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How to Convert Third-Party Virtual Appliances to Parallels Virtual Appliances

Article ID: 4960
Last Review: Apr,15 2008
APPLIES TO:
  • Parallels Technology Network

RESOLUTION

Although many third-party virtual appliances (VAs) are constructed and formatted differently than Parallels Virtual Appliances (PVAs), you can usually convert a VA into a Parallels VA with very minimal effort.


 


Step One: Hard Disk Images


Use Parallels Transporter to convert the virtual appliance’s hard disk images to a Parallels-compatible format. If you do not have Parallels Transporter, you can download it for free here.





Step Two: Configuring Boot Loaders


You may skip this step if:




  • The VA has an IDE boot disk; or




  • The guest operating system is Windows 2000, 2003, or XP.




If the VA has an SCSI boot disk, change disk interface type from SCSI to IDE, and reinstall the boot loader. For a Linux guest OS, see below:




  1. Use the Auxiliary PVA from Parallels Virtual Appliances Directory.

    Note: You may also use any Linux-based VA with GRUB or LILO loader installed in this VA, depending on the loader installed in the target VA.




  2. Add the converted virtual disk to the Auxiliary PVA as an additional disk. Example: IDE 0:1




  3. Start the Auxiliary PVA.




  4. Detect which disk and partition has been bootable in VA. Example: /dev/hdb1




  5. Mount this system partition to some point (mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt).




  6. Replace boot loader on the converted disk.




    1. If you use the Auxiliary PVA, run convert /dev/hdb1.




    2. If you do not use the Auxiliary PVA:




      1. Replace root=/dev/sd* by root=/dev/hd* in configuration files, typically: /mnt/boot/grub/grub.conf or /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst.




      2. Replace /dev/sd* by /dev/hd* in /mnt/etc/mtab and /mnt/etc/fstab.




      3. Remove /mnt/boot/grub/device.map.




      4. Install loader by command grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/hdb.








You can now shut down the Auxiliary PVA. Create a new virtual machine with the same configuration as the VA, and connect the converted disk as a boot disk to the new virtual machine. Start the new Parallels virtual machine.





Step Three: Updating Device Drivers


Depending on the VA’s configuration, you may need to replace the OS kernel or some of its components. Because Parallels uses the Realtek 8029(AS) network adapter, you have to install a driver for it.


Linux


If the VA has a standard kernel with multiple modules, the necessary driver will usually be installed automatically. If the necessary driver was not installed automatically, you need to install it manually. Please refer to http://www.kernel.org for more information.


Windows 2000/2003/XP


Install Parallels Tools to make sure that proper drivers are installed.

Keywords: parallels virtual appliances, convertation

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