Cloud architect Andrija Panić has released OpenVDDK, an open-source replacement for the VMware library used by backup and migration software to read virtual disks. VMware restricted public downloads of its Virtual Disk Development Kit in August, limiting access to partners and making it harder to install or run tools that depend on it. Those tools include virt-v2v, nbdkit, migration projects for Kubernetes and OpenShift, Proxmox VE, and custom scripts. Panić argues that moving or protecting data should not depend on access to VMware’s download site. OpenVDDK is written from scratch in Go, with a small C layer that provides the same library name and interface as VMware’s libvixDiskLib. It can read disks, but not write them, and is licensed under Apache.
Panić reports successful tests against vSphere 6.7, 7.0, 8.0 and 9.1, including matching disk reads through vCenter on a standalone ESXi host. Independent testers have also reported using it for cold and warm migrations to KubeVirt, through OpenShift’s migration toolkit, in a Proxmox pipeline, and with nbdkit-based tools. He says production users include a German cloud provider migrating a large file server and a US company moving to Apache CloudStack and KVM, while cautioning that these reports are not audited endorsements or guarantees. Other migration options exist: OpenNebula’s OneSwap, Nutanix Move without VDDK, and a Red Hat workaround. OpenVDDK could give these projects another route around VMware’s restricted library.
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