I have tried everything and having trouble with this command and here is the error I am getting.  I have tried "--network=VM Network" and every option I can think of and those options seems correct because the command does execute, but I get the same results.  The thing is I do not currently need a network adapter installed on this machine after I bring it into the VMWare environment

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool.exe --datastore=EVA1Disk1 --net work="Host Only" c:\Temp\Netscaler\NSVPX-ESX-9.1-101.5.ovf vi://root@128.1.60.200

Opening OVF source: c:\Temp\Netscaler\NSVPX-ESX-9.1-101.5.ovf Please enter login information for target vi://128.1.60.200/ Username: root Password: ********* Opening VI target: vi://root@128.1.60.200/Error: No network mapping specified OVF networks:  NS_NIC_1_1  VM Network Target networks:  Host Only  VM Network

i am using ovftool (verisn 2.01), and i have got some error  as below, anyone ever met these? SOS

(1)

command:"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\ovftool.exe" --X:logToConsole "e:\shared\Windowns2003EServerSp2\Win2003.vmx" "e:\shared\1\Win2003_0.vof"

error information:

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 2 (SIGINT)

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 4 (SIGILL)

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 22 (SIGABRT)

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 8 (SIGFPE)

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 15 (SIGTERM)

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Using home directory C:\Documents and Settings\tom\Application Data\VMware\ovftool.cfg

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.640 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] OvfTool Environment:

/X:fencedMode = "bridged"

/X:imageReadSize = "262144"

/X:logToConsole = "true"

/X:maxNumberOfTermSignals = "5"

/X:maxRedirects = "256"

/X:maximalDeltaConfSize = "8"

/X:maximalDeltaTreeSize = "6"

/X:progressSmoothing = "60"

/X:vimSessionTimeout = "600"

/authdPortSource = "902"

/authdPortTarget = "902"

/prgPath = "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool"

/source = "e:\shared\Windowns2003EServerSp2\Win2003.vmx"

/target = "e:\shared\1\Win2003_0.vof"

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.656 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Done initializing libs

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.656 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Determining source

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.671 03480 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Determining target

Opening VMX source: e:\shared\Windowns2003EServerSp2\Win2003.vmx

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.750 03480 error 'ovftool'] CoreDump: ExternalCoreMaster was not setup

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.750 03480 error 'ovftool'] CoreDump: ExternalCoreMaster was not setup

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.765 03480 info 'ovftool'] CoreDump: Writing minidump

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.843 03480 panic 'ovftool']

Panic: Win32 exception: Access Violation (0xc0000005)

   Read (0) at address 00000000

   rip: 7855b9f0 rsp: 0012fb14 rbp: 0012fb20

   rax: 00000000 rbx: 0012fc78 rcx: 00000000

   rdx: 00000004 rdi: 029a3d38 rsi: 0012fc78

Backtrace:

backtrace[00] rip 01b9936d (no symbol)

backtrace[01] rip 01b06fa4 (no symbol)

backtrace[02] rip 01b07517 (no symbol)

backtrace[03] rip 01bb2d49 (no symbol)

backtrace[04] rip 01bb2e6d (no symbol)

backtrace[05] rip 01ba72f4 (no symbol)

backtrace[06] rip 7857dca0 (no symbol)

backtrace[07] rip 7857d4eb (no symbol)

backtrace[08] rip 7857d8b6 (no symbol)

backtrace[09] rip 7857d9d3 (no symbol)

backtrace[10] rip 7857db8a (no symbol)

backtrace[11] rip 7c9232a8 (no symbol)

backtrace[12] rip 7c92327a (no symbol)

backtrace[13] rip 7c92e48a (no symbol)

backtrace[14] rip 78487155 (no symbol)

backtrace[15] rip 0044661f (no symbol)

backtrace[16] rip 0044aedf (no symbol)

backtrace[17] rip 0040cfba (no symbol)

backtrace[18] rip 0058799b (no symbol)

backtrace[19] rip 7c817077 (no symbol)

Section for VMware Workstation, pid=3292, version=e.x.p, build=build-260188, option=Release

[2011-03-08 14:51:19.843 03480 panic 'ovftool'] Win32 exception: Access Violation (0xc0000005)

   Read (0) at address 00000000

   rip: 7855b9f0 rsp: 0012fb14 rbp: 0012fb20

   rax: 00000000 rbx: 0012fc78 rcx: 00000000

   rdx: 00000004 rdi: 029a3d38 rsi: 0012fc78

(2)

command:"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\ovftool.exe" --X:logToConsole "e:\shared\Windows2003EESp2\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.vmx" "e:\shared\1\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition_0.vof"

error information:

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 2 (SIGINT)

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 4 (SIGILL)

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 22 (SIGABRT)

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 8 (SIGFPE)

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] Subscribing to signal: 15 (SIGTERM)

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Using home directory C:\Documents and Settings\tom\Application Data\VMware\ovftool.cfg

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.281 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] OvfTool Environment:
/X:fencedMode = "bridged"
/X:imageReadSize = "262144"
/X:logToConsole = "true"
/X:maxNumberOfTermSignals = "5"
/X:maxRedirects = "256"
/X:maximalDeltaConfSize = "8"
/X:maximalDeltaTreeSize = "6"
/X:progressSmoothing = "60"
/X:vimSessionTimeout = "600"
/authdPortSource = "902"
/authdPortTarget = "902"
/prgPath = "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool"
/source = "e:\shared\Windows2003EESp2\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.vmx"
/target = "e:\shared\1\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition_0.vof"

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.296 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Done initializing libs

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.296 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Determining source

[2011-03-08 14:51:21.296 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] [ovfTool.cpp] Determining target

Opening VMX source: e:\shared\Windows2003EESp2\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.vmx
[2011-03-08 14:51:21.359 01468 verbose 'ovftool'] OVF Descriptor: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--Generated by VMware ovftool 2.0.1 (build-260188), UTC time: 2011-03-08T06:51:21.359375Z-->
<Envelope vmw:buildId="build-260188" xmlns="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1" xmlns:cim="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/common" xmlns:ovf="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" xmlns:vmw="http://www.vmware.com/schema/ovf" xmlns:vssd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_VirtualSystemSettingData" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <References>
    <File ovf:href="e%3a%5cshared%5cWindows2003EESp2%5cWindows%20Server%202003%20Enterprise%20Edition-cl1-000005.vmdk" ovf:id="file1"/>
  </References>
  <DiskSection>
    <Info>Virtual disk information</Info>
    <Disk ovf:capacity="8" ovf:capacityAllocationUnits="byte * 2^30" ovf:diskId="vmdisk1" ovf:fileRef="file1" ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized"/>
  </DiskSection>
  <NetworkSection>
    <Info>The list of logical networks</Info>
    <Network ovf:name="bridged">
      <Description>The bridged network</Description>
    </Network>
  </NetworkSection>
  <VirtualSystem ovf:id="vm">
    <Info>A virtual machine</Info>
    <Name>Win 2003SP2 Vulnerrability</Name>
    <OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="69" vmw:osType="winNetEnterpriseGuest">
      <Info>The kind of installed guest operating system</Info>
    </OperatingSystemSection>
    <VirtualHardwareSection>
      <Info>Virtual hardware requirements</Info>
      <System>
        <vssd:ElementName>Virtual Hardware Family</vssd:ElementName>
        <vssd:InstanceID>0</vssd:InstanceID>
        <vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>Win 2003SP2 Vulnerrability</vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>
        <vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
      </System>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>hertz * 10^6</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Number of Virtual CPUs</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>1 virtual CPU(s)</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>1</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>3</rasd:ResourceType>
        <rasd:VirtualQuantity>1</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AllocationUnits>byte * 2^20</rasd:AllocationUnits>
        <rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>384MB of memory</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>4</rasd:ResourceType>
        <rasd:VirtualQuantity>384</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>USB Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>usb</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>23</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>scsiController0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>4</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>ideController1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:Description>Floppy Drive</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>floppy0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>6</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceType>14</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:ElementName>cdrom1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>7</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>5</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>15</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>disk1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>8</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>2</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:Connection>bridged</rasd:Connection>
        <rasd:Description>E1000 ethernet adapter on &quot;bridged&quot;</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>ethernet0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>9</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>E1000</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
    </VirtualHardwareSection>
    <AnnotationSection ovf:required="false">
      <Info>A human-readable annotation</Info>
      <Annotation>445端口漏洞服务，未做任何服务安装和修改。

Windows2003 企业版 sp2</Annotation>
    </AnnotationSection>
  </VirtualSystem>
</Envelope>

Opening OVF target: e:\shared\1\Clone of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition_0.vof
Error:

- Line 106: Could not parse the document: 'not well-formed (invalid token)'.

HI,

I'm trying to create an OVF using ovftool 3.0.1. When I issue the ovftool command from the command line I get:

Error: cURL error: Couldn't connect to server
Completed with errors

I used the following command:

/usr/bin/ovftool vi://username:password@XX.XX.XX.XX/datacenter/vm/folder/vmname /destination

I can issue the command as above without the vmname to see if I can access Vsphere and to make sure I have a valid source locator.  The command is successful and returns a list of VMs I can use. When I add the VM name to the source locator path, I get the above error. The VM is pysically about 14GB in size (that is the space alloacted).

I can use the same command to another Vpshere server and I'm successful in creating the OVF. Which leads me to think that it might be a configuration issue with this Vsphere server?

What sorts of issues can lead to the above error?

Thanks,

Fernando

I give; I have spent too long attempting to find the magic decoder ring to get ovftool to do what I expect to be a very basic use case.

My vCenter server is win2k8 R2 node, my host node is RHEL6.3, and my guest in this case is CentOS6.3.

The vCenter server FQDN is vsphere2.foo.com.

The ESX host is las13.foo.com.

The guest is qavm1.foo.com

The Datacenter name is screwy, but appears to be passable with URI character replacements.  The name is "Foo / Bar Network" so I have been using "Foo %2f Bar Network" and quoting any URL string to deal with the spaces.

Examining the Datacenter layout in vCenter client, the path to the vm from which I want to create an OVA is

Foo / Bar Network/QA Guy/las13.foo.com/qavm1

attempting to use ovftool from either the Win2k8 server or my RHEL6.4 development machine results in the same errors.  I have perturbed the syntax of options and paths in so many ways I don't want to list them all here, but the end result is always an incorrect reference or missing object.

Might I grovel for the proper syntax to store a VM guest as an OVA?

Yes...I have devoured the manual mutiple times over...RTFM is my first tenet

Thank you all!

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourcetype=vmx "vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com"

Error: Unknown option: 'sourcetype'

Completed with errors

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=vmx "vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com"

Error: Failed to open file: vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=vmx "vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com/qavm1"

Error: Failed to open file: vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com/qavm1

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com/qavm1"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com/qavm1

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: administrator

Password: *********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/host/

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/host

[root@qavm34 tmp]#

[root@qavm34 tmp]#

[root@qavm34 tmp]#

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Found wrong kind of object (Datacenter). Possible completions are:

  vm/

  host/

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/vm/qavm1"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/vm/qavm1

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/vm/QA Guy/qavm1"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/vm/QA Guy/qavm1

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --sourceType=VI "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com?moref=vim.vm.VirtualMachine:qavm1"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Invalid object type specified (not a ManagedEntity subtype)

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com?moref=vim.vm.VirtualMachine:qavm1"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Invalid object type specified (not a ManagedEntity subtype)

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo / Bar Network/host/las13.foo.com

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool "vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com/Foo %2f Bar Network?ds=[EqualLogic] qavm1/qavm1.vmx"

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: *********

Please enter login information for source vi://vsphere2.foo.com/

Username: Administrator

Password: **********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://Administrator@vsphere2.foo.com:443/Foo %2f Bar Network?ds=[EqualLogic]%20qavm1/qavm1.vmx

[root@qavm34 tmp]# ovftool --version

VMware ovftool 3.0.1 (build-801290)

[root@qavm34 tmp]#

Hi Guys,

I'm getting the below error when using the OVFtool to convert an OVA file to VMX.

Error:

- Line 38: Unsupported value '16' for element 'VirtualQuantity'.

- Virtual machine has 16 virtual CPUs, but the host only supports 8. The number of virtual CPUs may be limited by the guest OS selected for the virtual machine or by the licensing for the host.

I am trying to solve it using the syntax option --viCpuResource=<shares>:<reservation>:<limit>

However I don't know what to denote in the placeholder <shares>

I have also read the OVFtool user guide, but it does not give any info on the viCpuResource option.

Can anyone give me some guidance here?

I'm deploying OVA files to a vCenter using ovftool; it's working perfectly, but I want to go the extra mile and automatically set the hostname of the VM after it is deployed.

I found a reference to a 'hostname' property (--prop:hostname=myvm.example.com), but it doesn't actually work

Here's my command  line

ovftool --lax --acceptAllEulas --datastore=MySAN --overwrite --powerOn --vmFolder=TestFolder --diskMode=thin --powerOffTarget --prop:hostname=myvm.example.comhttp://myurl.com/path/input.ova vi://vcenteruser:password@mycenter.example.com/MyDC/host/MyD/Resources/OVFTest

So what is the proper way to do this?

okay, I know this isn't developed yet, but I thought I would ask about.

first I love VMware workstation, amazing tool. and most VMware products are quick and easy for the average user.

okay to meat of the topic. What would it take to install VMware natively withOUT a host operating system"

hear me out. I really love virtualization, and the option it gives to run ANY OS, but the drawback would be the HOST OS, I WISH there was a way to install a very simple OS that VMware creates or uses, to launch it's workstation. maybe call it "LiteStation". then with the same use of the workstation, load your OS, or OS's in many cases, being able to with such a low foot print might be able to open some doors for new technology.

now, the simple OS, it need limited capabilities, like driver install (preferably win drivers as they are the most common and most ready, but Linux drivers would be the most understandable), limited programs or possibly no program installs. but it need enough to use the full potential of the machine, so x64 would be required along with VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI + acceleration etc.... with no browsers there won't be a need to install much security, just force it to connect, but not use the network connection except to switch it over to bridge the OS's in VM-LS.

I'm sure this software is not out there yet. but think of the possibilities, it would become a 'virtual' boot-loader... running all OS's in a virtual environment, utilizing the max potential of multi-platform. I could see the diminish of speed as we allocate a % of the native hardware for use by the VM's, but still. No longer would dual booting be a norm, having to restart just to use a different OS, but booting both would increase. sure we have native, but sometimes I don't want to mess with Win/Lin/OS just to get to the one I want. and I feel the native OS limits the use of the virtual machine.

or maybe something like this is already running.... I just haven't found out.

Anyways thanks for the listening... who knows maybe VMware might want to implement something like LiteStation in their software arsenal....

Accipitor

Hi all,

I am trying to implement an OVF support for some virtualization software, which is using raw images for disks. I use qemu-img to convert raw images to vmdk format. Then I use ovftool to convert ovf file into vmware instance.

When the file I have is a simple ovf descriptor + manifest + disk - all is fine, it works even if I'm using qemu-img without "compat6" option

When the disk is compressed or the OVF package is packed into OVA - there are errors being thrown. Moreover when I create OVA package with no disk, the conversion works.

Here is the fragment of results for the OVA file:

Writing VMX file: test_ova.vmx
[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Using file size as progress measure
Disk progress: 0%[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource as StreamVmdk failed. Exception: Cannot open disk source: Not a supported disk format (sparse VMDK version too old)
Disk Transfer Failed                      
Error: Failed to open source disk: 3f66f54d-a9fa-4aa8-806d-d757d6f34a59.disk0.vmdk
[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Backtrace:
[00] rip 00007f09767453e4 
[01] rip 00007f09765e99d4 
[02] rip 00007f097658e038 
[03] rip 00000000004fef51 
[04] rip 000000000054aaa5 
[05] rip 000000000054ae78 
[06] rip 000000000049c41a 
[07] rip 00007f0974e62c4d 
[08] rip 000000000047ec7a 

[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Deleting file: ./test_ova-disk1.vmdk

Same fragment when I unpack OVA and then run ovftool on the .ovf file:

Writing VMX file: test_ovf.vmx
[2011-10-03 16:35:53.934 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Using file size as progress measure
Disk progress: 0%[2011-10-03 16:35:53.935 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource as StreamVmdk failed. Exception: Cannot open disk source: Not a supported disk format (sparse VMDK version too old)
Disk progress: 99%[2011-10-03 16:35:54.106 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource: Opened 3f66f54d-a9fa-4aa8-806d-d757d6f34a59.disk0.vmdk as diskLib source
[2011-10-03 16:35:54.106 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Opening disk target /xcinstall-1.corp.google.com/VirtualLsiLogicController0:0
Disk Transfer Completed                   
Completed successfully

Thank you.

I'm trying to use the ovftool to import a OVA file into a ESXi server.  However I get the following error

Error: OVF Package is not supported by target:
- Line 118: Unsupported element 'Property'
Completed with errors

The related lines in the OVF file are:

    <ProductSection ovf:class="vami" ovf:instance="*******">
      <Info>Information about the installed software</Info>
      <Category>Networking Properties</Category>
118-->      <Property ovf:key="gateway" ovf:type="string" ovf:userConfigurable="true">
        <Label>Default Gateway</Label>
        <Description>The default gateway address for this VM. Leave blank if DHCP is desired.</Description>
      </Property>
      <Property ovf:key="DNS" ovf:type="string" ovf:userConfigurable="true">

Based on some initial investigation I have done I beleive this is because the ProductSection is defaulting to required="true" which forces ESXi to use these fields, however ESXi doesn't seem to support this and it errors out as shown above.

The OVA file was generated using ovftoolto export VM in a vcenter instance.  This OVA file imports fine into vcenter, but not ESXi

Is there anyway to configure ovftoolwhen run against vcenter to generate required="false" in the  ProductSection elements?

    <ProductSection ovf:class="vami" ovf:instance="*******" ovf:required="false">
   
Or some otherway to get ovftoolto export a VM from vcenter as an OVA that will import into ESXi?

ovftool 2.1, ESXi 4.1, vCenter 4.1

How to reduce the size of OVF file?

I am very new to OVF template feature and I created an OVF file from windows 7 VM. I created this OVF file from vSphere client (5.1) by using the export template option.

But the size the OVF file is very huge around 12 GB, but only 2GB of space is occupied by installed third party software in that VM. Not sure why OVF file is showing very huge size.

This VM have the configuration with HDD – 80GB (Thin provisioning), RAM – 20 GB and 4 vCPUs. VM belong to the ESX also having another 50 VMs with different configuration. One observation, Windows create a pagefile equal to RAM size in C:\ of the VM, so the overall utilized disk is showing as 40+ GB before export.

I used ovftool with “–compress=9” option, but still it reduced only 1 GB space, also tried with tried different option including acceptAllEulas and chunkSize, but overall size didn’t reduce.

Is there any way to reduce the vmdk file size to less than 5GB?

Hi,

I exported a VM from my ESXi 4.0.0 server using ovftool for Windows but the type of NIC seems to have been changed as part of the conversion. It was VMXNET3 on the host but ends up being VMXNET in the OVF.

The export was done as follows..

 ovftool --eula@=c:\MyEULA --powerOffSource vi://root:password@esxi4_host/MyVapp d:\dev\vapps\ 

Snippet from the original .vmx

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

Snippet from the .ovf that was generated

   <VirtualHardwareSection>
...snip..      <Item>        <rasd:AddressOnParent>7</rasd:AddressOnParent>        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>        <rasd:Connection>VM Network</rasd:Connection>        <rasd:Description>VmxNet ethernet adapter on "VM Network"</rasd:Description>        <rasd:ElementName>ethernet0</rasd:ElementName>        <rasd:InstanceID>6</rasd:InstanceID>        <rasd:ResourceSubType>VmxNet</rasd:ResourceSubType>        <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
...snip..    </VirtualHardwareSection>

Is this a known issue ? Any workarounds ?

Hello,

I am trying to use the ovftool in Linux to export a VM running on ESXi 4.0 to an OVF package with the following syntax:

$ovftool "vi://root@192.168.X.XXX?ds=[datastore1]test-vm/test-vm.vmx" /home/ovfs/test1.ovf

But I always get the error: Datacenter object not found

The path to the vmx file is:

test-vm/test-vm.vmx

If I have a standalone ESXi (no vCenter present) what Datacenter name should I use?, I have tried with "Datacenter", "Default" but nothing seems to work.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Juan Aristizabal.

Hi,

Am I the only one that gets about 10Mbps (Megabits/second), or about 1MB/sec (megabyte/sec) throughput when using the ovftool to import a VM on a 1Gbps LAN?  I would assume there is some type of throttle on the service console network interface, even though I haven't found any evidence from the forums that indicates this is true.  It's just a little strange that we're getting "exactly" 10Mbps.  This happens on multiple vCenter servers and ESX clusters so I'm assuming it's a throttle.  From the one machine I run the ovftool from, I can import to 2 different clusters and get 20Mbps (10Mbps on each).

This is on vCenter 4.0 Update 2 and ESX 4.0 Update 2 (not ESXi) as well as 4.1 versions of these.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Eric

Hello,

I am new to OVFTool  and am having difficulty using it in Terminal on my MacBook Pro to convert an OVA (created by exporting my WinXp virtual machine from within VirtualBox), to a VMX file for use in VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro.

I have installed the OVFTool on my boot drive (partition) which is named "LFP OS", in the folder:  /Library/VMWare/OVFTool/.

I have the OVA file on my data drive (partition) which is named "LFP Data" in the folder: /Virtual Machines/WinXP.ova.

I want to create a virtual machine file (VMX) in the same location as the soure that I can then import into VMWare Fusion.  I have gone through the OVFTool User Guide, forums, Google etc. and cannot get it to work properly.  It may be as simple as my Terminal syntax being off.  Anyway, please help.

Here is what I used in Terminal:

LFP-MacBook-Pro:virtual machines nils$
LFP-MacBook-Pro:virtual machines nils$ pwd
/volumes/lfp data/virtual machines
LFP-MacBook-Pro:virtual machines nils$ ./Volumes/LFP\ OS/Library/VMWare/OVFTool/ovftool /Volumes/LFP\ Data/Virtual\ Machines/WinXP.ova /Volumes/LFP\ Data/Virtual\ Machines/WinXP.vmx
-bash: ./Volumes/LFP OS/Library/VMWare/OVFTool/ovftool: No such file or directory
LFP-MacBook-Pro:virtual machines nils$

Thanks for your time!

Regards,

SBNL

I need to write a script to remotely shotdown a guest VM, export it to .ova format an restart it.

Is there any sample I can start from?

Regards

marius

Greetings friends,

I have installed ovftool on a Linux machine with SLES 11 SP1 x86_64

I am currently experimenting on how to use ovftool, as i'm a total newbie considering it's use.

I currently have a vCenter Server 4.1, with IP 10.20.30.40. There i have the following structure:

10.20.30.40

     MyDataCenter

          Cluster1

          Cluster2

               MyVM

The datastore where the vmx is located is named NAS1

I want to convert this virtual machine to .ovf. But for starters, i would like to probe it. I'm using ovftool 2.1.0 and the user's guide says that the VMX type is supported. I thought to use vSphere Locator with Datastore (ds) query type. So, i execute the following:

ovftool vi://10.20.30.40/MyDataCenter?ds=[NAS1] MyVM/MyVM.vmx

After i'm asked for credentials, i get the following:

Please enter login information for source vi://10.20.30.40/
Username: xxxxxxx
Password: *************
Error: Curl error: Couldn't resolve host name
Completed with errors

Have you seen that before? Am i doing something wrong with the syntax? Or in general, am i using ovftool the wrong way?

Thank you for your help!

Peter

I recently had an issue where I exported a VM as an OVF using the vSphere client, a few weeks later I needed to import the VM back into our environment and after importing I received an "Error loading Operating System" error.  I have imported and exported countless VMs as OVF files, and this is very frustrating.  I also have VMs sent to me from Government entities and I always express how they should send them as an OVF file since it makes it very easy for me to import.  Recently I had 1 out of 3 errors after the import with the same "Error loading Operating System" message.

I have tried to change the HD controller on the VM, I also created a New VM with the "custom" option and I chose the exact OS and vHardware for the VM, and I tried to use the existing .vmdk files and that does not work.  I'm just wondering if there is some simple fix out there for what I thought was a simple import and export.

I'm using ESXi 4.1 Update 2 on HP BL hardware...oh, I also have VMware Workstation 8, and I can mount the vmdk files.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool RHEL5.vmx RHEL5.ova
Opening VMX source: RHEL5.vmx
Error: Failed to open file: J:\root\ISO\RHEL5U1_i386\RHEL5.1-Server-20071017.0-i386-disc3-ftp.iso
Completed with errors

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool RHEL5.vmx RHEL5.ovf
Opening VMX source: RHEL5.vmx
Error: Failed to open file: J:\root\ISO\RHEL5U1_i386\RHEL5.1-Server-20071017.0-i386-disc3-ftp.iso
Completed with errors

Anyone who knows how to fix this error?

Running OVF Tool 3.0.1 on 32 bit CentOS 6 Linux 2.6.32-279.11.1.el6.i686 (download from VMWare site md5sum was checked ok)

Tool starts up fine and is in the process of exporting a VM from one ESXi 4.1 host to another ESXi 4.1 host . 

Tool then crashes with /usr/bin/ovftool: line 23:  7629 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) "$OVFTOOL_BIN" "$@"

hi everyone

im trying to install Solar Winds virtualization manager on my Esxi 3.5.

The appliance is on OVA format.

i got o File--> Virtual Appliance -->Import-->Import the file and i get the next error:  An error occurred while parsing the OVF descriptor: System out of memory exeption.

Then i try to extract the ova file, and i get 4 new files, one of them a OVF. then i try to use it and i get the the next error: An error occurred while parsing the OVF descriptor : Unable to parse xml element ´Envelope´.

This is a OVF version error, 3.5 use a older version of OVF, (0.9 i think).

I dont know how to install this appliance , i hope u can help me.

SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH!!!