This is quick post to document an error I had when trying to import an OVA into my VMware Workstation 14.

Upon importing the virtual machine, I got the following message:

Invalid target disk adapter type: pvscsi.

I was able to get this to work after googling around and indirectly applying a tip from William Lam’s Blog, “Workarounds for deploying PhotonOS 2.0 on vSphere, Fusion & Workstation“.

The secret sauce was to use the “ovatool “, using it I was able to extract and convert the OVA to an OVF.

C:\Users\Wences Michel\Documents\vmw\vmc\t1>”C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\OVFTool\ovftool” –allowExtraConfig t1.ova t1.ovf
Opening OVA source: t1.ova
The manifest validates
Warning:
– Line -1: Unsupported value ‘vmware.tools.internalversion’ for attribute ‘key’ on element ‘ExtraConfig’.
– Line -1: Unsupported value ‘vmware.tools.requiredversion’ for attribute ‘key’ on element ‘ExtraConfig’.
Opening OVF target: t1.ovf
Writing OVF package: t1.ovf
Transfer Completed
Completed successfully

Then I was able to use my editor to search for “VirtualSCSI” and edit the OVF, changing a line in the file to reflect “lsilogic” instead.

Line Before Change:  <rasd:ResourceSubType>VirtualSCSI</rasd:ResourceSubType>

Line After Change: <rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>

You will then need to delete the .mf file as original checksum has changed since you edited the file.  I then recreated the OVA and successfully imported the OVA.

C:\Users\Wences Michel\Documents\vmw\vmc\t1>”C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\OVFTool\ovftool” –allowExtraConfig t1.ova t1.ovf
Opening OVA source: t1.ova
The manifest validates
Warning:
– Line -1: Unsupported value ‘vmware.tools.internalversion’ for attribute ‘key’ on element ‘ExtraConfig’.
– Line -1: Unsupported value ‘vmware.tools.requiredversion’ for attribute ‘key’ on element ‘ExtraConfig’.
Opening OVF target: t1.ovf
Writing OVF package: t1.ovf
Transfer Completed
Completed successfully

I then opened VMware Workstation and opened the OVA and it imported with no issue.