Getting Started, Converting the OVF for Hyper-V
Importing the OVA
Microsoft Hyper-V does not allow the direct import of OVA/OVF nor VMDKs, so a few extra steps are needed to make this compatible.
Once you have downloaded the FirstWave NMIS Suite OVA from our website, from your local machine you can perform one of the following steps.
Microsoft Guidance
Microsoft documents a complex and somewhat limited procedure on their page about converting OVF files to Hyper-V.
Third party tools
There are also third-party conversion tools available that simplify this deployment scenario.
qemu-img
qemu-img is a free Windows command-line based utility to convert virtual disk formats of different formats. You will need to download this tool and extract it to a location of choice.
You will also need to extract the FirstWave NMIS OVA to obtain the VMDK files needed for conversion.
Once you have extracted the OVA contents, from the directory of where qemu-img has been extracted, hold down the Shift key, then right-click and choose Open PowerShell window here.
Type the following command:
.\qemu-img convert -p -f vmdk "C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\omk-vm9-debian11-disk001.vmdk" -O vhdx -o subformat=dynamic "C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\FirstWave-NMIS-VM-Disk1.vhdx"Where:
Command/flag | Definition |
|---|---|
-p | Shows progress with the qemu-img utility. |
-f | Format of the original (source) disk image. |
“C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\omk-vm9-debian11-disk001.vmdk” | Location of the extracted FirstWave NMIS Suite VM Disk, noting that there are two disks. |
-O vhdx | Format of the new disk image (eg. vhdx). |
-o subformat=dynamic | Sets the output of the new VHDX disk, which can be either dynamic or fixed. |
“C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\FirstWave-NMIS-VM-Disk1.vhdx” | Location and name of the converted VHDX disk, nothing there are two disks. For the second disk you should name it similar to the first, changing Disk1 to Disk2 to differentiate the two. |
Once you have completed this step for the two disks, you are ready to build the Virtual Machine in Hyper-V.
vbox-manage
vbox-manage is part of VirtualBox and comes as a command-line utility tool. VirtualBox needs to be installed to complete this step, but you have the flexibility of completing the steps below on Windows, macOS and Linux.
The below steps are completed on Windows, but similar would be used for macOS and/or Linux.
You will also need to extract the FirstWave NMIS OVA to obtain the VMDK files needed for conversion.
Once you have extracted the OVA contents, open a Command Prompt window and navigate to C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox (note it may exist in Program Files (x86), then execute the following command:
VBoxManage.exe clonehd --format vhd "C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\omk-vm9-debian11-disk001.vmdk" "C:\Users\youruser\yourlocation\FirstWave-NMIS-VM-Disk1.vhd"Again repeat this for the second disk.
Other tools
StarWind's free V2V Converter has also worked well in our tests.
Importing the Disks
With the disks converted we can now create our Virtual Machine in Hyper-V Manager.
In Hyper-V Manager, complete the following steps:
Right-click on your Hyper-V server, then, while hovering over the New button, click on Virtual Machine. A seperate Virtual Machine Wizard window should appear here.
On the Before You Begin screen, click on Next.
Specify a name for your virtual machine, then click Next.
On the Select Generation screen, select Generation 1. Click Next.
On the Assign Memory screen, you will need to allocate at least 8192 MB (8GB) to the virtual machine. Our OVA is built with this same specification. Click Next.
Select your networking connection on the Configure Networking screen.
On the Connect Virtual Hard Disk screen, either:
Select the ‘Use an existing virtual hard disk’ radio button, selecting only the FIRST disk here after pressing Browse, and after creation a reminder to add the second disk, then click Next.
Select the ‘Attach a virtual hard disk later’ radio button, then click Next.
Click Finish.
Once this is created, right click on the virtual machine and select Settings.
Processors
Choose the Processor item, and increase the Number of virtual processors to 4. Our OVA is built with this same specification. Press the Apply button once this is done.
Hard Disks
Option |
|
|---|---|
IDE | Choose the IDE Controller 0 item. On the right hand side, select Hard Drive from the list and click on Add. In the media section, make sure Virtual hard disk is selected then click Browse. Choose the FIRST disk here. NOTE: If you already added the first disk in the Connect Virtual Hard Disk screen, you can skip the above. Next we’ll need to add our second disk. Click on IDE Controller 0 again, selecting Hard Drive from the list and click on Add. Repeat the same step as above, selecting the SECOND disk now. |
Press the Apply button once this is done.
BIOS
Now that we have added our disks, we can update the BIOS setting to first boot from the IDE. Highlight IDE on the right hand side, then select Move Up.
Press the Apply button once this done.
Launch the Virtual Machine
You can now proceed to power the virtual machine on.
Once powered on, use our provided credentials to login. You can find this in the Install instructions on our website.
Tip: Once authenticated, our appliance ships with a Message of the Day (MOTD) which will provide you with the virtual machine's IP address, used to access the NMIS Suite Graphical User Interface (GUI). You can also find this by typing "ip a" into the console of the virtual machine.