Virtualbox VM to VMWare Migration

virtualbox_ova_to_vmware_vmx.txt

To convert Virtualbox VMs to VMware VMs, the state of the art is still not a "simple export and import". 
Am surprised that it doesn't still work thst way. My VMWare player would quit without even errors. Linux, VMware & Tools ... Still long way to go.. Why can't something fail appropriately ? 

Some commands need to be typed in the command lines. Here is the procedure that worked for me:

From Virtualbox, Export the VM to a folder. It could be saved either in the .OVA or .OVF formats. 

In the command line, execute :

     ovftool -tt vmx --lax soureVMfileaname.ova . 

(the --lax is the key as ovftool keeps on failing on unsupported hardware 'virtualbox-2.2' 
otherwise as is shown below: )

     $ovftool -st=ova -tt=vmx  XP_withOffice.ova .

      Opening OVA source: newXP_withOffice_Origin8.0.ova
      Opening VMX target: .
      Error: OVF Package is not supported by target:
      - Line 25: Unsupported hardware family 'virtualbox-2.2'.
      Completed with errors

and with the --lax option, the transfer is completed with some Warnings. 

      ovftool -st=ova -tt=vmx --lax XP_withOffice.ova .
      Opening OVA source: XP_withOffice.ova
      Opening VMX target: .
      Warning:
       - Line 25: Unsupported hardware family 'virtualbox-2.2'.
        - Line 83: OVF hardware element 'ResourceType' with instance ID '7': No support for the virtual hardware device type '35'.
       Writing VMX file: ./XP_withOffice.ova/XP_withOffice.vmx
      Transfer Completed                    
      Warning:
      - No manifest entry found for: 'XP_withOffice.vmdk'.
      - No manifest file found.
      Completed successfully