Hi,

I have a ESXi 5.0 server running which has a Guest VM running CentOS 5.6.

The ESXi server is a standalone server, not included in a datacenter, not managed by vCenter.

The server has a HDD of 80G which has both the ESXi host & the Guest OS running on top of it.

I installed ovftools on my Windows laptop & tried to create a ovf from the VM but am unsuccessful. I constantly get the following error -

c:\>ovftool vi://root:<rootpassword>@<ESXi Host IP>/datastore1/CentOS c:\testVM.ovf

Error: Cannot parse locater: vi://root:<rootpassword>@<ESXi Host IP>/datastore1/CentOS

Completed with errors

The local datastore name is "datastore1"

Can someone help me out here with forming the correct the ovftool command to create an ovf & possibly an OVA out of the running VM?

Thanks

Bhushan Pathak

When I try to deploy an OVA file from an FTP location I get the following error:

ovftool.http.curl SSL connect error

2016-06-30T01:45:02.824-04:00 verbose [7FABCE9A4700] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Unknown command on stdin:

2016-06-30T01:45:03.001-04:00 verbose [7FABCE9A4700] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Unknown command on stdin:

2016-06-30T01:46:20.928-04:00 verbose [7FABC740A700] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Curl_perform error code 35 (SSL connect error)

2016-06-30T01:46:20.928-04:00 verbose [7FABCE9A67C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] CURL error buffer: Unknown SSL protocol error in connection to ftp.emc.com:21

Is there a way to specify a SFTP location? I tried to provide SFTP but it only accepts FTP/http/https

Any advise is appreciated.

Hi,

I'm trying to convert VM into ovf. But ovftool fails with the message:

./ovftool --powerOffSource vi://administrator:xxxxx@host/?ip=192.168.1.22 myovf.ovf
Opening VI source: vi://administrator@host/
Powering off VM: 0593498732-VM_Name
Error: File sanfs://vmfs_uuid:3c3693e8-f77a642a-1910-5c6bdcb26d3a/packages/4.1.0/vmtools/linux.iso was not found

Could you please help me with the issue above?

Thanks,

Gents ,

Pls bear with me as this will be long post...

I plan to export a Whole DC consisting of some 90 + VM , each VM has it;s Own datastore ( Bad thing i know..will streamline it ) . the esx version ranges from Esx 2.5 to 3.0 to 3.5 to 4.0 and all the VM;s are in same Vcenter ver 2.xx. we need to Migrate these to Vsphere 4 . I plan to use OVF tool for the same. I am a bit concerned about 2.5 . how do i export them. where do i install OVF Tool ( on vcenter server ?? ) on windows hosts ??? ..Datastore on SAN storage .& are presented to ESX via HBA's . how do OVF tool See these Datastores on Windows Hosts ....

Will appreciate if some body can help. tried via documentation but it didnl't helped much..

Regards

Sushil

Hi,

I have built a VM, using VMware Studio in OVA format. I defined some custom OVF environment properties in it.

After I built the VM, I opened the .OVF file to see the property values are appeared correctly. They look like the below

</ProductSection>

I deployed this OVF to a ESXi 4.0 server. Later exported the same VM to OVF format using OVFTool, using the command line

ovftool.exe vi://root:xxxxxxxxxxx@IP/vmname  "d:\Virtual Machines\imported-OVF\newVM.ovf"

After the export, I opened the newVM.OVF file and found that the properties (like product, vendor, version etc.) are not retained.

What could be the issue. Please suggest.

--Hemanth

I have an OVF I'm trying to import into VI (ESX 3.5) and I'm getting the following error:

Error: OVF Package is not supported by target:
- Line 57: No space left for device '7' on parent controller '6'.

Here's the snippet of OVF:

      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:ElementName>IDE 0</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>6</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>piix4</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk disk1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk1</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>7</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>6</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:ElementName>IDE 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>8</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>piix4</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>

Thanks!

Mike

4.2.0 is bundled into the current build of Fusion10:

ovftool --version

VMware ovftool 4.2.0 (build-6230482)

This version has a busted --allowAllExtraConfig flag, so some VMs will not export to OVA, instead you get a slew of errors like this one:

- Line -1: Unsupported value 'disk.EnableUUID' for attribute 'key' on element 'ExtraConfig'.

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

We have requirement to disable the option of Auto upgrade so that user cannot change it. Please provide the option which I can set at vmx file so that ovf will have the option disable.

Is there a way to disable Settings - Options - Vmware Tools - advanced - Check and upgrade Tools with powering cycling ?

Hi VMWare experts,

I am having problem with automation script because the string passed in the ovftool command uses credential vsphere.local\userXYZ instead of just userXYZ

It appears that the backsplash in the 'vsphere.local\user' cause the command line to be misinterpreted, so the automation script that calls ovftool to deploy VMs kept failing.  It erred with "cURL error of ‘couldn’t resolve hostname" even though there is nothing wrong with any hosts or hostname resolution on the network.

On a Win-based vCenter I was able to reconfigure it so that instead of requiring login user format of 'vsphere.local\userXYZ', it will now accept user = 'userXYZ'. 

With that change, ovftool.exe command string is now progress correctly and VMs are deployed. 

I could reconfigure Window-based vCenter to not use just user = userXYZ (instead of vsphere.local\account), but I could not figure out how to get vCSA to stop requiring the format of vsphere.local\userXYZ.

The string segment in the long ovftool.exe command line looked like this …

This works:

"vi://userXYZ:password@tm-vcenter55/DC2-SJ/host/Topology/csg-sj-esxi112.cisco.com"

This does not work:

"vi://vsphere.local\userXYZ:password@lin-vcenter55/DC2-SJ/host/Topology/csg-sj-esxi111.cisco.com"

Is there anyway to configure vCenter Virtual Appliance to use log in format of user = userXYZ instead of user = vsphere.local\userXYZ?   Or is there some way of reformatting the string so that OS can interpret it correctly even with backsplash '\' is used in the string?

Thank you

Charles

The complete ovftool.exe command is shown below:

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\ovftool.exe" --acceptAllEulas --skipManifestCheck --diskMode=thin --name=linsys2-vm1 --deploymentOption=vm_typeA --datastore=EMC-LUN1 --net:"Network Adapter 1"="VLAN 410 - 172.27.14.0/24" --net:"Network Adapter 2"="VLAN 410 - 172.27.14.0/24" --vmFolder=   --prop:cisco_hostname.Proj=linsys2-vm1 --prop:cisco_ip_0.Proj=172.27.14.135 --prop:cisco_dnsDomain.Proj=cisco.com --prop:cisco_netmask_0.Proj=255.255.255.0 --prop:cisco_gateway_0.Proj=172.27.14.1 --prop:cisco_dns1_0.Proj=172.27.200.199 --prop:cisco_dns2_0.Proj=173.36.131.10 --prop:cisco_language.Proj=English v:\ova\projectX_1.0.0.ova "vi://vsphere.local\userXYZ:password@lin-vcenter55/DC2-SJ/host/Topology/csg-sj-esxi111.cisco.com"

Opening OVA source: v:\ova\projectX_1.0.0.ova

The manifest does not validate

Error: cURL error: Couldn't resolve host name

Completed with errors

Installation Done!

I an trying to inport an OVA file in to a precreated folder named test under a datacenter.  I have created a fold under vCenterServer/datacenter/host/test and running the below command.

ovftool --powerOn C:\Images\cur\NAMEHERE.ova vi://Administrator:PASSWORD@192.168.1.100/vCenterServer/datacenter/host/test

When i run this command i get the below output

Opening OVA source: C:\Images\cur\NAMEHERE.ova

Error: Found wrong kind of object (Folder)

I have also tried the same but importing in to a VM folder vCenterServer/datacenter/VM/tes, this gives the same error as above.

What am i doing wrong?

I am trying to sign an OVA using a CA issued EV Code Signing Certificate. This certificate is stored in a USB HSM (Hardware Security Module) and private key cannot be exported. As I understand for the ovftool  "a public/private key pair and certificate that wraps the public key is required". But since keys cannot be exported stored in an HSM, the CA vendor suggested that the signing application must adheres to the PKCS #11 format. Do you know the ovftool supports this? If not what other alternatives are there to sign OVA using a CA issued EV Code Signing Certificate

I'm trying to create an OVA file from an installed VM.  If I try creating it with ovftool 3.5, it downloads everything completely then gives me the following error:

SHA1 digest of file https://172.31.68.10:443/ha-nfc/52cca89a-6cde-c7a7-0810-25ff2197d3d6/disk-1.iso does not match manifest
and then deletes the file(s) it generated.

I am using compress=0 and --noImageFiles so i don't get the install iso.

If I manually go into Edit Settings and remove the cdrom, then 3.5 creates the ova correctly.

If I use ovftool 2.0, it succeeds even without manually removing the cdrom iso.

I've seen posts where users get the same error I do when they are going ova/f to vm and the answer is to delete the manifest.   Since all of the files are deleted after the error message, I don't have the option to delete the locally created manifest.

Is there a way to keep the files around even after a manifest error?

Does anyone know why ovftool 3.5 would fail in this case and 2.0 would word?  Has there been some deprecation between the two of them?

Thanks,
Mike

I just downloaded ovftool and installed it on our vCenter server (VirtualCenter 2.5) .  I'm trying to convert a VMX to OVF and when I run the tool it tries to open the VMX source and then just returns to the command prompt.  No error, no warning, no output at all.

Here is my command and the output:

C:\tmpflux\Symantec_Brightmail_Gateway_8.0>"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\ovftool.exe" Symantec_Brightmail_Gateway_8.0.vmx C\tmpflux\newbm\test.ovf
Opening VMX source: Symantec_Brightmail_Gateway_8.0.vmx

I've tried adding the source type and the target type switches, I've tried just probe mode (not sure if that will work on a VMX machine), I've tried moving the VM files from the network to local machine and tried moving them to another drive on the local machine.  Nothing happens at all.

The VM is a Symantec Brightmail Appliance downloaded from Symantec's site.  The source VMDK is a 2 GB Max Extent Sparse disk.

Is there a verbose switch to ovftool that I can actually see what it's doing or log the verbosity to a file somewhere?  Is the VMX file jacked up?  Am I missing something REALLY obvious?

Thanks for your help,

Flux.

Quick question, has anybody every deployed an ovf file that was created on 5.0 to an older version of vsphere.

We may need to be doing this in the future.  So, this is a preemptive question to see if anybody has had to do this and/or any issues that may arose.

Thank You

So long story short I'm building a self deployment install using a Kickstart script that after the install uses wget to copyy the OVA files to the local data store and then deploys the OVAs, i have the script figured out however i can't seem to get ovftool installed on ESXi 5.5, everytime i try to run it i get the following error

env: can't execute 'bash': No such file or directory

this happens even after making the file executable, here's the whole command

~ # cd /tmp

/tmp # mkdir ovf

/tmp # cd ovf/

/tmp/ovf # wget http://10.10.10.4/OVA/VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-lin.x86_64.bundle

Connecting to 10.10.10.4 (10.10.10.4:80)

VMware-ovftool-3.5.0 100% |*******************************| 40125k  0:00:00 ETA

/tmp/ovf # chmod +x VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-lin.x86_64.bundle

/tmp/ovf # ./VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-lin.x86_64.bundle

env: can't execute 'bash': No such file or directory

/tmp/ovf # sh ./VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-lin.x86_64.bundle

env: can't execute 'bash': No such file or directory

/tmp/ovf # /bin/sh ./VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-lin.x86_64.bundle

env: can't execute 'bash': No such file or directory

I have run across a problem using the below ovftool versions when uploading a VMX to Virtual Center 6.

VMware ovftool 3.5.2 (build-1880279) <- windows Vmware workstation 10

ovftool --X:logFile=ovftool.log --X:logLevel=verbose --noSSLVerify=true --acceptAllEulas --name=servername --datastore=datastoreName --diskMode=thick --network=networkName --vmFolder=Packer output\packer-centos-6.7-v1.vmx vi://user:password@<IPADDRESS>/<DC>/host/<CLUSTER>/Resources/<RESOURCE GROUP>

errors -

windows verbose logging:

2016-01-07T10:10:05.939-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] OvfTool Environment:

--> /X:connectionReconnectCount = "5"

--> /X:connectionReconnectDelay = "5000"

--> /X:connectionReconnectDelayDouble = "true"

--> /X:connectionRetryCount = "10"

--> /X:httpTimeout = "0"

--> /X:imageReadSize = "262144"

--> /X:logFile = "ovftool.log"

--> /X:logLevel = "verbose"

--> /X:maxNumberOfTermSignals = "5"

--> /X:maxRedirects = "256"

--> /X:maximalDeltaConfSize = "8"

--> /X:maximalDeltaTreeSize = "6"

--> /X:progressSmoothing = "60"

--> /X:useMacNaming = "false"

--> /X:vCloudEnableGuestCustomization = "false"

--> /X:vCloudKeepAliveTimeout = "300"

--> /X:vCloudKeepTemplate = "true"

--> /X:vCloudTimeout = "3600"

--> /X:vimSessionTimeout = "600"

--> /acceptAllEulas = "true"

--> /authdPortSource = "902"

--> /authdPortTarget = "902"

--> /datastore = "datastoreName"

--> /diskMode = "thick"

--> /fencedMode = "bridged"

--> /name = "servername"

--> /network = "network name"

--> /noSSLVerify = "true"

--> /prgPath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\OVFTool"

--> /source = "output\packer-centos-6.7-v1.vmx"

--> /target = "vi://user:pwd@<IPADDRESS>/<DC>/host/<CLUSTER>/Resources/<RESOURCE GROUP>"

--> /vCloudTemplate = "false"

--> /vmFolder = "Packer"

-->

-->

2016-01-07T10:10:05.952-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] Done initializing libs

2016-01-07T10:10:05.952-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] Determining source

2016-01-07T10:10:05.952-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] Determining target

2016-01-07T10:10:05.995-05:00 [20544 verbose 'HttpConnectionPool-000000'] HttpConnectionPoolImpl created. maxPoolConnections = 20; idleTimeout = 900000000; maxOpenConnections = 20; maxConnectionAge = 0

2016-01-07T10:10:06.001-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] Getting http page: https://<IP ADDRESS>/sdk/vimServiceVersions.xml

2016-01-07T10:10:06.001-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] Proxy host

2016-01-07T10:10:06.086-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.110-05:00 [19804 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed

2016-01-07T10:10:06.111-05:00 [20544 verbose 'Default'] [ViConnection] Using vim API version: 6.0

2016-01-07T10:10:06.120-05:00 [20544 info 'Default'] CoreDump: Writing minidump

2016-01-07T10:10:06.257-05:00 [20544 panic 'Default']

-->

--> Panic: Win32 exception: Access Violation (0xc0000005)

-->    Read (0) at address 00000000

-->    rip: 0f441a0d rsp: 003af138 rbp: 003af238

-->    rax: 003af458 rbx: 00000000 rcx: 03565410

-->    rdx: 003af2cc rdi: 00000000 rsi: 00000000

Any help is appreciated.

UPDATE:

i've updated the ovftool from 3.5 to 4.1 and it works

4.2.0 is bundled into the current build of Fusion10:

ovftool --version

VMware ovftool 4.2.0 (build-6230482)

This version has a busted --allowAllExtraConfig flag, so some VMs will not export to OVA, instead you get a slew of errors like this one:

- Line -1: Unsupported value 'disk.EnableUUID' for attribute 'key' on element 'ExtraConfig'.

I'm trying to import a OVA file using the tool, but I cannot seem to import it to a datastore cluster. If I don't specify the datastore, I get this:

Error: No target datastore specified. Possible completions:

  DS-CLUSTER1 (datastore cluster)

    - DATASTORE1

    - DATASTORE2

  DS-CLUSTER2 (datastore cluster)

    - DATASTORE3

    - DATASTORE4

So I try adding the datastore cluster to my command: ovftool --acceptAllEulas --datastore="DS-CLUSTER1" "c:\path\to\vm.ova" vi://user:pass@vcenterip/dc/host/cluster/Resources/resource

But it comes back with the error: Found no hosts in target cluster to deploy on. Cannot deploy to an empty cluster.

I tried with the datastore name rather than the datastore cluster name and it still fails. Any ideas?

Thanks.

I am building a Docker Container that runs the 4.2.0 Linux 64 bit Ovftool in an OpenSuse 42.3/SLES12 SP3 environment and when I run my command inside the container I get the following error and segfault:

2018-12-10T23:44:16.520Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Using VIM API version: 6.0

2018-12-10T23:44:16.522Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Determine if server is a standalone host or vpxd

2018-12-10T23:44:16.522Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VI API type: VirtualCenter

2018-12-10T23:44:16.522Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Login to server based on username and password

2018-12-10T23:44:16.522Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Setting VI connection message locale (via login) to:

2018-12-10T23:44:16.523Z verbose OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] [SigHandler] Signal caught: 6

 

 

Terminate process signal received - aborting operation2018-12-10T23:44:16.523Z panic OVFTool[7F63529AE7C0] [Originator@6876 sub=Default]

-->

--> Panic: PANIC bora/lib/unicode/unicodeCommon.c:329

-->

--> Backtrace:

--> [backtrace begin] product: VMware Workstation, version: e.x.p, build: build-5965791, tag: OVFTool, cpu: x86_64, os: linux, buildType: release

--> backtrace[00] libvmacore.so[0x0036C8E4]: Vmacore::System::Stacktrace::CaptureFullWork(unsigned int)

--> backtrace[01] libvmacore.so[0x001C7E64]: Vmacore::System::SystemFactoryImpl::CreateBacktrace(Vmacore::Ref<Vmacore::System::Backtrace>&)

--> backtrace[02] libvmacore.so[0x00369954]

--> backtrace[03] libvmacore.so[0x00369A5D]: Vmacore::PanicExit(char const*)

--> backtrace[04] libvmacore.so[0x001952F4]

--> backtrace[05] libvmacore.so[0x00195398]

--> backtrace[06] ovftool.bin[0x00442905]

--> backtrace[07] ovftool.bin[0x00229F40]

--> backtrace[08] ovftool.bin[0x0022A0F1]

--> backtrace[09] ovftool.bin[0x0025DD17]

--> backtrace[10] ovftool.bin[0x0025F93D]

--> backtrace[11] ovftool.bin[0x001CF44F]

--> backtrace[12] ovftool.bin[0x001577E7]

--> backtrace[13] libc.so.6[0x00020725]

--> backtrace[14] ovftool.bin[0x00160BA9]

--> [backtrace end]

Aborted (core dumped)

However when I run the exact same command I am able to deploy the OVA Template just fine to my vCenter. I am running the command with the following parameters (I have deleted the password related args etc).

ovftool --X:logToConsole=True --X:logLevel="verbose" --targetSSLThumbprint=XXX  --diskMode=thin -ds=03_data --name=myTemplate --network="VM Network" --overwrite myTemplate.ova vi://MY_USER_NAME:MY_PASSWORD@myVcenter.com/ImageBuilding/host/TestCluster/cs333333

My theory on why it's not working is that certain Environment Variables or Libraries are missing inside my container however I have not been able to identify which ones are erroring out exactly.