the import is still in progress. Do not attach or remove any of these imported volumes until the import window reports that the process is complete; otherwise, the import fails.

11. If applicable, use the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard to allocate additional resources to the VM, as described in Reprovisioning Virtual Machine Resources.

    When you are finished reprovisioning the VM, click Start to boot the VM.

12. Click Console to open the console of the VM and log on to the guest operating system.

13. For Windows-based VMs only, download and update the VirtIO drivers to the latest supported versions, as described in Updating the VirtIO Drivers (Windows-based VMs). (The correct VirtIO drivers are already present in Linux-based VMs.)

    Note: After updating the drivers, you may need to restart the guest operating system.
14. If necessary, update the network settings in the guest operating system.

After you verify that the new VM is functioning properly, the import process is complete; however, the system may continue to synchronize data between PMs to enable High Availability (HA) or Fault Tolerant (FT) operation.

Troubleshooting

If necessary, use the following information to resolve problems with the export or import process.

To clean up after a canceled or failed import

In the ztC Console on the target system, remove the imported VM and any volumes associated with the imported VM, if present.

To recover missing data volumes in the target VM

If data volumes do not appear in the VM on the target system after the import, you may need to manually restore the volumes, as follows:

• Shut down the VM, run the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard, and verify that you have included the volumes on the Volumes page.
• For Windows-based VMs, use Disk Management to bring data volumes online.
• For Linux-based VMs, edit the /etc/fstab file to reflect the new device names for the storage devices. Device names may have shifted, for example, if volumes were not included in the import.

To recover missing network devices in the VM on the ztC Edge system

If network devices do not appear in the VM on the target system after the import, you may need to manually restore them, as follows:

• Shut down the VM, run the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard, and verify that you have included the networks on the Networks page. If the VM requires more networks than shown in the wizard, connect additional business networks to the ztC Edge system and then reprovision the VM to include the new networks.
• For Linux-based VMs, reconfigure the network startup script to reflect the new device names for the network interfaces.

To manually install a new network driver

After importing a PM or VM, the network driver might not be properly installed (for example, Device Manager might list the driver with a warning, ). In this situation, manually install the driver:

1. In the VM console window, open Device Manager in the guest operating system.
2. Expand Network adapters and right-click the Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter (the driver that does not work correctly).
3. Select Update Driver Software.
4. In the pop-up window, click Browse my computer for the driver software.
5. Click Let me pick from a list of device drivers.
6. Select Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter.
7. Click Next to install the network driver.

After the driver is installed, check the VM's state in the ztC Console. If the state is running (), the driver is working properly.

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