KVM: Importing an OVA appliance ############################### First of all, the ``.ova`` format is nothing more than a ``tar`` archive, containing an ``.ovf`` and a ``.vmdk`` files, respectively the VM configuration and disk. So, you can simply extract the files:: $ tar xvf MyAppliance.ova And convert to a format appropriate for qemu/kvm:: # List the available formats $ qemu-img -h | tail -n1 Supported formats: vvfat vpc vmdk vdi sheepdog raw host_cdrom host_floppy host_device file qed qcow2 qcow parallels nbd dmg tftp ftps ftp https http cow cloop bochs blkverify blkdebug # Do the actual conversion (I chose qcow2 here) $ qemu-img convert -O qcow2 MyAppliance-disk1.vmdk MyAppliance.qcow2 Have a look at the ``.ovf`` too, for information on expected machine configuration / resources (eg. memory and cpu). After the conversion, simply create a new VM and make it use the newly created disk as the primary harddisk. .. warning:: I had some issues converting the image using the qemu-utils version ``0.12.5`` shipped with debian squeeze/stable (the resulting image was just some megs of garbage); I had to upgrade it to version ``1.1.2`` from wheezy/testing, which worked just fine. References ========== * http://edoceo.com/notabene/ova-to-vmdk-to-qcow2