How do I import and export virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager?

Purpose

This article introduces the requirements and steps for importing virtual machines into Virtual Machine Manager from other hypervisors and exporting them from Virtual Machine Manager.

Environment

Supported operation systems

Refer to Virtual Machine Manager Supported Operating Systems on Synology’s website. Memory size or drive space suggestions for different guest operating systems:

Operating Systems	Memory Size	Drive Space
Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows Server	-	20 GB
Windows 10 (64-bit)	2 GB	-
CentOS 7.0 and later	1 GB	-
OpenSUSE	-	100 GB
Ubuntu	2 GB	-

Supported format of importing and exporting virtual machine

Virtual machines with virtual disks larger than 2 TB are not supported for export or import.

Importing:

Format	Details
Open Virtual Appliance (OVA)	Supports importing images with multiple disks.
VMware Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)¹	Compatible with VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere virtualization products.
Fixed and Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX)	Compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen virtualization products.
Virtual Disk Image (VDI)	Compatible with VirtualBox virtualization products.
Raw image (IMG)	Contains sector-by-sector contents of a disk.

Exporting:
- Open Virtual Appliance (OVA)

Supported virtual disk interface

IDE
SATA
VirtIO

Supported virtual network card

VirtIO
e1000
RTL8139

Resolution

Import virtual machines from other hypervisors into Virtual Machine Manager

You can import virtual machines in OVA files or disk images (VMDK/VHD/VHDX/VDI/IMG) to Virtual Machine Manager.

Export the OVA file or the disk image from the original hypervisor.²
- If you exported an OVA file, proceed to step 2.
- If you want to import a disk image:
  1. Go to Virtual Machine Manager > Image > Disk Image, and click Add.
  2. Upload the disk image.
  3. Select the storage on which you want to store the image.
Go to Virtual Machine Manager > Virtual Machine, and click Create > Import.
Select Import from OVA files or disk images.
Follow the steps in To create a virtual machine to finish.

Export virtual machines from Virtual Machine Manager

Go to Virtual Machine Manager > Virtual Machine.
Power off the virtual machine.
Click Action > Export.
Select the shared folder as the exported destination.³

Notes:

VMDK with VMFS3 is supported. VMFS5 and VMFS6 are not supported.
Before exporting from other hypervisors, check the following notes:
- If the virtual hard disk interface or virtual network card is not supported, modify the settings when importing the virtual machine. Virtual Machine Manager will replace unsupported settings with the default ones after the import.
- VMware:
  - The exported virtual machines will be OVF files. Convert the OVF files to OVA files.
- Hyper-V:
  - The exported virtual machines will be VHDX files. Import the virtual machine by a disk image.
- VirtualBox:
  - Select Open Virtualization Format 1.0 as the format when exporting virtual machines from VirtualBox.
Select an Export mode that is compatible with the operating system of the hypervisor you want to import to.

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