Guide for Virtual Appliance Import

What to do with .ova and .zip file after Download?

You have downloaded a so-called VM (virtual machine) image of Univention Corporate Server (UCS) or any app appliance offered in the Univention App Catalog, and selected VMware or VirtualBox as format. This guide shows what to do next with the downloaded files and how to get the VM images started as a virtual machine.

For UCS the files look like this:

  • For VirtualBox: UCS-Virtualbox-Demo-Image.ova
  • For VMware: UCS-VMware-Demo-Image.zip

Download and install the hypervisor

VirtualBox and VMware are both hypervisors that can be downloaded from the product pages:

Select the appropriate version for your operating system, download and install it. Please refer to the product’s documentation for more details on the installation.

Import the image to the hypervisor

After you have downloaded the VM image, downloaded and installed the hypervisor, you can import the pre-built appliance and run it. The steps differ depending on the used hypervisor.

VirtualBox

Step 1: Open VirtualBox

Screenshot of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. You can see the heading “Welcome to VirtualBox!”

Step 2: Import the VM image

Import the VM image by selecting the downloaded file, accepting the software license agreement and start the import.

1. Select “Import Appliance”

2. Select the VM image file downloaded before

3. Confirm the VM image settings

Screenshot of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. The import of the appliance is selected under the “File” tab.
Screenshot of the Software License Agreement for the Univention Corporate Server. Reference is made to the button for consent.
Screenshot of the virtual appliance import. The VirtualBox settings are imported.

4. Agree the image‘s Software License Agreement

5. Import progress

Screenshot of the Software License Agreement for the Univention Corporate Server. Reference is made to the button for consent.
Screenshot of the import of the UCS Demo VirtualBox Disk

Step 3: Start the virtual machine

1. VirtualBox after VM image import

Screenshot of Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager for UCS. UCS 4.3 is switched off.

2. UCS boot loader after VM image start

Screenshot of Oracle VM VirtualBox. The Univention Corporate Server is selected.

VMware Workstation Player

Step 1: Unzip the downloaded VMware appliance file

Unzip the downloaded VMware appliance file to a folder of your choice. The archive contains a subfolder. For example the Vmware appliance with UCS contains the following files in the subfolder “UCS-Demo-Image”:

  • UCS-Demo-Image.vmdk
  • UCS-Demo-Image.vmxf
  • UCS-Demo-Image.vmx
  • UCS-Demo-Image.vmsd

Step 2: Import the VM image

Import the VM image by selecting the downloaded file and start the import.

1. Click on “Open a Virtual Machine”, select the subfolder of the extracted files, and open the UCS-Demo-Image.vmx file.

Screenshot of VWware Workstation 12 Player. The “Home” start screen is shown. The window has four options, of which “Open a Virtual Machine” is selected.
Screenshot von Open Virtual Machine. Abgebildet ist die Datei namens UCS Demo-Image.vmx, welche geöffnet wird.

2. Click on “Power On” to start the virtual machine and run the pre-installed UCS system.

Screenshot of the VWware Workstation 12 Player. UCS 4.3 is selected
Screenshot of the VMware Workstation 12 Player. The Univention Corporate Server is selected.

Note for users of Linux Desktops: VMware Workstation Player version 14.1 has a bug opening the virtual machine. Please follow the instructions in the Univention Forum.