| 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic
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| 3 | PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 4 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="virtual-media-manager">
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| 5 | <title>The Virtual Media Manager</title>
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| 6 |
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| 7 | <body>
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| 8 | <p><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> keeps track of all the hard disk, CD/DVD-ROM,
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| 9 | and floppy disk images which are in use by virtual machines. These are often referred to as <i>known media</i> and
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| 10 | come from two sources: </p>
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| 11 | <ul>
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| 12 | <li>
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| 13 | <p>All media currently attached to virtual machines. </p>
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| 14 | </li>
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| 15 | <li>
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| 16 | <p>Registered media, for compatibility with legacy <ph
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| 17 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> versions. </p>
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| 18 | </li>
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| 19 | </ul>
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| 20 | <p>The known media can be viewed and changed using the <b outputclass="bold">Virtual Media Manager</b>
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| 21 | tool, which you access by clicking <b outputclass="bold">Media</b> on the global <b outputclass="bold">Tools</b>
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| 22 | menu in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>. </p>
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| 23 | <fig id="fig-virtual-media-manager">
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| 24 | <title>The Virtual Media Manager, Showing Hard Disk Images</title>
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| 25 | <xref href="images/virtual-disk-manager.png" format="png" platform="htmlhelp">
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| 26 | <image href="images/virtual-disk-manager.png" width="12cm" placement="break">
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| 27 | <alt>The Virtual Media Manager, Showing Hard Disk Images</alt>
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| 28 | </image>
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| 29 | </xref>
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| 30 | <image platform="ohc" href="images/virtual-disk-manager.png" width="12cm" placement="break">
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| 31 | <alt>The Virtual Media Manager, Showing Hard Disk Images</alt>
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| 32 | </image>
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| 33 | </fig>
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| 34 | <p>The known media are conveniently grouped in separate tabs for the supported formats. These formats
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| 35 | are: </p>
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| 36 | <ul>
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| 37 | <li>
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| 38 | <p>
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| 39 | Hard disk images, either in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s own Virtual Disk
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| 40 | Image (VDI) format, or in the third-party formats listed in
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| 41 | <xref href="vdidetails.dita#vdidetails"/>.
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| 42 | </p>
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| 43 | </li>
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| 44 | <li>
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| 45 | <p>
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| 46 | CD/DVD images in standard ISO format.
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| 47 | </p>
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| 48 | </li>
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| 49 | <li>
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| 50 | <p>
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| 51 | Floppy images in standard RAW format.
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| 52 | </p>
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| 53 | </li>
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| 54 | </ul>
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| 55 | <p>For each image, the Virtual Media Manager shows you the full path of the image file and other
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| 56 | information, such as the virtual machine the image is currently attached to. </p>
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| 57 | <p>The Virtual Media Manager enables you to do the following: </p>
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| 58 | <ul>
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| 59 | <li>
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| 60 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Add</b> an image to the known media. </p>
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| 61 | </li>
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| 62 | <li>
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| 63 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Create</b> a new disk image. </p>
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| 64 | <ul>
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| 65 | <li>
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| 66 | <p>For hard disks, the <b outputclass="bold">Create Virtual Hard Disk</b> wizard is shown.
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| 67 | See <xref href="create-virtual-hard-disk-image.dita#create-virtual-hard-disk-image"/>. </p>
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| 68 | </li>
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| 69 | <li>
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| 70 | <p>For optical disks, the <b outputclass="bold">VISO Creator</b> tool is shown. See <xref
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| 71 | href="create-optical-disk-image.dita#create-optical-disk-image"/>. </p>
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| 72 | </li>
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| 73 | <li>
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| 74 | <p>For floppy disks, the <b outputclass="bold">Floppy Disk Creator</b> tool is shown. See
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| 75 | <xref href="create-floppy-disk-image.dita#create-floppy-disk-image"/>. </p>
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| 76 | </li>
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| 77 | </ul>
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| 78 | </li>
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| 79 | <li>
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| 80 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Copy</b> an image to create another one. </p>
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| 81 | <p>For virtual hard disks, you can specify one of the following target types: VDI, VHD, or VMDK. </p>
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| 82 | </li>
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| 83 | <li>
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| 84 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Move</b> an image to another location. </p>
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| 85 | <p>A file dialog prompts you for the new image file location. </p>
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| 86 | <p>When you use the Virtual Media Manager to move a disk image, <ph
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| 87 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> updates all related configuration files automatically. </p>
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| 88 | <note>
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| 89 | <p>Always use the Virtual Media Manager or the <userinput>VBoxManage modifymedium</userinput>
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| 90 | command to move a disk image. </p>
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| 91 | <p>If you use a file management feature of the host OS to move a disk image to a new location,
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| 92 | run the <userinput>VBoxManage modifymedium --setlocation</userinput> command to configure the new path of
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| 93 | the disk image on the host file system. This command updates the <ph
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| 94 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> configuration automatically. </p>
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| 95 | </note>
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| 96 | </li>
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| 97 | <li>
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| 98 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Remove</b> an image from the known media. You can optionally delete the
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| 99 | image file when removing the image. </p>
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| 100 | </li>
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| 101 | <li>
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| 102 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Release</b> an image to detach it from a VM. This action only applies if
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| 103 | the image is currently attached to a VM as a virtual hard disk. </p>
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| 104 | </li>
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| 105 | <li>
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| 106 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Clear</b> all inaccessible disk images from the list. The disk images are
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| 107 | released from the VMs they are attached to and removed from the known media. </p>
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| 108 | <note>
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| 109 | <p>
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| 110 | This option is for optical disks and floppy disks only.
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| 111 | </p>
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| 112 | </note>
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| 113 | </li>
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| 114 | <li>
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| 115 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Search</b> for an image by name or UUID. </p>
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| 116 | </li>
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| 117 | <li>
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| 118 | <p>View and edit the <b outputclass="bold">Properties</b> of a disk image. </p>
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| 119 | <p>Available properties include the following: </p>
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| 120 | <ul>
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| 121 | <li>
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| 122 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Type:</b> Specifies the snapshot behavior of the disk. See <xref
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| 123 | href="hdimagewrites.dita#hdimagewrites"/>. </p>
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| 124 | </li>
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| 125 | <li>
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| 126 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Location:</b> Specifies the location of the disk image file on the
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| 127 | host system. You can use a file dialog to browse for the disk image location. </p>
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| 128 | </li>
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| 129 | <li>
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| 130 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Description:</b> Specifies a short description of the disk image. </p>
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| 131 | </li>
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| 132 | <li>
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| 133 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Size:</b> Specifies the size of the disk image. You can use the
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| 134 | slider to increase or decrease the disk image size. </p>
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| 135 | </li>
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| 136 | <li>
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| 137 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Information:</b> Specifies detailed information about the disk
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| 138 | image. </p>
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| 139 | </li>
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| 140 | </ul>
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| 141 | </li>
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| 142 | <li>
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| 143 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Refresh</b> the property values of the selected disk image. </p>
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| 144 | </li>
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| 145 | </ul>
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| 146 | <p>To perform these actions, highlight the medium in the Virtual Media Manager and then do one of the
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| 147 | following: </p>
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| 148 | <ul>
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| 149 | <li>
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| 150 | <p>Click an icon in the Virtual Media Manager toolbar. </p>
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| 151 | </li>
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| 152 | <li>
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| 153 | <p>Right-click the medium and select an option. </p>
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| 154 | </li>
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| 155 | </ul>
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| 156 | <p>Use the <b outputclass="bold">Storage</b> page in a VM's <b outputclass="bold">Settings</b> window to
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| 157 | create a new disk image. By default, disk images are stored in the VM's folder. </p>
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| 158 | <p>You can copy hard disk image files to other host systems and then import them in to VMs from the host
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| 159 | system. However, some Windows guest OSes may require that you configure the new VM in a similar way to the old
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| 160 | one. </p>
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| 161 | <note>
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| 162 | <p>Do not simply make copies of virtual disk images. If you import such a second copy into a VM, <ph
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| 163 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> issues an error because <ph
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| 164 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> assigns a universally unique identifier (UUID) to each disk
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| 165 | image to ensure that it is only used one time. See <xref href="cloningvdis.dita#cloningvdis"/>. Also, if you
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| 166 | want to copy a VM to another system, use the <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> import and
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| 167 | export features. See <xref href="ovf.dita#ovf"/>. </p>
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| 168 | </note>
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| 169 | </body>
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| 170 |
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| 171 |
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| 172 |
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| 173 | </topic>
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