Re: [Qemu-block] VMDK file unable to open in Qemu but ESXi

[Fam Zheng]

On Mon, 09/26 13:52, Peter Lieven wrote:
> Am 26.09.2016 um 13:34 schrieb Fam Zheng:
> > On Mon, 09/26 12:56, Peter Lieven wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > 
> > > i have a VMDK file for a Cisco Prime software appliance that I cannot 
> > > open in Qemu, Virtualbox or any other tool except
> > > 
> > > for ESXi. Qemu exits with an invalid footer message. At the expected 
> > > position and also at the end of the file seems to be
> > > 
> > > no footer. The VMDK has a -flex in the filename? Is this anything new 
> > > that we can't handle in Qemu?
> > Looking at the code path it's possible that the image is not compliant to 
> > the
> > spec, or using a newer version number that QEMU doesn't support. Could you
> > hexdump the first and the last sectors for me to check?
> 
> Sure, here we go
> 
> address@hidden:~/git/qemu$ ls -la /work/PI-VA-3.1.0.0.132-flex-disk1.vmdk
> -rw------- 1 lieven lieven 3792931840 Apr 11 05:44 
> /work/PI-VA-3.1.0.0.132-flex-disk1.vmdk
> 
> address@hidden:~/git/qemu$ head -c4096 
> /work/PI-VA-3.1.0.0.132-flex-disk1.vmdk | hexdump -C
> 00000000  4b 44 4d 56 03 00 00 00  01 00 03 00 00 00 9f 24 |KDMV...........$|
> 00000010  00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|
> 00000020  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 |................|
> 00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff |................|

                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This offset means a footer is used.

In vmdk_50_technote.pdf:

> The footer should be the last block of the disk and immediately followed by
> the end‐of‐stream marker so that they together occupy the last two sectors of
> the disk.

which is the format of streamOptimized format, matching what the embedded
descriptor says:

> 00000040  80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 0a 20 0d 0a 01 00 00 |.......... .....|
> 00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
> *
> 00000200  23 20 44 69 73 6b 20 44  65 73 63 72 69 70 74 6f  |# Disk Descripto|
> 00000210  72 46 69 6c 65 0a 76 65  72 73 69 6f 6e 3d 31 0a |rFile.version=1.|
> 00000220  43 49 44 3d 36 65 32 37  64 38 31 65 0a 70 61 72 |CID=6e27d81e.par|
> 00000230  65 6e 74 43 49 44 3d 66  66 66 66 66 66 66 66 0a |entCID=ffffffff.|
> 00000240  63 72 65 61 74 65 54 79  70 65 3d 22 73 74 72 65 |createType="stre|
                                                                          ^^^^
> 00000250  61 6d 4f 70 74 69 6d 69  7a 65 64 22 0a 0a 23 20 |amOptimized"..# |

                                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^

<snip>

> 00000d00  00 00 00 00 ed 08 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d10  00 00 00 00 f3 08 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d20  00 00 00 00 f9 08 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d30  00 00 00 00 ff 08 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d40  00 00 00 00 05 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d50  00 00 00 00 0b 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d60  00 00 00 00 11 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d70  00 00 00 00 17 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d80  00 00 00 00 1d 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |......q.........|
> 00000d90  00 00 00 00 23 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....#.q.........|
> 00000da0  00 00 00 00 29 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....).q.........|
> 00000db0  00 00 00 00 2f 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |..../.q.........|
> 00000dc0  00 00 00 00 35 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....5.q.........|
> 00000dd0  00 00 00 00 3b 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....;.q.........|
> 00000de0  00 00 00 00 41 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....A.q.........|
> 00000df0  00 00 00 00 47 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....G.q.........|
> 00000e00  00 00 00 00 4d 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....M.q.........|

But the last sector is not the expected EOS marker.

> 00000e10  00 00 00 00 53 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....S.q.........|
> 00000e20  00 00 00 00 59 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....Y.q.........|
> 00000e30  00 00 00 00 5f 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |...._.q.........|
> 00000e40  00 00 00 00 65 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....e.q.........|
> 00000e50  00 00 00 00 6b 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....k.q.........|
> 00000e60  00 00 00 00 71 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....q.q.........|
> 00000e70  00 00 00 00 77 09 71 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....w.q.........|
> 00000e80  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
> *
> 00001000
> 
> Peter
> 

So it looks like this file is not compliant to the specfication. Is it
recognized and imported by VMware?

Fam