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Import and export VMs

Moving VMs in and out of XCP-ng as files: full VMs (XVA, OVA) or individual disks (VHD, VMDK…).

tip

Coming from VMware, Hyper-V, KVM or another hypervisor? There's a dedicated page: migrate to XCP-ng, including XO's V2V tool for live VMware conversions.

📦 Formats​

  • XVA: the native format. A single streamable file containing the VM's metadata and its disks. Best fidelity (everything is preserved), best performance, and works between any XCP-ng/XAPI-based hosts. Use it whenever both sides are XCP-ng.
  • OVA/OVF: the interchange format, when the other side is not XCP-ng. An OVA is an archive with the disks and a hardware description; interpretation varies between vendors, so expect to double-check VM settings after import.
  • Disk images (VHD, VMDK, raw): import/export a single disk rather than a whole VM. Attach the imported disk to a VM you create yourself.

📥 Import​

XVA​

From Xen Orchestra: New → Import, pick the file. With xe:

root@xcp-ng-host — XVA
# xe vm-import filename=my-vm.xva sr-uuid=<destination-sr-uuid>

Add preserve=true to keep the original MAC addresses (beware of duplicates if the original VM still runs somewhere!).

OVA​

From Xen Orchestra: New → Import accepts .ova files directly, shows the parsed hardware description and lets you adjust it before creating the VM. After import, install the guest tools and check boot mode, NICs and disks.

Single disks​

From Xen Orchestra: New → Import → Disk imports a VHD or VMDK file into an SR of your choice; then attach it to a VM (how). With xe, see vdi-import.

📤 Export​

XVA​

From Xen Orchestra: VM → Export (with optional compression; zstd is a good default: much smaller files for a modest CPU cost). With xe:

root@xcp-ng-host — XVA
# xe vm-export vm="my-vm" filename=my-vm.xva

The VM should be halted; to export a running VM's state, take a snapshot and export that instead:

root@xcp-ng-host — XVA
# xe snapshot-export-to-template snapshot-uuid=<snapshot-uuid> filename=my-vm.xva

OVA​

From Xen Orchestra: VM → Export and choose the OVA format. Use it only when the destination isn't XCP-ng.

Single disks​

From Xen Orchestra, each disk in the VM's Disks tab has an export button (VHD). See also exporting VDIs with xe.

🔁 Not what you're looking for?​

  • Moving a VM between two connected pools? Use live migration, no intermediate file needed.
  • Recurring exports for safety? That's a backup job. See backup: Xen Orchestra does scheduled full/delta backups, replication and more.