Although you can copy a VirtualBox virtual machine from one computer to another by simply transferring the folder from your virtual machine to a USB drive, it will not work if you want to reuse it with another virtualization solution.
To standardize the format of the virtual machines a little and offer some compatibility between the different virtualization solutions, the Open Virtual machine Format (OVF) appeared in 2007.
By default, your VirtualBox virtual machine consists of :
To export a virtual machine from VirtualBox, go to the File menu and click : Export Appliance.
Note : when you export a virtual machine, you create a Virtual Appliance.
Choose the virtual machine you want to export in OVF format.
Select the folder where you want to export it by clicking the small folder icon.
Since version 6.1 of VirtualBox, the options have changed slightly.
The "Create manifest file" option has been renamed to "Write Manifest file".
In addition, you now have the possibility :
In the "Format" list, you will see that you will have the choice between :
To be able to check the integrity of the exported virtual machine, you have to check the "Write Manifest file" box.
So, when you want to import your virtual machine, you will be able to check if the data has not been damaged before using it.
Then, you can add info about your virtual appliance.
The name is the one that will appear in VirtualBox.
For the rest, it's useful if you distribute this virtual machine on your personal website, for example.
In our case, we will add a small description.
Since VirtualBox will convert your virtual machine's virtual hard disk to vmdk, exporting your VM may take a long time.
It all depends on the performance of your computer and the size of the hard disk used by your virtual machine.
Since version 6.1 of VirtualBox, the "Writing appliance" message will appear in the VirtualBox interface when exporting your virtual machine.
Once the virtual machine is exported, you will find a ".ova" file.
To import a VM into VirtualBox, go to the File menu and click : Import Appliance.
Select the ".ova" file (the OVF format archive format) or the ".ovf" file provided with the virtual machine downloaded from the Internet (for example).
Since version 6.1 of VirtualBox, you will find a new "Source" option thanks to which you can choose between :
The information of the virtual machine to import is displayed.
Note that you will also find the name and description specified when exporting it from VirtualBox.
In this case, VirtualBox to add a suffix "_1" because the original VM "Win 7 x64" is still present in VirtualBox.
Since version 6.0 of VirtualBox, you will find the options concerning the conservation or not of the MAC addresses of the network cards of the virtual machine.
You will also find an "Import hard drives as VDI" option to import the virtual hard drives in VDI format, even if it's not the case in the virtual machine which had been exported in OVA/OVF format.
VirtualBox imports the virtual machine.
Note that the imported hard disk will remain in vmdk format.
Since version 6.1 of VirtualBox, the "Importing appliance" message will appear in the VirtualBox interface.
Once the virtual machine is imported, it will appear in VirtualBox.
And, in our case, 2 files will appear in a subfolder of "VirtualBox VMs" :
Virtualization 8/30/2019
Virtualization 8/25/2018
Virtualization 7/22/2018
Virtualization 11/6/2020
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