Good evening everyone,
I was wondering if I could import a .ova file from Virtualbox into my Qubes? I have put a lot of time into this VM build in Virtualbox which is a masterpiece by my standards (apps,tools and such). My thinking is…
1.) Copy this (.ova) image to USB
2.) Connect Said USB to my Qubes. Make sure Qubes see’s USB
3.) Then “what or how” could I do this “import/copy” .ova into Qubes so I could “run/use” it?
This .ova Virtualbox image is based off of debian 10 (busta)…
Thank you for your time and help
Even if you technically can do this, I would recommend to re implement it instead, as Qubes Templates (should) contain a lot of qubes related stuff inside…
Importing should be used for stand alone VMs only, but a Template based one is much-much more practical under Qubes.
True. I’d suggest migrating completely as well. Specifically here are some of the disadvantages of installing a non-native VM that you would miss:
security-wise you’ll be running that qube in the HVM virtualization mode which the docs state has security disadvantages compared to standard qubes VMs (which run in PHV mode)
convenience-wise You’ll be missing on automated updates (through Qubes Updates); you’ll be seeing the desktop of that VM instead of a seamless experience where the windows integrate well with everything else, etc.
Instaling a VM from .ova as a Standalone HVM should only be considered as the last resort.
Thanks everyone, yes I was reading the documents after posting this question.
I will be rebuilding this inside of Qubes once I get it going. Plus it never crossed my mind until after reviewing the docs about “security” risk it could cause.
I also tried to import a .ova file to Qubes OS and followed the instruction from the following link Redirecting… (as mentioned above).
At the last command ( qvm-create --property=virt_mode=hvm --property=memory=4096 --property=kernel='' --label red --standalone --root-move-from /home/user/win10-root.img win10 ) I run in the issue that StandaloneVM Size and Image size don’t fit. I get the following error: Error importing root Volume (but VM created): Data import failed: not enough data (copied XXX bytes, expected YYYY bytes)
Private and/or storage size are different that the one being imported. But, as far as I know, this happens while reinstalling, not installing. So, are you sure you already don’t have win10 qube? Did you try to give it some other name than win10? This is just blind guess, since I don’t know what VMs you already have…
many thanks for you fast respond. I have now also tried to (re)import the image with another target name. Unfortunately I got the same error as before.
When I try to import the image with an already existing name I get the following error: Error creating VM: VM XXX already exists
At the original post I have not considered to mentioned that it is not a windows image but a linux image. Maybe I have to do something different in that case? Is there something else I can try?
Many thanks for the help so far, but I’m rally new to Qubes OS, but I really like it.
