hi

its been six months that i am using linux centos now i want to get only the iso image of my running vm so that i can install OS to somewhere else. i need help regarding this

Hi hasseem_saeed,

If you just want to be able to transfer your VM over to another host running the same virtualization software, you just have to save the native "container" files, for example the Virtualbox .vdi file (especially) and .vbox file, to external media and use the import function on the new host to start using the VM on the new system. I'm not even sure if somehow using an ISO file is possible, much less simpler.

Cheers.

Thank you so much for your input . Actually that's not the case .What i want is i just want the image. in the above case i would only be able to get the full clone of my vm that means on the other side (where i will be importing the vm) i want same specs for e.x HDD ram etc now what i want is that i want to make the image of a system and deploy it to any of the Virtual software with different physical grounds
Thanks

Hi again haseem_saeed ...

OK - I *think* I understand what you are looking to do: you want to be able to deploy a VM on another host from the "base image" (for lack of a better term) that you have created instead of installing the OS from scratch and then building it up again. So you would be using your ISO like an augmented version of the distro's basic live ISO. ... kind of like a "remastered" live ISO ... I know it is possible to do this - I believe certain distros even have utilities to facilitate the process.

Unfortunately, I myself have never done it, so I think I'll let one of our members who HAS had experience with this chime in and suggest the best way to go about it.

Cheers,

Yes you got my point. and that would be very kind of you

... Cool. While waiting for some more experienced advice, you might want to take a look at these links that I found with a quick search:

http://www.smorgasbork.com/2014/07/1...t-disc-part-1/

http://everyday-tech.com/create-a-custom-centos-iso/

Cheers !

I think I'd use something like clonezilla to make an image of the VM. Then use clonezilla to restore it on some other machine. In all cases, a clone is not a great way to move across hardware that is vastly different.

One could convert the vm virtual hard drive to a raw drive and maybe dd it to a hard drive.

If your distro has a live media you might be able to take a listing of programs installed and copy of unique data and then reload it to a system.

All you have to do is copy the Vbox files and write them to a different machine. All the settings for each VM is stored in the files. An iso is an insane way to go about it! Just copy the files and your good to go. I don't think you even need to import a native Vbox VM. You can just browse to the file it's stored in.

Ok, so once the Vbox files are copied and written to another machine; and the konsole is launched and "VirtualBox" is executed, are you sure that Vbox will launch and be operational?

Is it that much trouble to just try it? It is so simple to do I can't remember even one snag. It won't pop up in the console until you open the file. But after that it should be listed.

Virtualbox for instance, you can export the appliance to file.ova

Then the file.ova can be imported on the target host (provided that it has an equivalent or higher Virtualbox client installed.)
1.14. Importing and exporting virtual machines

Or you can copy the physical to the new target and "tell" Vbox where it is.

Hey all - I already suggested the approach described by AwesomeMachine in my first post (#2). The OP came back and explained that wasn't what he was trying to do. He wants to basically create his own "remastered" ISO of Centos, which would include everything he's added to his system over time. He would use this remastered ISO to install to new VM's on different hardware, and possibly different hypervisors.

Just wanted to clear this up - please reread posts 2 to 5.

Cheers :-)

Thanks-

Got it:-

Never needed to do it. I'll have to try it one day.

I have a number of vm's in KVM on centos 7, and have often imaged a guest vm. I use lvm and raw storage, cloning the image was nothing more than shutting down the vm, dd the image from the lvm storage partition, move the image .iso to another server, create a new guest and use the clone iso as the disk for the cloned vm. Then you have to fiddle quite a bit to fix disk uuids, MAC address, hostnam, network settings and such that are supposed to be unique, but no longer are since you used a clone image. With a bit of work, though, the cloned vm was up and running in a couple hours of twiddling.

I don't use Virtualbox or VMware and I doubt this process works for those virtualization systems.