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We have a virtual test server in VMWare that's currently running on a machine with a couple of different VMs on it. This virtual test server is very slow, and since I test the backup on it daily, I was thinking it would be faster if I just copied the whole thing to my local workstation and ran the tests on a VirtualBox client.

Now while I could normally just create a new virtual test server in Virtualbox, the server is Windows Server 2003, for which Microsoft has dropped support; thus our licensing keys no longer work.

So our only free option to speed up backup tests (if we want to be sure it's still tested on Windows Server 2003) is to export the existing VM from VMWare into some other virtualization software that I can run on my local machine.

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As far as I know Extended Support for Windows Server 2003 ends in July 2015. How is the support lifecycle related to your license keys? –  joeqwerty Oct 22 '12 at 19:22
2003 is not EOS and license keys should continue to activate even when it is EOS. I think you're mistaken here. –  MDMarra Oct 22 '12 at 19:39
@MDMarra What is EOS? End Of Service... –  leeand00 Oct 22 '12 at 20:25
It means End of Support –  MDMarra Oct 22 '12 at 20:34

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It appears that VirtualBox supports importing virtual machines in the OVF format, so exporting the VM as an OVF file from whatever VMware product you're using (VMware is the company, not the product) and importing it into VirtualBox would be one method of accomplishing your goal.


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