The export virtual machine feature automates the Export process generating an Open Virtualization format (OVF) and then transferring the resulting files to your personal account space in VSKEY-STOR.
A virtual machine qualifies to be exported if:
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Committed storage (not provisioned) is less than 300G.
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Power state is Off.
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No iso backing on CD/DVD unit
We use thin provisioning on the ITS Private Cloud to help avoid over-allocating storage space and save storage.
Thin provisioning uses just as much storage capacity as currently needed and then add the required amount of storage space at a later time. (Source: VMware).
This tutorial walks you through the process of exporting a given virtual machine.
Validate virtual machine
First, we need to double check if the committed_gb size is lower than 300GB. This can be done by executing the command vss-cli compute vm ls but modifying the output columns with the --columns option as follows:
vss-cli --columns "moref,name,folder.path,provisioned_gb,committed_gb,power_state" compute vm ls -f moref=vm-10342 moref name folder.path provisioned_gb committed_gb power_state --------- ------------------ ------------------------ ---------------- -------------- ------------- vm-123456 2210P-FrontEnd-1u0 Public > Customer 123456 60 19.67 poweredOn
In this particular case, we can proceed since the committed space is lower than 300GB.
If the virtual machine power_state is poweredOn, shut it down by sending a shutdown signal through the OS via VMware Tools or a hard power off as follows:
vss-cli compute vm set <name-or-vm-id> state shutdown Host Name: ubuntu (Ubuntu Linux (64-bit)) IP Address: 192.168.2.100, fe80::250:56ff:fe92:d463 Are you sure you want to change the state from "running to shutdown" of the above VM? [y/N]: y
Finally, verify if the VM’s CD/DVD unit is not backed by an ISO image file:
vss-cli compute vm get <name-or-vm-id> cd label backing connected -------------- --------- ------------ CD/DVD drive 1 client disconnected
Execute vss-cli compute vm set <name-or-vm-id> cd <unit> --iso client if an ISO image is shown in CD backing.
Export virtual machine
Run vss-cli compute vm set <name-or-vm-id> export to submit an export task. The command does not require any argument or options.
Usage: vss-cli compute vm set export [OPTIONS] Export current virtual machine to OVF. vss-cli compute vm set <name-or-vm-id> export Options: --help Show this message and exit.
Once the command is executed, a VM Export Request is created and all related activity including export status is recorded in it. To check the status, execute vss-cli request export get <request-id>.
vss-cli request export get <request-id> ... status : Processed ... files : disk: ['../disk-0.vmdk', '../2009T-nat.ovf'] ... transferred : Yes
The request object holds more attributes, however the above listed are more important for this example. status=Processed tells us that the request has been completed. transferred=yes indicates that resulting files were successfully transferred to your VSKEY-STOR space. To confirm, you could either go to a web browser and open VSKEY-STOR and sign in or execute vss-cli stor ls <vm-id> and you should get something like:
vss-cli stor ls <vm_name-vm-moref> files ------------------------------- 2009T-nat-vm-2386/2009T-nat.ovf 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-0.vmdk 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-1.nvram
Download virtual machine export
To download the files you could either go to a web browser and open VSKEY-STOR and sign in, go to the <vm_name-vm_id> folder and download the files or execute vss-cli stor dl <vm_name-vm_id>/<file> as follows:
# OVF descriptor vss-cli stor dl 2009T-nat-vm-2386/2009T-nat.ovf -d ~/Downloads Download 2009T-nat-vm-2386/2009T-nat.ovf to ~/Downloads/2009T-nat.ovf in progress ⏬ Download complete to ~/Downloads/2009T-nat.ovf ✅ # disk file vss-cli stor dl 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-0.vmdk -d ~/Downloads Download 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-0.vmdk to ~/Downloads/disk-0.vmdk in progress ⏬ Download complete to ~/Downloads/disk-0.vmdk ✅ # Optional: nvram file vss-cli stor dl 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-1.nvram -d ~/Downloads Download 2009T-nat-vm-2386/disk-1.nvram to ~/Downloads/disk-1.nvram in progress ⏬ Download complete to ~/Downloads/disk-1.nvram ✅
Alternatively, you could just launch the web UI via the la command and browse the ut-vss` bucket to download the files via your web browser:
vss-cli stor la gui --show-cred Launching 🌎: https://vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca:42047 username: [REDACTED] password: [REDACTED]
That’s it, at this point the OVF and disks are ready to be imported to a desired platform.