Converting JAMF's NetBoot/SUS Appliance to VMWare

I was really excited to see that JAMF released a new Ubuntu-based VM that hosts Reposado and diskless NetBoot today. I was less excited to see that the VM was in VirtualBox’s Open Virtual Appliance format. Nothing against VirtualBox, but I’ve already got VMWare installed and prefer to use that instead.

Fortunately, it is possible to convert from .ova to .vmdk pretty easily using VMWare’s OVF Tool. See below the jump for how you can convert the file and use it in VMWare Fusion.

1. Download and install the VMWare OVF Tool for Mac OS X from this site: http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/server/vsphere/automationtools/ovf

2. Open Terminal and run the following command (fill in paths as appropriate):

/Applications/VMware\ OVF\ Tool/ovftool /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.ova /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.vmx

You should see output like this:


hostname:~ username$ /Applications/VMware\ OVF\ Tool/ovftool /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.ova /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.vmx
Opening OVA source: /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.ova
Opening VMX target: /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.vmx
Writing VMX file: /path/to/NetSUS_1.0.vmx
Disk Transfer Completed

The manifest validates
Completed successfully
hostname:~ username$


Once the conversion finishes, you should have two files.

3. Next, open VMWare Fusion and have it set up a new VM. When prompted, choose Continue without disc.

4. Select the Use an existing virtual disk: option and select the NetSUS_1.0.vmdk file. I chose to make a separate copy of the virtual disk for my new VM.

5. The .vmdk format is seen by VMWare Fusion 4.x as an older format, so I chose to convert it for maximum compatibility.

6. Once the NetSUS_1.0.vmdk file was converted, I was taken back to the Virtual Machine Assistant. I hit Continue at this point.

7. VMWare correctly identified it as a Linux VM running Ubuntu, so I left these selections alone and hit Continue.

8. Final step in the creation process. I was fine with the default options, so I hit the Finish button.

Success!