VM Import/Export feature

[BloodyIron]

I would really like to see Proxmox with VM Import/Export features. It would be nice to have support for various different VM packages so I can export product VMs to my clients, or import VM packages between other environments I work with.

Also when making a new VM it would be nice to have the option to in the "wizard" upload a VM disk image, then have the new VM be able to use it right away, instead of only having the option to create a new VM disk image.

 

[fabian]

there is a (CLI) disk import feature in the works which allows you to copy an existing image file into an existing VM, as wells a basic importer of OVF VMs. we are also working on a storage export/import API that allows to export individual volumes in various formats.

I think a full-fledged "export VM to format XYZ" functionality is not planned at the moment - it's not really very important for PVE itself but using the aforementioned (currently work-in-progress) "pvesm export" and the plain text config file, it should be easy enough to write something like that yourself if you need it?

 

[LnxBil]

In practise, it does not work well for all other commercial platforms out there, so why should Proxmox VE bother? It's really a shame, yet unfortunately the truth. I have a lot of first hand experience on that matter. I often end up cloning (clonezilla or simple dd) the disk images if anything else breaks.

Importing a VM is in general not an easy task for everybody. This will only change if most of the running services are packaged in docker containers (or whatever format is in demand then). Even the open standard OVA is not working properly without manual intervention in the case of e.g. VirtualBox and VMware. It was (or maybe still is) possible to create a OVA in vSphere that cannot be imported without manual intervention (if you have a DVD mounted while exporting).

 

[BloodyIron]

Uhhh actually there's plenty of "appliance" VMs out there that can be imported easily into things like virtual box and other common hypervisors. So while there may be examples of failures of that, there are plenty of examples of sucesses too.

Having this functionality (in some form) would help streamline a lot of the work I am building, so it's important to where I'm taking my business.

In practise, it does not work well for all other commercial platforms out there, so why should Proxmox VE bother? It's really a shame, yet unfortunately the truth. I have a lot of first hand experience on that matter. I often end up cloning (clonezilla or simple dd) the disk images if anything else breaks.

Importing a VM is in general not an easy task for everybody. This will only change if most of the running services are packaged in docker containers (or whatever format is in demand then). Even the open standard OVA is not working properly without manual intervention in the case of e.g. VirtualBox and VMware. It was (or maybe still is) possible to create a OVA in vSphere that cannot be imported without manual intervention (if you have a DVD mounted while exporting).

 

[BloodyIron]

Thanks for the info! I'll have to see how well it works out for me

there is a (CLI) disk import feature in the works which allows you to copy an existing image file into an existing VM, as wells a basic importer of OVF VMs. we are also working on a storage export/import API that allows to export individual volumes in various formats.

I think a full-fledged "export VM to format XYZ" functionality is not planned at the moment - it's not really very important for PVE itself but using the aforementioned (currently work-in-progress) "pvesm export" and the plain text config file, it should be easy enough to write something like that yourself if you need it?

 

[LnxBil]

Uhhh actually there's plenty of "appliance" VMs out there that can be imported easily into things like virtual box and other common hypervisors. So while there may be examples of failures of that, there are plenty of examples of sucesses too.

Having this functionality (in some form) would help streamline a lot of the work I am building, so it's important to where I'm taking my business.

You're right: VirtualBox is a good product, even that it is now owned by Oracle. I never had any problem with VB that I could not solve, yet I had a lot of problems with VMware and XEN that even (in the later case) a official tech could not solve after hours.

The industry is moving to containers, especially Docker nowadays and I see even more "ready" appliances there already, which are even easier to install without any knowledge. Just copy & paste the Docker command to your shell and you're good to go.

 

[BloodyIron]

Okay but I don't care about containers. This topic is about VM import/export.

You're right: VirtualBox is a good product, even that it is now owned by Oracle. I never had any problem with VB that I could not solve, yet I had a lot of problems with VMware and XEN that even (in the later case) a official tech could not solve after hours.

The industry is moving to containers, especially Docker nowadays and I see even more "ready" appliances there already, which are even easier to install without any knowledge. Just copy & paste the Docker command to your shell and you're good to go.

 

[Ma907xb]

Okay but I don't care about containers. This topic is about VM import/export.

Now that it's 01/01/2019. How is proxmox doing with VM import/export? Have these features been polished out?

 

[LnxBil]

Now that it's 01/01/2019. How is proxmox doing with VM import/export? Have these features been polished out?

It still works much better than XEN and VMware export and conversion tools :-D

Seriously:

The CLI option just works. This is what I use on VMware too. No one wants to upload a 10 GB image via webinterface.