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,

I am deploying a VM using a OVA format. The  size of OVA format is 60 GB. Currently free space on my datastore is 388 GB.

At the time of selecting Disk Format type if shows me in red that the disk size required is 1 TB therefore you cannot select THICK provisioning.

Therefore, i selected THIN provisiong. It THIN provisioing i am showed that Estimated Disk Usage is 112 GB which is less than the free space available.

But even after selecting THIN proviosing at the time of deployment it throws an error that it cannot create disk as the size of disk is larger than the maximum specified limit. 

My block size is of 1 MB.

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

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

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

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

An error occurred while parsing the OVF descriptor

Unable to parse XML element 'Envelope'

What am I doing wrong? 

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

Please help!

Thank you.

Hi,

I am new to this group and here is my first question.

I have requirement that I need to export the VM as ovf template and give it to my customer.This VM is having Centos with my product installed on it. I have following requirements.

All the services part of my product whould automaticall gets started after importing and powering on this ovf template

Should be downgradable ( From ESXi 5.0 -> Esx4.x version), Not sure its possible.

Please help me with this,

Thanks in advance,

Siva

I have a .ova created supplied to me that I'd like to open on several local copies of VMWare Workstation.

On one machine I am able to open it successfully.

On another using VMWare Workstation I get warnings that the .ova "did not pass OVF specification conformance or virtual hardware compliance checks" and then if I attempt to retry, I get an "Invalid access to memory location."

This is using VMWare Workstation 8.0.0 build-471780 on a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit 6.1.7601, SP 1 machine.

Attempting it with the latest build of OVFtool (2.1.0 build-461994) also fails.

Here's the output of ovftool.exe to the console - suggestions/ideas welcome!

Hi,

I would like to deploy an ovf into my workstation for testing purposes. Is there any way to do that? When I try to import it, I get this:

The import failed because ... ova did not pass OVF specification conformance or virtual hardware compliance checks.

and this (after clicking the "Retry" button):

Line 149: Unsupported element 'Property'.

That specific line contains this:

<Property ovf:key="vamitimezone"

The whole "property" is

<Property ovf:key="vamitimezone"

                ovf:type="string"

                ovf:userConfigurable="true"

                ovf:value="Etc/UTC"

                ovf:qualifiers="ValueMap{&quot;Pacific/Samoa&quot;, &quot;Pacific/Auckland&quot;, &quot;US/Hawaii&quot;, &quot;US/Alaska&quot;, &quot;US/Pacific&quot;, &quot;US/Mountain&quot;, &quot;US/Central&quot;, &quot;US/Eastern&quot;, &quot;America/Caracas&quot;, &quot;America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires&quot;, &quot;America/Recife&quot;, &quot;Etc/GMT-1&quot;, &quot;Etc/UTC&quot;, &quot;Europe/London&quot;, &quot;Europe/Paris&quot;, &quot;Africa/Cairo&quot;, &quot;Europe/Moscow&quot;, &quot;Asia/Baku&quot;, &quot;Asia/Karachi&quot;, &quot;Asia/Calcutta&quot;, &quot;Asia/Dacca&quot;, &quot;Asia/Bangkok&quot;, &quot;Asia/Hong_Kong&quot;, &quot;Asia/Tokyo&quot;, &quot;Australia/Sydney&quot;, &quot;Pacific/Noumea&quot;, &quot;Pacific/Fiji&quot;}">

        <Label ovf:msgid="application.timezone.label"/>

        <Description ovf:msgid="application.timezone.description"/>

      </Property>

It is a 2 VMs OVF (vcOPS). I tried creating the VM and adding the vmdks but there are so many OS errors during OS start-up that I think that maybe (hopefully) there's an easier way to do this.

Any help is more than welcome

Regards,

elgreco81

I am attempting to determine an easy method to deploy .OVA templates for quick provisioning/deployment of VM's.

I have built VM baselines using a development vSphere cluster and exported the VM to .OVA using vSphere client. Those .OVA files reside on a Linux fileserver with ovftool installed on the system and network access to future ESXi and/or vSphere clusters.

Is it possible to 'deploy' the .OVA template from the Linux fileserver directly to a remote ESXi host's datastore and/or vSphere cluster datastore? I cant get it to work.

My OVA file:

[root@centos_lab1 u0]# ls -lha

total 5.9G

drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root 4.0K Jun 28 08:48 .

dr-xr-xr-x. 24 root root 4.0K Jun 25 11:30 ..

-rw-r--r--   1 root root 5.9G Jun 24 10:01 test.ova

Attempting to deploy to ESXi host:

[root@centos_lab1 u0]# ovftool test.ova vi://root:test123@172.16.16.81

Opening OVA source: test.ova

Opening VI target: vi://root@172.16.16.81:443/

Error: No target datastore specified. Possible completions:

  iSCSI-Large

  ESX1_local_datastore

  iSCSI-Equallogic

  fusionio

  Super_ISO

Completed with errors

[root@centos_lab1 u0]# ovftool test.ova vi://root:test123@172.16.16.81/iSCSI-Equallogic/

Opening OVA source: test.ova

Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://root@172.16.16.81:443ha-datacenter/host/esx1.lab.q9.com/Resources/iSCSI-Equallogic/

Completed with errors

Any idea what I am doing wrong here? Is what I am trying to do even possible with ovftool?

I downloaded the latest OVF converter tool but it looks like as per documentation, it cannot convert OVA to VMX?

If yes, how?  If no, how do I?  Thanks

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

hello.

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

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

         Anybody has any idea? Thanks.

Best Regards,

Hi,

I would like to convert VirtualBox 3.2.4 virtual machine to VMWare ESX 4.0.

In VirtualBox I have exported appliance to 0.9 format and then follow the following tutorial: http://www.ctrip.ufl.edu/howto-convert-virtualbox-to-vmware

When executing command "ovftool my.ovf my.vmx" I got the following error:

Opening OVF source: e:\VMW\my.ovf

Warning: No manifest file

Opening VMX target: e:\VMW\my.vmx

Error:

• Line 39: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 40: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 41: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 42: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 43: Unsupported element 'VirtualQuantity'

• Line 37: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 37: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 48: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 49: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 50: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 51: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'

• Line 52: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 45: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 45: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 57: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 58: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 59: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 60: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'

• Line 61: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 54: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 54: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 65: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 66: Unsupported element 'Connection'

• Line 67: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 68: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'

• Line 69: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 63: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 63: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 74: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 75: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 76: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 77: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 71: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 71: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 81: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'

• Line 82: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 83: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 84: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 85: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'

• Line 86: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 79: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 79: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 90: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 91: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 92: Unsupported element 'HostResource'

• Line 93: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 94: Unsupported element 'Parent'

• Line 95: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 88: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 88: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

• Line 99: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'

• Line 100: Unsupported element 'Caption'

• Line 101: Unsupported element 'Description'

• Line 102: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'

• Line 103: Unsupported element 'Parent'

• Line 104: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'

• Line 97: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.

• Line 97: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

Please see attached ovf file.

What should I do? 

Thanks

Hello all,

I am having an issue with deploying an OVF that was exported from VirtualBox. Made sure the steps were followed in this article:

http://www.ctrip.ufl.edu/howto-convert-virtualbox-to-vmware

In short...

- Export as 0.9 version OVF from VirtualBox

- Edit the OVF file and fix the sections noted in the link

- Run the VMWare ovftool [version 2.0.1] against it to convert to vmx or just import direct to ESX host

I die in step three of the list above.

ESX Import Attempt:

C:\PROGRA~1\VMware\VMWARE~2>ovftool.exe --lax -ds=DataStore_CLST01_OS_1 -nw="VLA
N 5 - Access" xxxxx-WUI-1.0.ovf vi://root:xxxxx@esx_server/
Opening OVF source: xxxxx-WUI-1.0.ovf
Warning: No manifest file
Opening VI target: vi://root@esx_server

Error: OVF Package is not supported by target:
- Line 44: Unsupported element 'Caption'

Convert to VMX Attempt:

C:\PROGRA~1\VMware\VMWARE~2>ovftool.exe --lax xxxxx-WUI-1.0.ovf xxxxx-WUI-1.0.
vmx
Opening OVF source: xxxxx-WUI-1.0.ovf
Warning: No manifest file
Opening VMX target: xxxxx-WUI-1.0.vmx
Error:
- Line 44: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 45: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 46: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 47: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 48: Unsupported element 'VirtualQuantity'
- Line 42: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 42: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 53: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 54: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 55: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 56: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 57: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 50: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 50: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 62: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 63: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 64: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 65: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 66: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 59: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 59: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 71: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 72: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 73: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 74: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 75: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 68: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 68: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 79: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 80: Unsupported element 'Connection'
- Line 81: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 82: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 83: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 77: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 77: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 88: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 89: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 90: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 91: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 85: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 85: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 96: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 97: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 98: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 99: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 100: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 93: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 93: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 104: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 105: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 106: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 107: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 108: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 109: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 102: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 102: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.
- Line 113: Unsupported element 'Caption'
- Line 114: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 115: Unsupported element 'HostResource'
- Line 116: Unsupported element 'InstanceId'
- Line 117: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 118: Unsupported element 'ResourceType'
- Line 111: Missing child element 'InstanceID'.
- Line 111: Missing child element 'ResourceType'.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Stupid question

What is the difference between OVA and OVF; I've seen identical files with this 2 extensions.

Is it related with virtual hardware versions (OVA- VM 7, OVF- VM 4).

Hey

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

You should tell VirtualBox to export in 0.9 format.

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

you will have to change this to either :

&lt;vssd:VirtualSystemType&gt;vmx-07&lt;/vssd:VirtualSystemType&gt; (for a esx 4.0)

or

&lt;vssd:VirtualSystemType&gt;vmx-04&lt;/vssd:VirtualSystemType&gt; (for esx 3.5.x and 4.0 hosts)

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

Needed changes to import the OVF with VMware OVF tool.

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

Change the rasd item to:

&lt;Item ovf:required="false"&gt;

&lt;rasd:Caption&gt;sound&lt;/rasd:Caption&gt;

&lt;rasd:Description&gt;Sound Card&lt;/rasd:Description&gt;

&lt;rasd:InstanceId&gt;7&lt;/rasd:InstanceId&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceType&gt;35&lt;/rasd:ResourceType&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;ensoniq1371&lt;/rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;

&lt;rasd:AutomaticAllocation&gt;false&lt;/rasd:AutomaticAllocation&gt;

&lt;rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;3&lt;/rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;

&lt;/Item&gt;

of if you really need the soundcard to:

&lt;Item ovf:required="true"&gt;

&lt;rasd:Caption&gt;sound&lt;/rasd:Caption&gt;

&lt;rasd:Description&gt;Sound Card&lt;/rasd:Description&gt;

&lt;rasd:InstanceId&gt;7&lt;/rasd:InstanceId&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceType&gt;1&lt;/rasd:ResourceType&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;vmware.ensoniq1371&lt;/rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;

&lt;rasd:AutomaticAllocation&gt;false&lt;/rasd:AutomaticAllocation&gt;

&lt;rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;3&lt;/rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;

&lt;/Item&gt;

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

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

&lt;Item&gt;

&lt;rasd:Description&gt;SCSI Controller&lt;/rasd:Description&gt;

&lt;rasd:InstanceId&gt;10&lt;/rasd:InstanceId&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceType&gt;6&lt;/rasd:ResourceType&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;lsilogic&lt;/rasd:ResourceSubType&gt;

&lt;rasd:Address&gt;1&lt;/rasd:Address&gt;

&lt;rasd:BusNumber&gt;1&lt;/rasd:BusNumber&gt;

&lt;/Item&gt;

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

&lt;Item&gt;

&lt;rasd:Caption&gt;disk1&lt;/rasd:Caption&gt;

&lt;rasd:Description&gt;Disk Image&lt;/rasd:Description&gt;

&lt;rasd:InstanceId&gt;8&lt;/rasd:InstanceId&gt;

&lt;rasd:ResourceType&gt;17&lt;/rasd:ResourceType&gt;

&lt;rasd:HostResource&gt;/disk/vmdisk1&lt;/rasd:HostResource&gt;

&lt;rasd:Parent&gt;10&lt;/rasd:Parent&gt;

&lt;rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;0&lt;/rasd:AddressOnParent&gt;

&lt;/Item&gt;

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

Feel free to comment

i installed the OVF tool yesterday, i followed every step in the "OVF Tool User Guide" and when i open the comman prompt and typed "ovftool" its work  but when i retype again i get an error saying "no source of target "specified".  Also, i dont really understand how to use it, what exactly does typing "ovftool &lt;source locator&gt; &lt;destination locator&gt;" do?  what exactly do u type in the brackets?  And can some please post an easy guide on how to make an OVF file.  THANK YOU

I used ovftool (1.0 running in a RHEL 5.2 VM) to create an ovf of a powered off RHEL 5.1 VM.  All was successful and I can probe the OVF without issue.  However, when I try to import it as a virtual appliance using Virtual Center 2.5 Update 5 I receive:

An error occurred while parsing the OVF descriptor:  Unable to parse xml element 'Envelope'

I've attached the ovf file.

Any ideas?

Hi,

is it possible to create OVF 0.9 containing Debian? What is the correct ovf:id code?

I am trying to create OVF that imports into vSphere 4 as Debian (which does support Debian) and is still possible to import through VC 2.5 GUI.

Thanks,

Petr.

I'm trying to convert an VirtualBox OVF that we had prepared to use in a ESX environment, but am recieving errors.  First off, I just want to make sure we are able to do this and secondly if anyone is able to help me resolve the errors.

Initiall I received the following errors.  This is trying to do a conversion directly on the ovf I was given.

E:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop&gt;ovftool debian-server-32bit.ovf debian-s
erver-32bit.vmx
Opening OVF source: debian-server-32bit.ovf
Warning: No manifest file
Opening VMX target: debian-server-32bit.vmx
Error:
- Line 8: Unsupported value 'http://www.vmware.com/specifications/vmdk.html#spa
rse' for attribute 'format' on element 'Disk'.
- Line 37: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 45: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 48: Unsupported element 'AllocationUnits'
- Line 54: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 57: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 58: Unsupported element 'Address'
- Line 63: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 66: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 67: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'
- Line 74: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 75: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 76: Unsupported element 'Connection'
- Line 81: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 84: Unsupported element 'Address'
- Line 89: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 92: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 93: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 94: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'
- Line 99: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 102: Unsupported element 'HostResource'
- Line 103: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 104: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'
- Line 109: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 112: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 113: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 114: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'

After this I tried importing into VirtualBox and then exporting will checking the use Legacy OVF setting.  Which resulted in the following error:

E:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents&gt;ovftool "Debian Server (32bit).ovf"
ian-server-32bit.vmx
Opening OVF source: Debian Server (32bit).ovf
Opening VMX target: ian-server-32bit.vmx
Error:
- Line 82: OVF hardware element 'ResourceType' with instance ID '7': No support
for the virtual hardware device type '35'.

Environment:

- ovftool 2.0.1 (build-260188)

-  ESXi 4.0.0 (244038)

-  ESXi 4.1.0 (260247)

I'm creating an OVA using ovftool from an appliance that's turned off.  It's installed on the ESX 4.1 machine.

When I create the appliance using a self-signed certificate, it deploys correctly on ESX 4.0.

However, the same appliance fails to deploy on the ESX 4.1 device.

I get the following error at 99%:

Failed to deploy OVF package: The request was aborted: The request was canceled.

Any ideas?