[Locke1689]

I think the biggest problem right now is the lack of standardization of formats. I know that when I was writing sections in our VMM we didn't really think about VM formats. The thing is that your data representation tends to be heavily influenced by the VMM design and therefore VMMs with different designs tend to have different data formats. Hypothetically it's possible to develop a standardized format, but we'll see how far that goes practically.

[stanleydrew]

VMWare's open virtualization format is making progress on this front: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/getting-started/learn/ovf.h...

[Locke1689]

Not really. The fact that they have a standard that only they use doesn't mean all that much. When Xen or KVM adopt it then I may call that progress.

[patrickg-zill]

XenServer (the version from Citrix/XenSource) has the ability to convert OVF; natively, they use the Microsoft-derived VHD format.

[Locke1689]

That's true -- I forgot about that. The one caveat to that is that it is primarily targeted by the XenServer product: Xen, KVM, and QEMU tend to use the qcow or raw formats. I'm also worried about new features coming out from one or the other VMMs that aren't supported by the current format. Without an established way for anyone to adapt the format, I'm not sure it will provide a long term solution. I do have a specific feature in mind, but unfortunately you will have to wait for the colleague's PhD thesis to find out about it ;)