How to import an ESXi OVA file into Hyperion

Written By Christian Castagna (Administrator)

Updated at August 13th, 2025

→ Applies to: Hyperion 9.x and above

Step 1. Login to SynetoOS GUI (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct information)

https://<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 2. Create a new VM ("How to create a virtual machine in SynetoOS 6")

Step 3. From Virtualization menu, click on Virtual machines

Step 4. Select the virtual machine for which you want to access the Volume ID

Step 5. Write down the Volume ID

Step 6. Connect to Hyperion appliance via SSH as admin (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct information)

ssh admin@<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 7. Become Super User

sudo su

Step 8. List all pools

zpool list

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

zpool list
NAME    SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
flash  13.9T  5.88T  8.06T        -         -    26%    42%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

Step 9. Create a new folder for the OVA file (replace <pool_name> and <volume_id> with the correct information)

mkdir /<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/ovafile

EXAMPLE

mkdir /hybrid/syn-volumes/b2bba9fe-adb1-46c4-a840-69cee19fdb95/ovafile

Step 10. Move to the newly created folder (replace <pool_name> and <volume_id> with the correct information)

cd /<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/ovafile

EXAMPLE

cd /hybrid/syn-volumes/b2bba9fe-adb1-46c4-a840-69cee19fdb95/ovafile

Step 11. Download the OVA file (replace <https://ova-download-link> with the correct link)

wget <https://ova-download-link>

EXAMPLE

wget https://cdn.watchguard.com/SoftwareCenter/Files/WSM/2_3/watchguard-dimension_2_3.ova

Step 12. List files and directories to find the OVA file name

ls -la

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

total 4194304
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user       4096 Aug  5 10:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 user user       4096 Aug  5 10:00 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 user user     185320 Aug  5 10:41 watchguard-dimension_2_3.ova

Step 13. Extract OVA file contents (replace <ova_file_name> with the correct information)

tar xvf <ova_file_name>

EXAMPLE

tar xvf watchguard-dimension_2_3.ova

Step 14. List files and directories to find and take note of .ovf and .vmdk file names

ls -la

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

total 4194304
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user       4096 Aug  5 10:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 user user       4096 Aug  5 10:00 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 user user     185320 Aug  5 10:41 watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed.ovf
-rw-r--r--  1 user user        512 Aug  5 10:41 watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed.mf
-rw-r--r--  1 user user       1024 Aug  5 10:41 watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed.cert
-rw-r--r--  1 user user 2097152000 Aug  5 10:42 watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed-disk1.vmdk
-rw-r--r--  1 user user 2097152000 Aug  5 10:43 watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed-disk2.vmdk

Step 15. Check the hardware resource of the .ovf file (replace <ovf_file_name> with the correct information)

cat <ovf_file_name> | grep -A 2 -B 2 -E "(Memory|CPU)"

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

cat watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed.ovf | grep -A 2 -B 2 -E "(Memory|CPU)"
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>hertz * 10^6</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Number of virtual CPUs</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>2 virtual CPU(s)</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>1</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>3</rasd:ResourceType>
--
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>byte * 2^30</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>2GB of memory</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>

vCPU: The line <rasd:ElementName>2 virtual CPU(s)</rasd:ElementName> indicates that the virtual machine is configured with 2 vCPUs.

RAM: The line <rasd:ElementName>2GB of memory</rasd:ElementName> indicates that the virtual machine has 2 GB of RAM alocated.

Step 16. Login to SynetoOS GUI (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct information)

https://<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 17. From Virtualization menu, click on Virtual machines

Step 18. Select the VM you want to edit hardware

Step 19. Click on Edit hardware

Step 20. Change the VM hardware

Set CPUs and Memory according to the values retrieved in Step 15.

Step 21. Remove the drive. Click Update to apply the changes.

Step 22. Connect to Hyperion appliance via SSH as admin (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct information)

ssh admin@<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 23. Become Super User

sudo su

Step 24. Switch to OVA path (replace <pool_name> and <volume_id> with the correct information)

cd /<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/ovafile

EXAMPLE

cd /hybrid/syn-volumes/b2bba9fe-adb1-46c4-a840-69cee19fdb95/ovafile

Step 25. Convert and copy VMDK disk (replace <disk1_name>, <pool_name>, <volume_id> and <disk2_name> with the correct information)

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw <disk1_name>.vmdk \ 
/<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/<disk1_name>.img

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw <disk2_name>.vmdk \ 
/<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/<disk2_name>.img

EXAMPLE
qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed-disk1.vmdk \ 
/hybrid/syn-volumes/d7a27665-5859-443a-9dd2-3f5c18bdb2b7/dimension-disk1.img
qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw watchguard-dimension_2_3_signed-disk2.vmdk \ 
/hybrid/syn-volumes/d7a27665-5859-443a-9dd2-3f5c18bdb2b7/dimension-disk2.img
This operation must be carried out for every VMDK file (see Step 14).
If only one VMDK is present, it should be executed once; if there are three, the process must be repeated three times, accordingly.

Step 26. Attach the disks to the VM (replace <vm_name>, <pool_name>, <volume_id>, <disk1_name>, <device_name1>, <disk2_name> and <device_name2> with the correct information)

virsh attach-disk <vm_name> \
<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/<disk1_name>.img \
<device_name1> --driver qemu --subdriver raw --targetbus scsi --persistent

virsh attach-disk <vm_name> \
<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/<disk2_name>.img \
<device_name2> --driver qemu --subdriver raw --targetbus scsi --persistent

EXAMPLE
virsh attach-disk watchguard-dimension \
/hybrid/syn-volumes/d7a27665-5859-443a-9dd2-3f5c18bdb2b7/dimension-disk1.img \
sda --driver qemu --subdriver raw --targetbus scsi --persistent
virsh attach-disk watchguard-dimension \
/hybrid/syn-volumes/d7a27665-5859-443a-9dd2-3f5c18bdb2b7/dimension-disk2.img \
sdb --driver qemu --subdriver raw --targetbus scsi --persistent
This operation must be performed for each VMDK file.
If there is only one VMDK, it must be run once; if there are three, the process must be repeated three times, accordingly.

Step 27. Login to SynetoOS GUI (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct information)

https://<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 28. From Virtualization menu, click on Virtual machines

Step 29. Check the disks in the Web UI

Step 30. Delete the .ova file

rm -rf /<pool_name>/syn-volumes/<volume_id>/ovafile

EXAMPLE

rm -rf /hybrid/syn-volumes/b2bba9fe-adb1-46c4-a840-69cee19fdb95/ovafile

Step 31. Power-on the VM

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