"Unsupported specified file format" when importing VM as an image from S3

Question

I'm trying to import a VM image from S3 to create an EC2 image from it. I'm following this documentation:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmimport-image-import.html

I tried to import a VMDK, then an OVA, then again a VMDK but created differently, and none of this worked. In all case, I'm getting the following error:

> "ClientError: Disk validation failed [Unsupported specified file format]",

This is full output:

```
{
    "ImportImageTasks": [
        {
            "Description": "web-srv",
            "ImportTaskId": "import-ami-xxxxxx",
            "SnapshotDetails": [
                {
                    "DiskImageSize": 0.0,
                    "Status": "completed",
                    "Url": "s3://path/to/image.vmdk"
                }
            ],
            "Status": "deleted",
            "StatusMessage": "ClientError: Disk validation failed [Unsupported specified file format]",
            "Tags": []
        }
    ]
}
```

This error doesn't appear to be documented, and the documentation is not clear how an image compatible with the `ec2 import-image` command can be created.

Any idea what can be done? Is it possible to get a detailed error message for example? Or some detailed instructions on how to create an image that will work with AWS?

Answer

Hi,

Please, follow this page to prepare a VM export properly in order to import into EC2: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmimport-image-import.html

This guidance applies to VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure as source environments.

Best,

Didier

Answer

Encountered similar message previously.
I resolved it by converting VMDK to VHD format using a free V2V converter software.

Answer

Thank you, but as you can see in my post this is the post I've been following. I did manage to successfully run all the commands so I think everything is setup properly, except that AWS fails to import the image at the end

"Unsupported specified file format" when importing VM as an image from S3

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