This OVF package requires unsupported hardware

I was trying to import a virtual image in OVA format inside a Vmware ESXi (or vSphere Hypervisor as it is dubbed today) when I stumbled in this error:

This OVF package requires unsupported hardware.
Details: Line 33: Unsupported hardware family 'virtualbox-2.2'.

As you che see in the following image:

This error is mentioning some kind of unsupported hardware by vSphere hypervisor, what happened?

It usually occur when an OVA appliance exported by VirtualBox is imported in vSphere, the default hardware format used by VirtualBox doesn’t fit the vSphere one, so it is unable to understand how to import the machine.

To fix you should convert the OVA file in an OVF file compatible with vSphere, thus this post could be titled “how to convert and OVA in OVF” too.

First of all download the free converter: Vmware OFT Tool.

Now you can convert the OVA in an OVF with the following command:

ovftool.exe --lax source.ova destination.ovf

This command will create three files: a .MF file, an .OVF file and a .VMDK.

Open the .OVF file in a text editor and change all VirtualBox hardware.

Change this:

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

with:

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType>

Change this:

<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Caption>sataController0</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>SATA Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>sataController0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>AHCI</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>20</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>

with:

<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Caption>SCSIController</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>SCSIController</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>

Save and close. Now your edited file screwed the integrity check. To fix it calculate the SHA1 for the .OVF file (for example using sha1sum or fciv.exe (download), open the .MF file a substitute the present hash with the calculated one.

Now all should work.