When I try to fun ovftool from the terminal I get the error message

'ovftool: command not found'

i.e. m'ovftool Photo_[Work]/VirtualBoxMachines/copyxp\ Base\ V.vmx Photo_[Work]/VBConversions/xpvb.ovf'

???

Thanks.

Pedro

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

Experts,

I downloaded and installed VMware OVF Tool i am running Vmware Workstation 9. I am trying to figure out how to use VMware OVF Tool and create my VMs. Any help with this ?

Regards,

SD

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.

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!!!

Hey,

Is anybody aware of what network flows exist when deploying an ovf file using ovftool through a vCenter?  Right now ovftool is continually erroring out with the following message:

Transfer Failed                      
Error: Network connection was lost.
Completed with errors

When watching on the vCenter I can see that the virtual machine is created but then it looks like data is never actually transferred.  So I know that the initial connection to vCenter is successful.

I'm guessing the initial connection happens with vCenter and then the data transfer occurs directly with the ESX.  Would be very appreciative if somebody could confirm this and identify the port that the data transfer happens on.

Thanks,

-Chris

Hi,

Am trying to export an ova from a VM using ovftool.  Something along the lines of...

ovftool --prop:Version=100 --privateKey=./id_rsa.pem --eula@=./eula.txt vi://root:mypass@myserver.mydomain.com/myVM ./myOVA.ova

Everything looks good except that I haven't been able to define the 'Product', 'Version' and 'Vendor'  that appears in the initial dialog when customers deploy the template into a running ESX / vCenter instance.

Assume this must be a v common question but have not found how this might be done from the ovftool user guide (http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ovf301/ovftool-301-userguide.pdf) or the VMware communities.  Closest I've found is http://communities.vmware.com/thread/328504 which indicates that defining a vCenter vApp allow configurable properties to be set.

Is there any way to define these parameters via ovftool?  If not, is there a way to hack the .ova manually to define them?

Thanks in advance,

Frank.

Hi,

Suppose I have a VM "vm1" with 3 disks "[datastore2] k1/k1.vmdk",   "[datastore2] k1/k1new.vmdk"  and "[datastore2] k1/k1up.vmdk".

I can't identify the correct disk, If I import this VM to my local system using "ovftool".

Output of "ovftool" command : ovftool vi://root:vmware123@192.168.1.26?moref=vim.VirtualMachine:109 .

k1-disk1.vmdk

k1-disk2.vmdk

k1-disk3.vmdk

k1.mf

k1.ovf

See, "ovftool" renamed the disks to "k1-disk1.vmdk", "k1-disk2.vmdk" and "k1-disk1.vmdk".

Have any way to keep the name of the disk ??

Have any way to specify the name for the disk in the "ovftool"  ???

Thanks,

I inserted eula file in ova file by ovftool command "eula@=[filename]".

But i dont know how to insert multi laguage eula.

How do I do that with the ovftool command?

Greetings! Question in regards to OVFtool and how storage file systems are handled in VMWare.

I am using the OVFTool version 2.1.0 (Tried 3.5.0 with not much avail) to export multiple VMDK files or disks in a Virtual Machine (versions 7 and 8) to a multiple OVA files for each - at moment tool allows for consolidation of disks in a partitioned state into ONE OVA - Does anyone know of a work around or undocumented switch which can be used to create X # of virtual disks to X # of OVAs for import into another system?

Copying VMDKs is not a viable option in this case as want to remain with OVA standards.

Thank you!

Hi,

Does anyone know of a way to add .vmx key/value pairs from an OVF?

As in: foo="bar"

As it stands I would have my newly imported OVF use VMware API (with host' ESX credentials) modify the .vmx file after boot but those changes aren't preserved unless the VM is powered down. Catch 22!

Hi,

trying to convert a "SUSEstudio" generated vmdk/vmx to our VI.

I have:

SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmdk

SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmx

christian@chrisw:/srv/ISO/JeOS/SLE_11.1JeOSPHR-0.0.3> ovftool SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmx

Opening VMX source: SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmx

OVF version:   1.0

Name:          SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3

Download Size:     Unknown

Deployment Sizes:

  Flat disks:      4.04 GB

  Sparse disks:   Unknown

Networks:

  Name:        bridged

  Description: The bridged network

Virtual Hardware:

  Family:       vmx-04

  Disk Types:   SCSI-lsilogic

Completed successfully

#####

When I try to convert it to vi (to correct datastore) I'm getting the mentioned error:

so what is the correct syntax ??

christian@chrisw:~/srv/ISO/JeOS/SLE_11.1JeOSPHR-0.0.3> ovftool -ds=CX300-OTC-02 -dm=thick SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmx vi://i000156@vc.icw.int/DC%20OTC

Opening VMX source: SLE_11.1JeOSPHR.x86_64-0.0.3.vmx

Please enter login information for target vi://vc.icw.int/

Username: i000156

Password: ********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://i000156@vc.icw.int/DC%20OTC

DataCenter="DC OTC"

DataSource="CX300-OTC-2"

THX

Chris

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,

I am customizing an OVF template XML by adding OVF properties.  I have a few questions related to validating the properties.

1) If a property doesn't succeed the validation test (say, it falls short of a MinLength check), then I see a red warning right below the field (while deploying the OVF in a vCenter). But the user is still able to proceed and click Submit. Is there a way to stop the user from proceeding when any validation criteria is not met?

2) One of my OVF properties is an FQDN and I am looking for a way to validate the format of the FQDN. I want it to be of the format (hostprefix + domain name). Is there is a way to do so?

Thanks,

Sabareeswar

What is the format of the ovf and what APIs do I use to set the ipaddress of a Vm when deploying it as an ovf?

Hi,

I have an OVF file that refeneces a disk image from a webserver, e.g.:

<File ovf:href="http://myserver/cdrom.iso" ovf:id="file1"/>

When i try to deploy this OVF to a vSphere server, it fails at the disk transfer stage... it looks to me like ovftool is treating it like a local file:

$ ovftool my.ovf vi://root:@172.26.0.172

Opening OVF source: my.ovf

Warning: No manifest file

Opening VI target: vi://root@172.26.0.172:443/

Deploying to VI: vi://root@172.26.0.172:443/

Disk Transfer Failed

Error: Failed to open file: cdrom.iso

Here is the output with logging enabled:

When an OVF is deployed from a local file, does it mean the references also need to be local? I had a quick read of the OVF spec and it seems like file reference can be anywhere... local, relative, http or https... any ideas?

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?

From virtualmachine i have exported .ovf file from the following website http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/how-do-i-convert-virtualbox-files-to-work-with-vmware-workstation/#.

and i recieved the following error in cmd prompt.

can anyone please help me to understand error line 84 and prove me solution .

........................................................................................

Error:

- Line 84: Could not parse the document: 'mismatched tag'

Warning:

- No manifest file found.

Completed with errors.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steps followed:

Step 1: Export your virtual machine

The first step is to export your virtual machine from VirtualBox.

Step 2: Editing your .ovf file

The file you need to edit will be the .ovf file that serves as the descriptor for your virtual machine. You MUST open this in a text editor. Do NOT open it in a word processor as this will add extra characters to the file, which will render it unreadable by either VirtualBox or VMWare. The first section you need to edit is the format section. Look for a line of code (near the top) that contains this phrase:

ovf:format=

What follows that section needs to be changed to:

"http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized"

The next edit (in the same file) is the Virtual SystemType, and it must be one of the following:

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

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

Believe it or not, the next item to edit is the rsad for the sound card. The section will look similar to:

<Item>

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

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

<rasd:InstanceId>6</rasd:InstanceId>

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

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

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

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

</Item>

To the above section, add the following after the first <Item> tag:

<Item ovf:required="false">

Step 3: Using the OVF tool

This step requires you to download and install the VMWare OVF Tool (you will have to log in first). The OVF tool is command-line only, and it will convert your newly prepped .ovf file into a .vmx that VMWare can use. To do this, follow these steps:

• Click Start | Run.
• Type cmd.
• In the command window, change to the directory you installed the OVF Tool into and then issue the command:ovftool appliance.ovf new_appliance.vmx(Where appliance.ovf is the name of the appliance you exported from VirtualBox and new_appliance.vmx is the name you want to give the new virtual appliance. Depending on the size of your virtual appliance, this could take a while.)

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-