Export your VM from its virtualization environment
After you have prepared your VM for export, you can export it from your virtualization environment. When importing a VM as an image, you can import disks in the following formats: Open Virtualization Archive (OVA), Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX), and raw. With some virtualization environments, you would export to Open Virtualization Format (OVF), which typically includes one or more VMDK, VHD, or VHDX files, and then package the files into an OVA file.
For more information, see the documentation for your virtualization environment. For example:
-
VMware — Search for "Export an OVF Template" on the VMware Docs
site. Follow the instructions for creating an OVA. -
Citrix — Importing and Exporting VMs
on the Citrix website. -
Microsoft Hyper-V — Overview of exporting and importing a virtual machine
on the Microsoft website. -
Microsoft Azure — Download a Windows VHD from Azure
or Download a Linux VHD from Azure on the Microsoft website. From the Azure Portal, choose the VM to migrate, and then choose Disks. Select each disk (either OS or data) and choose Create Snapshot. On the completed snapshot resource, choose Export. This creates a URL that you can use to download the virtual image.