I am recieving an error when I try to import a VMX

Hi Marc,

Our vmdk import tool can't parse some kinds of vmdk files. We are working on improving the import tool to support more kinds of vmdk files; in the meantime, you can convert the disk into a format our tool can understand by following these steps listed under "Import errors":

1. Obtain the vmware-vdiskmanager.exe tool. It is distributed with VMware Workstation and VMware Server.
2. At the command line, type vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r source.vmdk -t 0 target.vmdk
3. If necessary, delete or rename original vmdk files, then rename the target.vmdk file to match the one for the vmx.
4. Alternatively, edit the vmx file to rename source.vmdk file to target.vmdk, such that the target.vmdk file name matches the one for the vmx.
5. Now import the newly created vmdk file as described above.

Let me know if it works!

-John

Hi. I have the same problem, but I am unable to find where to download the vdisk-manager utility on its own.

Is it necessary to install the vmware-server or the vmware player? If so, it refuses to install when there is already a vmware installation on the machine. Does this mean I have to remove LivePC and if so, will I lose my existing live PCs?

You can get the executable in the free trial version of VMware Workstation. Download the installer and instead of double-clicking it, go to a command prompt and run the installer with the "/a" switch:

C:\VMware-workstation-5.5.3-34685.exe /a

This will extract the installer files to a directory you specify. You can then browse to "Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation" to get the vmware-vdiskmanager.exe. You can also get the VMware tools in the various ISO files in the same directory.

Hope that helps!

-John

Hello again, and thanks for the response earlier.

I have still been unable to get this to work. I managed to get hold of the vdiskmanager as you suggested. However, I get an error when I try to convert the vdisk. vdiskmanager says that it is unable to find the file. When I look at the log, it is a different file with the extension .cdski that it can't find. There is a file ending in .cdsk in the directory, but the .vmdk file specifies a file with .cdski. If I change the .vmdk file to refer to .cdsk, vdiskmanager fails to recognize it as a virtual disk.

The command dialogue is shown below.
=============================
D:\GSCPlone1VM\GSCPlonee421b801-7494-4033-b8ba-e60a1fae61e5 LivePC Package>dir
Volume in drive D is Spare
Volume Serial Number is 5476-1932

Directory of D:\GSCPlone1VM\GSCPlonee421b801-7494-4033-b8ba-e60a1fae61e5 LivePC
Package

28/12/2006 11:01 .
28/12/2006 11:01 ..
28/12/2006 10:46 120,738,617 local.cdsk
28/12/2006 10:46 335 local.vmdk
28/12/2006 10:46 0 local.vmdk.lck
28/12/2006 10:46 8,664 nvram
28/12/2006 10:51 501,387,813 system.cdsk
28/12/2006 10:51 3,440 system.cdsk.fetch_order
28/12/2006 10:51 338 system.vmdk
28/12/2006 10:51 1,682 vm.vmx
28/12/2006 10:51 0 vm.vmx.lck
28/12/2006 10:51 1,852 vm.xml
10 File(s) 622,142,741 bytes
2 Dir(s) 1,015,468,032 bytes free

D:\GSCPlone1VM\GSCPlonee421b801-7494-4033-b8ba-e60a1fae61e5 LivePC Package>vmware-vdiskmanager -r system.vmdk -t 0 system1.vmdk
Using log file C:\DOCUME~1\Grahame\LOCALS~1\Temp\vmware-Grahame\vdiskmanager.log

Failed to open the disk 'system.vmdk' : The system cannot find the file specified (25).
=================================

The log file is shown below:
=================================
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| Log for VMware Workstation pid=3488 version=5.5.3 build=build-34685 option=Release
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| DISKLIB-FLAT : ".\system.cdski" : failed to open (25): AIOMgr_Open failed.
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Failed to open extents for descriptor file in normal mode
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| DISKLIB-LINK : "system.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| DISKLIB-CHAIN : "system.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open 'system.vmdk' with flags 0x1e (The system cannot find the file specified).
Dec 28 11:08:18: app| AIOMGR-S : stat o=2 r=2 w=0 i=0 br=850 bw=0
=================================

Best wishes, Grahame

Hi Grahame,

You need to use the vdiskmanager on disks of the VMware virtual machine you want to import, not the LivePC. So if you want to import "foo.vmx", there is probably a "foo.vmdk" that needs conversion.

Let me know if you still have problems.

-John

Hello,

I'm sorry, but I don't understand the reply. When I exported the LivePC it created a directory containing the file vm.vmx (among others - see the listing in my earlier message). The only vmdk files that were produced were system.vmdk and local.vmdk. There is no vm.vmdk file.

The command I have been using is:
vmware-vdiskmanager -r system.vmdk -t 0 system1.vmdk

What I am trying to do is to create a base Ubuntu server LivePC and then derive several other LivePCs from it to create a virtual network of servers. However, LivePC has so far been unable to import a LivePC that it exported.

Thanks for the help so far.

Hi Graham,

Sorry for misunderstanding your question. In the current version the easiest way to do what you want to do is to publish your packaged version as a "base", then subscribe to that packaged version and make modifications, which you can publish as separate LivePCs. You can publish as public to share your base LivePC with the world, or private so only you have access to it. We have free hosting available for LivePCs if you want to put it on our servers. Publishing also means you can use it from anywhere and you get free backups in case something happens.

For example, you could publish your package as "Base Ubuntu Server", click to subscribe to it, turn on "Let me make changes to this LivePC", install and configure Tomcat in that LivePC, and publish it as "Ubuntu Tomcat Server". Then remove and resubscribe to "Base Ubuntu Server" again, turn on "Let me make changes", install and configure a Samba server, and publish that as "Ubuntu Samba Server". You can repeat this for all of the LivePCs you would like to derive. Because they are all derived from the same base, it will be very efficient when you have more than one of them subscribed because the storage for the common base will be shared.

We do realize that it would be useful to be able to import a packaged LivePC without the extra publish/subscribe step, and that feature will be added in a future version. It's really useful for us to hear what features are important so we can adjust our priorities, so don't hesitate to let us know if there is a feature you would like to see.

-John

Sorry, but I don't understand the reply.

I am applying vdiskmanager to the .vmdk files of the virtual machine. (See below):

==============================================
C:\Documents and Settings\Grahame\Application Data\moka5\Engine\GSCPlonee421b801-7494-4033-b8ba-e60a1fae61e5\activation>vmware-vdiskmanager -r system.vmdk -t 0 system.vmdk
Using log file C:\DOCUME~1\Grahame\LOCALS~1\Temp\vmware-Grahame\vdiskmanager.log

Failed to open the disk 'system.vmdk' : The system cannot find the file specified (25).
==============================================

The folder "activation" contains the system.vmdk and local.vmdk. I get the same result for both of these, and the log entry is as shown in my earlier post.

The folder contains "vm.xml" but does not contain any file called "vm.vmdk".

What I want to do is to create a base VM with Ubuntu server installed and then use this to derive a number of VMs to form a virtual network. Am I perhaps going the wrong way about this?