Hi All,

    I have just exported an vApp using ovf from my vCenter v4u2. When I try to import into Vmware Workstation 7.1(running on Window 7 Ent 64bit) I get the following error message "The OVF descriptor file could not be parsed."  I have attached the log.

Cheers!

Hey

This is a short writeup on what is needed to import OVF produced with VirtualBox 2.2.4 (and 2.2.2)

You should tell VirtualBox to export in 0.9 format.

By default it produce OVFs for vmx-06 so if you want to import this OVF into VMware vSphere 4 with esx 3.5.x and esx 4.0 hosts

you will have to change this to either :

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for a esx 4.0)

or

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType> (for esx 3.5.x and 4.0 hosts)

If you are using VMware OVF tool to convert it to a vmx for workstation you dont have to change this.

Needed changes to import the OVF with VMware OVF tool.

Change soundcard to non-required (esx boxes do not support virtual soundcards and  the hostresource value is not in the DMTF std for rasd elements)

Change the rasd item to:

<Item ovf:required="false">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>35</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

of if you really need the soundcard to:

<Item ovf:required="true">

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>1</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

(Skip the next if you are converting to a vmx file (used for VMware workstation)) 

Disks on IDE Controllers are only supported by newer VMware products so it will be a good idea to add the following to the OVF

<Item>

<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>10</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>1</rasd:BusNumber>

</Item>

and change the disk to point to this by changing the parent in the disk rasd element e.g.

<Item>

<rasd:Caption>disk1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Disk Image</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>8</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:HostResource>/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>

<rasd:Parent>10</rasd:Parent>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>

</Item>

Will the VM work after the changes? That depends if your vm have driver for the scsi controller etc but atleast you can import it.

Feel free to comment

Using a seperate process (python-vm-builder), I am building an ESX/ESXi compliant image that I have confirmed can be uploaded, imported and started in Workstation, ESX 3.0, ESXi 3.5 and even Server 2.0+.

I'm trying to go into the next step now, and convert this ESXi Image into a single OVF archive for even easier deployments.

Using the latest OVF Tool I have successfully created the new .ovf and zipped it up inside a tar.gz'd.  On my Windows box, I then extract it (using WinRAR), then using 'Import' in VIC try to import it.  When I select the OVF and click next it then throws the below error:

An error occurred while parsing the OVF descriptor

Unable to parse XML element 'Envelope'

What am I doing wrong? 

I have attached both the original VMX and the new OVF.

Please help!

Thank you.

I'm using the OVF 1.0 tool to create a package for deployment to customers.  Included in my command is the --eula@=eulatext.txt  parameter.  When I use this parameter, the tool spends the requisite hour or two to extract and compress the virtual disk drive, but it doesn't create an OVF or MF file.  Without the --eula@= parameter, the OVF and MF files are created as expected.

Through trial and error, I've determined that the OVF 1.0 tool imposes a character limit in the contents of the text file I'm using.  When I cut about half of the EULA text, use of the --eula@= parameter works as expected.  (An error message from the tool would have saved me quite a bit of time determining this.  Checking this before the virtual disks are processed would also have saved hours.)

This is a legal concern.  I need to provide documentation of the character limit to my organization as justification for truncating our EULA.  Does anyone know where VMware or DMTF document this character limit?  I've been unable to locate it.

Having problems installing  VMware-ovftool-2.0.1-260188-lin.i386.sh on a linux host.

When I try to install I get

VMware OVF Tool 2.0 installer script

Copyright VMware 2010

.........extracting archive........

Checksum validation failed for archive.

(If you use FTP, make sure to set it to binary mode)

The MD5 checksum is d14f14ab14f994131cf0d2fad2b318e3 not ff672047cbf2caf725bc1d295c7bbdc0

Am I downloading the wrong file?

Hi I'm wondering if there is an automation tool/command(s) that will allow us (team of developers) to import/use a .iso file that contains 64bit OS and pass it through VMware ESXi or Server and then export it to OVF/OVA?

Is it possible? Can it be done?

Your answers will be very apreciated, many thanks!

I have a compressed OVF file generated by OVF tool using "compress" option. However, I cannot convert the generated ovf file back to vmx. When I run OVF tool to perform conversion, it says "Disk Transfer Failed" and "Error: Failed to open source disk: disk1.vmdk.gz" .Any ideas how I should proceed with this?

I need access to my deployed virtual machine's serial console, not through a GUI window, but through ssh or telnet.  I finally found how to define a serial console so that I can telnet in, which is perfect, but now I'd like to automate the defining of that serial device without using the vSphere Client GUI.

I can define my serial port from the vSphere Client GUI after deploying my VM by powering off the VM, Edit Settings -> Add a Serial Port, check "Connect via Network" -> Network Backing -> Server (VM listens for connections), Port URI = telnet://10.36.0.85:7001, where 10.36.0.85 is my ESXi 4.1 server's IP address and 7001 is a random port.  When I power on my VM, I can telnet 10.36.0.85 7001 from a remote system and viola, I have serial console/terminal access.

In the vmx file, I can see

  serial0.present = "TRUE"

  serial0.yieldOnMsrRead = "TRUE"

  serial0.fileType = "network"

  serial0.fileName = "telnet://10.36.0.85:7001"

The question is, how can I define the above either in the ovf file before I deploy, as I deploy (I'm using ovftool from a remote system), or via a remote command afterwards, e.g. a vSphere CLI command?  When I try exporting the ovf template from the vSphere client, I get "Device 'Serial port 1' cannot be exported."

Hey,

I'm trying to build a utility that builds an OVF, given a flat.vmdk and a .vmdk with the descriptor. But I've found that only streamOptimized disks will export properly, however they only take embedded descriptors. I'm using VSphere 4 to deploy an ovf.

In the ovf, I have the disk format to be ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized". This works perfectly fine until VSphere gets to reading the vmdk file where it gives the error message "Error uploading file C:\path\to\scsi0_0.vmdk to server. I/O exception while reading VMDK header", where the header is,

I guess my question is, does deploying ovfs support any other format other than streamOptimized where I can use a flat.vmdk and a .vmdk?

Thank you,

Kyle

Hi, everyone!

As we know, there are many File in the Reference section. In addtion, an envelope may contain several virtualsystems, each of them describes a virtual machine.

But, how can we know which image file belong to which virtualsystem?

for example

<File ovf:id="base" ovf:href="base.vmdk" ovf:size="180114671"/>
<File ovf:id="webdelta" ovf:href="webdelta.vmdk" ovf:size="123413"/>
<File ovf:id="dbdelta" ovf:href="dbdelta.vmdk" ovf:size="343243"/>

<VirtualSystem ovf:id="WebTier">

how do you know which vmdk does the virtualsystem describes?

Thanks for your answer!

Peter

Running into an issue with ovftool while moving VMs from Linux Workstation to ESXi 4.1 - When running the following command line with the attached vmx:

build@machine:/opt/vm/lab/qa/w7ultrtm-001_ruby18$ ovftool -ds=datastore1 -dm=thin -nw="VM Network" *.vmx 'vi://user:passwor@10.10.10.10'
Opening VMX source: QA7_w7ultrtm-001.vmx
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::logic_error'
  what():  basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid

Terminate process signal received - aborting operation/usr/bin/ovftool: line 23:  7217 Aborted                 "$OVFTOOL_BIN" "$@"

VMX is attached. I've ensured that the vmx file is valid, and that it's been cleanly shut down in workstation.

Any suggestions?

Hi,

I am trying to deploy OVA using ovftool. I see the option --network and --net available for selecting the network by name, though I was not able to find a way to assign a static IP in the ovftool command itself. Something like --ip0=10.10.10.10. Is there a way we can do this? From UI when we deploy an OVA, we have provision to provide IP, Gateway, Netmask and DNS.

Thanks

I want to set some properties to ovf files.

I use ovftool as bellow:

ovftool --prop:ip=10.32.23.123 --prop:dns=255.255.254.0

when this command has been executed without error showing, I still cannot see the property of ovf files.

Then I used ovftool myovffile.ovf

I still can not see the property I want to set.

what should I do?

Hello All,

Would like to submit the possibility of a bug in ovftool 2.1.0.  Keeping things simple, we have a "fileserver" of ovfs/vmdks and our commands to ovftool started breaking after ugrading to 2.1.0 (from 2.0.1).

We dug up the command that prints out the debug info and found the (as our server logs showed), ovftool makes to GET requests to the source URL for the ovf (for whatever reason).  The second of these seems is mal-formatted in 2.1.0.  For comparison, I've also included similar outout from 2.0.1.

Our (neutered) deploy string: /usr/bin/ovftool  --lax --machineOutput --name='vm_test1' --datastore='store1' --net:'NOWHERE'='dev' http://fileserver/file/vm.ovf vi://root:password@esxihost

Get requests (2.1.0):

2011-11-14T16:04:55.413-05:00 [7FB4D5C7B700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: => Send header GET /file/vm.ovf HTTP/1.1

--> User-Agent: VMware-client/4.0.0 (ovfTool; libcurl)

...

2011-11-14T16:04:55.420-05:00 [7FB4D5BF7700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: => Send header GET /file//vm.ovf HTTP/1.1

--> User-Agent: VMware-client/4.0.0 (ovfTool; libcurl)

Apache file server handles the extra slash ok, but our other serving option using Phusion Passenger does not, and returns a 404, which causes ovftool to return

ERROR
+ <Errors>
+ <Error>
+ <Type>ovftool.ovf.descriptor.open</Type>
+ <LocalizedMsg>
+ Failed to open OVF descriptor
+ </LocalizedMsg>
+ </Error>
+ </Errors>

RESULT
+ ERROR

Good get requests (2.0.1):

> GET /file/vm.ovf HTTP/1.1

User-Agent: VMware-client/4.0.0 (ovfTool; libcurl)

...

> GET /file/vm.ovf HTTP/1.1

User-Agent: VMware-client/4.0.0 (ovfTool; libcurl)

Can anyone else confirm or has had similar problems?

hello.

         I create a ova file from my ESXi 5.0.0 with ovftool 2.1.0-467744, then I deploy this ova file into ESXi 5.0.0 is success and work well.

But I can't deploy the same ova file into VMWare Player with ovftool 2.1.0-467744 installed. Why?

         Anybody has any idea? Thanks.

Best Regards,

Hello..

Is it possible to give vCenter appliance ip, gateway, netmask etc via ovftool? Same way as to Orchestrator.

--prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.69  --prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.1  --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.96  --prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.255.0

When running these commands with ovftool, it doesnt give any errors  or anything, but it doesnt pass the variables forward either. Clearly  vCenter appliance doesnt have any "intelligence" for such feature.

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --skipManifestCheck  --datastore=storage-1 --diskMode=thin --name=vcenter --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.69   --prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.1   --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.0.0.96   --prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.255.0

/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.0.0.3324-472350/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.0.0.3324-472350_OVF10.ovf.backup  vi://10.0.0.10

So any tips? Do I need to create some external media and modify the appliance to add it in, which will pass the needed variables to appliance, and script which will run from init.d on start and read those?

-k-

hello, I am stuck.  Any help is much appreciated.

I am simply trying to export an OVF template from a vm (.vmx) in vCenter 4.1.0 using the OVF Tool.

The vm is located here:

<vcenter>/<datacenter>/vm/Build Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

I can probe the object like this:

[root@r2d2 bin]# ovftool vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/Build\ Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

OVF version:   1.0

VirtualApp:    false

Name:          yoshi

Download Size:     Unknown

Deployment Sizes:

  Flat disks:     80.00 GB

  Sparse disks:   Unknown

Networks:

  Name:        CVO VM Network

  Description: The CVO VM Network network

Virtual Hardware:

  Family:       vmx-07

  Disk Types:   SCSI-lsilogic

[root@r2d2 bin]# ovftool vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/Build\ Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/templates/ovf-templates/yoshi.ovf

Opening VI source: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/vm/Build%20Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/vm/templates/ovf-templates/yoshi.ovf

Completed with errors

Can someone help identify the correct target locator?

I have also tried the following host path:

[root@r2d2 bin]# ovftool vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/Build\ Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/host/R\&D

Opening VI source: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/vm/Build%20Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

Opening VI target: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/host/R&D

Error: No target datastore specified. Possible completions:

  DespinaLS

  DevVMs

  NFS Install

  VM template backup

  dominator-nfs-install

  nfs-ds1

  puffinSanMedia

  skillet-ds1

  skillet-ds2

Completed with errors

[root@r2d2 bin]# ovftool vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/Build\ Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/host/R\&D/skillet-ds2

Opening VI source: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/vm/Build%20Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/host/R&D/skillet-ds2

Completed with errors

[root@r2d2 bin]# ovftool vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/vm/Build\ Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi vi://<user>:<password>@helios.blue.roguewave.com/Corvallis/host/R\&D?ds=[skillet-ds2]

Opening VI source: vi://bluoma@helios.blue.roguewave.com:443/Corvallis/vm/Build%20Server/sles11-sp1-x8664/yoshi

Error: Datacenter object not found

Completed with errors

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool  E:\vmdk2008\Windows2008\Windows
2008P2V.vmx   vcloud://suresh:suresh1@10.137.90.73:443?org=Org1-Cloud1&vapp=myVA
PPTets&catalog=cat2&vappTemplate=junk&vdc=OrgVDC-org1-Cloud1
Opening VMX source: E:\vmdk2008\Windows2008\Windows2008P2V.vmx
Error: Missing vappTemplate or vapp key in locator
Completed with errors
'vapp' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'catalog' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'vappTemplate' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'vdc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>

Hello all,

I am having a problem with the ovftool.

Here's what i did.

1)I created a VM running CentOS.

2)These are the 3 files that i got.

Test.vmx

Test.vmdk (Descriptor File)

# Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

CID=5046e880

parentCID=ffffffff

createType="vmfsPreallocated"

# Extent description

RW 83886080 VMFS "Test-flat.vmdk" 0

# The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"

ddb.geometry.cylinders = "83220"

ddb.geometry.heads = "16"

ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"

ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

Test-flat.vmdk

3) This is the command that i ran

ovftool "Test.vmx" "Test_New.ova"

Please help!

Thank you

Using OVFtool 2.1 (seems the download for 3.0.1 is still broken!) to create an ovf, and I need to insert two EULAs.

The command option is --eula@=[path][filename] which is working fine for me.

But I want to have two separate EULAs from two files.  How do I do that with the ovftool command?

I am currently manually editing the xxx.ovf file and inserting the 2nd EULA by hand, which is a pain.  But it works, and when I deploy the OVF to ESXi, I get very nicely prompted for two different EULAs and I have to accept them both to continue.  Exactly as expected.