— I actually managed to cause a PSOD, tread carefully

Unzip the OVA file

I got the error ” The OVF package requires unsupported hardware. Details: Line 522: Unsupported hardware family ‘virtualbox-2.2’. I did a search on the .ovf and removed

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>virtualbox-2.2</vssd:VirtualSystemType>

From this post http://www.ossec.net/?p=1160

– uncompress the ova file (with an unzip-like utility)
– modify the ovf file to reflect what’s been said by Daimonji
– recalculate the checksum of the ovf file and enter it in the mf file (you can use the FCIV tool if you’re under Windows : https://support.microsoft.com/fr-fr/kb/841290)
– Deploy this new OVF, ignoring any warning.

— Ok found even more explicit instructions here http://osdir.com/ml/ossec-list/2014-10/msg00188.html

• Used 7zip to extract the .ova file from the .gz file.
• Found this web site:   http://www.itsecurenet.com/virtualbox-ova-to-vsphere-ovf/
• Downloaded the VMWare OVF Tool from VMWare
• Installed the OVF Tool on my PC.
• Ran the OVF Tool as command line:  ovftool.exe –lax <source.ova>  <destination.ovf> Do not forget the option –lax   There are TWO dashes in front of lax.
• This converts the .ova file to multiple files that end in:   .ovf, .mf and –disk1.vmdk
• Found this web site:  http://www.cnblogs.com/eshizhan/p/3332020.html
• Open the .ovf file with an editor (notepad) and make the following changes:

2. Change the line:  <vssd:VirtualSystemType>virtualbox-2.2</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
3. To:  <vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
4. Change the line:  <OperatingSystemSection ovf:id=”80“>
5. To:  <OperatingSystemSection ovf:id=”101“>

• Download Microsoft Checksum Verify utility :  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290 (Need to check SHA1)
• Install the Microsoft Checksum Verify utility.
• Run this command line:  fciv.exe -sha1 <filename.ovf>

7. Replace <filename.ovf> above with the name of the .ovf file you edited in step 7.

• Edit the .mf file.  Take the SHA1 value calculated above and replace the SHA1 value in the .mf file for the .ovf entry (line 1)
• Use vSphere to deploy the OVF.   Select the .ovf file.
• DONE

So the OVFtool makes you accept a license… quite annoying and it complains about the following system identifier ‘RedHat_64’ which it maps to ‘Other <32-bit>’ also didn’t like the ‘virtualbox-2.2’ with an unsupported hardware family.

grrr…. for what ever reason I only got two files out of the .ova, oh well I just recreated a 64bit centos virtual machine and added the ossec-vm-2.8.1-disk1.vmdk

That was…. easy.

And then on boot it PSODed the whole kit and kaboodle… hmm this virtual machine is quite the pain