This script takes a never-booted DMG and converts it to a VMware Fusion VM.

The germ of this idea came about, as all good ideas, and germs, do: while drinking beer. Specifically, I was tossing back drinks and tossing around ideas with Gilbert Wilson, and he mentioned that he uses the VMware CLI tools to convert DMGs to VMDKs based on a blog post he'd read. Intrigued, I asked Gil to email me the specifics. After seeing how potentially cool this was, I wrapped it up in this here terribly illegible, queasingly unpythonic script.

My thanks to Rich Trouton for testing this script for me and providing feedback. He is a saint among humans.

• VMware Fusion 7.x Professional
• OS X 10.9.5+ (compatible with 10.10)
• A never-booted image created with your favorite image creation tool.
• I've only tested with 10.9.5 and 10.10. YMMV

usage: vfuse [-h] [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [-n NAME] [-w HW_VERSION]
             [-t TEMPLATE]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        /path/to/dmg
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        /path/to/output/dir
  -n NAME, --name NAME  custom name
  -w HW_VERSION, --hw-version HW_VERSION
                        VMware hardware version
  -t TEMPLATE, --template TEMPLATE
                        use a template

Running vfuse does not necessarily require sudo rights, but if you don't want to be prompted in the GUI for an admin password, run it with sudo. Escalated privileges is required to run the vmware-vdiskmanager binary, which vfuse uses.

The only required argument is -i aka --input. Run thusly, it will create a vm called osx-vm.vmwarevm in the current working directory:

sudo ./vfuse -i /path/to/OSX10.9.5_13F34.dmg

If you give it a URL, it will mount the dmg over the network.

sudo ./vfuse -i http://org.server.com/path/to/dmg

Alternatively, you can redirect the output directory, and/or give your VM a specific name:

sudo ./vfuse -i ~/Downloads/OSX10.9.5_13F34.dmg -o ~/vmtesting -n osx-mav

To use a custom virtualHW.version setting, i.e. for use with ESXi, use the -w argument

sudo ./vfuse -i ~/Downloads/OSX10.9.5_13F34.dmg -o ~/vmtesting -n osx-mav -w 10

Templates are simple json files that allow for automation and version control. The templating format is simple:

{
    "input": "/path/to/dmg",
    "output": "/path/to/output/dir",
    "name": "custom-name",
    "cache": false,
    "hw_version": 11
}

If you are using an http resource for the source DMG and cache is true, vfuse will cache the DMG in ~/.vfuse/ and will consult that directory before downloading the dmg again.

Copyright 2014 Joseph Chilcote

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.