I am trying to import OVF with custom propery set and getting folling error with vmware ovf tool. Any idea on how to resolve this issue?

Error:

- Line 107: Unsupported element 'Property'

I am trying to create an OVF from a vm in vsphere - I'm running ovftool on a linux machine, and using the following syntax (I got this from the ovftool users guide):

ovftool username@myvcenter.aaa.com/"datacenter name"/vm/vmname /local/path/tostoreit/vnname.ovf

It prompts for a password, I enter the password, and it comes back with:

Opening VI source: vi://username@myvcenter.aaa.com/datacenter name/vmname
Error: Locator does not refer to an object:vi://username@myvcenter.aaa.com/datacenter name/vmname

Incidentally, I get the exact same error when I try using the mac version of ovftool, and the windows version.

Please help - I know this should work. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but I have to get this working pretty fast.

Thank you!!

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

Hi,

Ive read through the pdf and have tried a few different ways but couldnt figure it out. I was curious if anyone could give me an example syntax of deploying an ovf into a resource pool on the target.

Thanks for the help.

Ray

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, 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

Hi All,

I have an ovf package with only one vmdk file of soze 3.3GB. When I am using ovftool with compress=9 option. Its giving me "VMX" of size 5.3GB

{{{

C:\>ovftool --compress=9 MyVM.ovf C:\Users\

Opening OVF source: MyVM.ovf

The manifest validates

Opening VMX target: C:\Users\

Writing VMX file: C:\Users\MyVM\MyVM.vmx

Disk Transfer Completed

Completed successfully

}}}

The Directory C:\Users\MyVM\ contains a .VMX and .VMDK ( 5.3GB size )

Any ideas why this increased size and why .VMX instead of .OVF ?

Thanks

Nikunj

Not sure if I'm not getting the syntax correct, but I am attempting to export a vm in OVF format directly from a ESXi 4.1 host.

I have tried several different commands, but all have failed.

Any help with the Syntax to export the OVF directly from a Host would be greatly apprecaited.

ovftool --compress=9 "vi://host1/ha-datacenter/3PAR-LUN6/server1" "Z:\server1.ovf"

ovftool --compress=9  "vi://host1/DC1/3PAR-LUN6/server1/server1.vmx" "Z:\server1.ovf"

ovftool --compress=9  "https://host1/DC1/server1/server1.vmx" "Z:\server1.ovf"

Hi,

    I have an ova file created for a virtual machines that has 6 virtual disks.  All disks were on different datastores.  When I import that ova I'd like a way for the vdisks to not all end up in one datastore, but on specific datastores.  I'm currently running vSphere 5.1.  My reason for this is that certain datastores are on high performance disks, and I would like the imported VM to also utilize those high performance disks.  There doesn't appear to be a way to edit while doing the import.  There also doesn't appear to be a way to edit the virtual machine and change it's datastores after I have created it.  The last thing I can find to try is to use the datastore browser to move these virtual disks to the appropriate datastores, but looks like an ugly way to do it.  Does anyone have any other ideas on how to do this with ova file?

    I switched to ova files because I wanted a nice compressed package to deliver the my virtual machine examples (they're thick provisioned because I want to encourage our customers to utilize thick provisioned drives).  Any ideas on a better way to distribute these example VM's so that the underlying storge defaults are saved?

                               Thanks for any suggestions,

                                                   Mark

Hi!

I'm trying to to deploy a OVF/OVA file into my vCenter but I'm getting a error message, pls help me.

"Line 61: No space left for device '5' on parent controller '4'."

(Tested to deploy other templates and it worked fine)

Any idea anyone?

I have a setup where I am accessing vCenter and an ESXi host through a NAT layer. If I try to deploy directly to vCenter, ovftool automatically tries to connect to the ip address of the ESXi host behind the NAT layer, which fails.

It looks something like this:

[root@ovfimporter mnt]# date; ovftool --datastore="PayGo Storage" --net:"VLan 4=DedicatedPortGroup_NNNN" CUST/CUST.ovf vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1/Customer\ Datacenter/host/PayGo\ Cluster/Resources/Paygo/NNNN\ \(abc44060-35dc-438a-8c79-6bc7586082ab\)/ ;date

Tue Oct  8 10:18:43 MDT 2013

Opening OVF source: CUST/CUST.ovf

The manifest validates

Enter login information for target vi://10.10.10.1/

Username: matthew.wallace

Password: *********

Opening VI target: vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1:443/Customer%20Datacenter/host/PayGo%20Cluster/Resources/Paygo/NNNN%20(abc44060-35dc-438a-8c79-6bc7586082ab)/

Deploying to VI: vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1:443/Customer%20Datacenter/host/PayGo%20Cluster/Resources/Paygo/NNNN%20(abc44060-35dc-438a-8c79-6bc7586082ab)/

Transfer Failed

Transfer Failed

Error: Lost connection to target

Completed with errors

Tue Oct  8 10:20:19 MDT 2013

Looking at netstat, I saw a hung connection to 443 of one of the ESX hosts in that PayGo Cluster:

In this case, 172.17.0.10 is the "real" IP of one of the esx hosts in the PayGo cluster managed by that vCenter, which I can reach from the client running the ovftool only by using the NAT ip of 10.10.10.100.

So, I tried to specify the external ip of that host. Per the ovftool 3.5 user guide:

Given that, I tried using several syntaxes:

ovftool --datastore="PayGo Storage" --net:"VLan 4=DedicatedPortGroup_NNNN" CUST/CUST.ovf vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1/Customer\ Datacenter/host/PayGo\ Cluster/Resources/Paygo/NNNN\ \(abc44060-35dc-438a-8c79-6bc7586082ab\)/?ip=10.10.10.100

or even just the simplest version to see if I can get a prompt for going further down in the locator tree:

ovftool --datastore="PayGo Storage" --net:"VLan 4=DedicatedPortGroup_NNNN" "vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1/?ip=10.10.10.100"

I invariably get a result like this:

The manifest validates

Enter login information for target vi://10.10.10.1/

Username: matthew.wallace

Password: *********

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://matthew.wallace@10.10.10.1:443/?ip=10.10.10.100

Completed with errors

Outside of the brief mention of the "ip=xxx" param mentioned in the ovftool userguide I've been unable to find any reference to someone successfully using this parameter so I'm uncertain if this is a bug, my not understanding the intention of the parameter as specified in the OVF tool guide, or me using bad syntax.

Using ovftool 3.0.1, I cannot figure out how to escape the backslash character when specifying the username and password in an FTP locator on the command line.

$ ovftool ftp://<DOMAIN>%5C<username>:<password>@<host>/Image.ova

keeps prompting me for the password, even if I repeatedly enter the correct one.

The same thing happens when I specify "ftp://<DOMAIN>%5C%5C<username>:<password>@<host>/Image.ova" instead.

Using the literal backslash character (i.e. <DOMAIN>\<username> or <DOMAIN>\\<username>) results in an error message saying "Error: cURL error: Couldn't resolve host name."

However, if I do not provide any credentials for the locator, ovftool prompts for the username and password. In that case, providing "<DOMAIN>\<username>" does work, though "<DOMAIN>%5C<username>" does not.

Please note that the FTP server unfortunately will not properly authenticate without prepending the domain.

Hi all ...I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this question and I'm hoping someone could plase advise me as to how to do this.

I created a nested ESXi 5.5b VM.The VM is not connected to a vCenter as yet and it may or may not be connected based on whether or not I want to join it to a vCenter or not.

I then set the vAPP options to enable for the VM settings.

I then set various advanced properties for the VM.

I now have a Python script (I named it test2.py) which collects the properties from an OVA during it's deployment , the script then uses the info collected from the properties and applies them in commands at the cli.

I use this info to alter things like the Hostname, DNS, IP and other info inside the VM.

This all works successfully.

I would like to have the script start/run-once at boot time after the vAPP is deployed.

How do I do this ? and where to I place the script ? so that is does not get deleted or destroyed when the ova gets created and then deployed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Den

Hi Everyone,

I was trying to deploy a VM using the ovftool, I thought I would use the properties which are thrown from a "probe" of the OVA file.

ovftool http://server/files/builds/vpas/6.0.0/latest/vPAS-installer.ova

Properties:

  ClassId:     vami

  Key:         gateway

  InstanceId   vPAS

  Category:    Networking Properties

  Label:       Default Gateway

  Type:        string

  Description: The default gateway address for this VM. Leave blank if DHCP is

               desired.

  ClassId:     vami

  Key:         DNS

  InstanceId   vPAS

  Category:    Networking Properties

  Label:       DNS

  Type:        string

  Description: The domain name servers for this VM (comma separated). Leave

               blank if DHCP is desired.

  ClassId:     vami

  Key:         ip0

  InstanceId   vPAS

  Category:    Networking Properties

  Label:       Network 1 IP Address

  Type:        string

  Description: The IP address for this interface. Leave blank if DHCP is

               desired.

  ClassId:     vami

  Key:         netmask0

  InstanceId   vPAS

  Category:    Networking Properties

  Label:       Network 1 Netmask

  Type:        string

After having made sure that such properties exists from the probe, I tried to use them to give the VM a static IP post deployment, automatically.

ovftool --datastore="31_datastore" --acceptAllEulas --ipAllocationPolicy=fixedPolicy --name="vPAS_31_1" --powerOn --prop:ip0="172.16.121.115" --prop:netmask0="255.255.0.0" --prop:DNS="172.16.1.10" --prop:gateway="172.16.1.1" http://server/vpas/6.0.0/latest/vPAS-installer.ova vi://root:password@172.16.121.31/

Opening OVA source: http://server/files/builds/vpas/6.0.0/latest/vPAS-installer.ova

The manifest validates

Opening VI target: vi://root@172.16.121.31:443/

Deploying to VI: vi://root@172.16.121.31:443/

Transfer Completed                   

Powering on VM: vPAS_31_1

Warning:

- OVF property with key: 'DNS' does not exists.

- OVF property with key: 'gateway' does not exists.

- OVF property with key: 'ip0' does not exists.

- OVF property with key: 'netmask0' does not exists.

Completed successfully

Can someone please explain me whether this is a common problem ( from VMware ) or something I am doing wrong?

Thanks,

Hi all,


I have installed ovf tool in my ubuntu server and and used the ovftool command line interface to create vm on the remote server. Now i need to assign an IP address to that VM from the cli. Can someone please let me know how can i do that.?  As we know, we have --nic option in which we can pass IP address i believe. But can someone let me know how to use that command. It will be great help if you could provide me some examples along with this.


Thanks,


Naga./

Hello ,

I used the vcenter 4.1 console to Export OVF Template.  We need to be able to load this template in vmware player.  I downloaded ovftool and tried to convert the OVF template so that it could be run in Vmware player.

This is the command I am issuing to convert the template based off of the OVFTOOL PDF.  This, to my understanding should convert the OVF to a VMX and drop it in the D:\vms folder.  There are 4 disks in this VM server

Input

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool -tt=vmx D:\server_name\server_name.ovf D:\vms\

Output:

Opening OVF source: D:\server\server.ovf
The manifest validates
Opening VMX target: D:\vms\
Warning:
- Target does not support CPU validation.
Error:
-
Completed with errors

Needless to say the VMS folder is getting created but nothing else is being converted. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DS

Hi All,

I'm unable to get ovftool to export a vm from my server that has spaces in the path to the vmx file.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

On the server:

~ # vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

Vmid Name             File Guest                              OS Version     Annotation

112  ar-vm            [sata3] har_vm/har_vm.vmx                rhel5_64Guest  vmx-07

16   eluefin          [sata1] eluefin/eluefin.vmx              rhel4_64Guest  vmx-07

32   igloo (RH5)      [sata0] igloo (RH5)/igloo (RH5).vmx      rhel5_64Guest  vmx-07           

When I try to export "igloo (RH5)":

C:\OVF_Tool>ovftool.exe  --compress=9 --X:logToConsole "vi://root:doublesecret@hoo.lgc.com/ha-datacenter?ds=[sata0] igloo (RH5)/igloo (RH5).vmx" F:\igloo

2013-05-23T12:55:47.089-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] [SSL_DB] Using C:\Users\owjune\AppData\Roaming\VMware\ovftool_SSLDB as SSL DB

2013-05-23T12:55:47.105-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 2 (SIGINT)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.105-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 4 (SIGILL)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 22 (SIGABRT)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 8 (SIGFPE)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 15 (SIGTERM)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] OvfTool Version: VMware ovftool 3.0.1 (build-801290)

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Using home directory: C:\Users\owjune\AppData\Roaming\VMware\ovftool.cfg

2013-05-23T12:55:47.120-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] OvfTool Environment:

--> /X:httpTimeout = "0"

--> /X:imageReadSize = "262144"

--> /X:logToConsole = "true"

--> /X:maxNumberOfTermSignals = "5"

--> /X:maxRedirects = "256"

--> /X:maximalDeltaConfSize = "8"

--> /X:maximalDeltaTreeSize = "6"

--> /X:progressSmoothing = "60"

--> /X:useMacNaming = "false"

--> /X:vCloudEnableGuestCustomization = "false"

--> /X:vCloudKeepTemplate = "true"

--> /X:vCloudTimeout = "3600"

--> /X:vimSessionTimeout = "600"

--> /authdPortSource = "902"

--> /authdPortTarget = "902"

--> /compress = "9"

--> /fencedMode = "bridged"

--> /prgPath = "C:\OVF_Tool"

--> /source = "vi://root:doublesecret@hoo.lgc.com/ha-datacenter?ds=[sata0] igloo (RH5)/igloo (RH5).vmx"

--> /target = "F:\igloo"

--> /vCloudTemplate = "false"

-->

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Done initializing libs

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Determining source

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Determining target

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'HttpConnectionPool-000000'] HttpConnectionPoolImpl created. maxPoolConnections = 20; idleTimeout = 900000000; maxOpenConnections = 20; maxConnectionAge = 0

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Getting http page: https://hoo.lgc.com/sdk/vimServiceVersions.xml

2013-05-23T12:55:47.152-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Proxy host

2013-05-23T12:55:47.167-05:00 [00756 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03816 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] [ViConnection] Using vim API version: 4.1

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [02168 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.183-05:00 [03780 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.198-05:00 [03920 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.198-05:00 [03192 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.198-05:00 [02752 info 'Default'] Thread attached

2013-05-23T12:55:47.245-05:00 [02908 verbose 'HttpConnectionPool-000001'] HttpConnectionPoolImpl created. maxPoolConnections = 1; idleTimeout = 900000000; maxOpenConnections = 1; maxConnectionAge = 0

2013-05-23T12:55:47.261-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Keeping VI session alive

Opening VI source: vi://root@hoo.lgc.com:443/ha-datacenter

2013-05-23T12:55:47.432-05:00 [02908 verbose 'Default'] Backtrace:

--> backtrace[00] rip 000007fef141722a

--> backtrace[01] rip 000007fef12df578

--> backtrace[02] rip 000007fef12e078e

--> backtrace[03] rip 000007fef129266b

--> backtrace[04] rip 000007feeeb0d3d1

--> backtrace[05] rip 000007fef0f703b8

--> backtrace[06] rip 000007fef0f707e9

--> backtrace[07] rip 000007fef0f8efbe

--> backtrace[08] rip 000007feee8b024e

--> backtrace[09] rip 000000013f83824d

--> backtrace[10] rip 000000013f7aca0d

--> backtrace[11] rip 000000013f7ad04a

--> backtrace[12] rip 000000013fa3a426

--> backtrace[13] rip 0000000076b5b1bd

--> backtrace[14] rip 0000000076d66861

-->

Error: vim.fault.FileNotFound

Completed with errors

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?

Hello,

I am using vSphere ESX (4 or 5).

I am writing automatic scripts using esxcfg and ovftool (on windows) commands.

I have some questions:

1. How can i create Resource Pool's? (if it cannot be done using ovftool, is there another way? maybe using esxcfg?)

2. What is the exact syntax of ovftool to deploy under that Resource Pool?

I am looking for something like this:

ovftool --noImageFiles -ds=dsName --net:"Network1"="Network2" --name=MyVM "C:/MyVM.ovf" "vi://user:password@192.168.1.1/Resource/myResource"

or anything else that can help.

Thanks!

erelh

When I try to import an OVF vile created with ovftool 1.0 I get a compatibility error

an error occurred while parsing the ovf descriptor:

unable to parse xlm element ‘Envelope'

I made an ovf file using ovftool 1.0 from a virtual machine I was running on an ESX 3.5 server.

The tool created the file with no problems and when I run the following command I get no error:

ovftool --schemaValidate x:\OVF\clone.ovf

Opening OVF source: x:\OVF\clone.ovf

OVF version:   1.0

Name:          clone (1)

Download Size:     5.14 GB

Deployment Sizes:

  Flat disks:     32.00 GB

  Sparse disks:    8.13 GB

Networks:

  Name:        VM Network

  Description: The VM Network network

Virtual Hardware:

  Family:       vmx-04

  Disk Types:   SCSI-lsilogic

Completed successfully