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,
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.
Hi everybody,
I'd like to change the hardware version during an export using ovftool. Is there a way to specify it ?
I've seen the "--maxVirtualHardwareVersion" but I'm unable to understand how to use it. I can't find any documentation on the supported syntax anywhere.
Any advice ?
Jean-Baptiste
I'm using the ovf tool to convert a virtual appliance to virtual machine format and getting a memory size limitation error based on the OVF source. The source ovf file specifies 4GB of memory for guest OS:
Error:
- Virtual machine has 4,096 megabytes of memory, which is outside the range of 4 to 3,600 megabytes supported on the host. This may be a general limitation of the host software, or specific to the guest OS selected for the virtual machine.
The work around is to edit the source ovf file and decrease the RAM size to 3 GB and conversion works fine. But I'm curious why this limitation is occuring. Is 3,600 MB the maximum virtual memory size supported byVMware workstation or server?
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool --machineOutput --acceptAllEula
s --verifyOnly E:\vmdk2008\Windows2008\Windows2008P2V.vmx vcloud://suresh:suresh1@10.137.90.73:443?vapp=my_test1_tempst1_temp
ERROR
+ <Errors>
+ <Error>
+ <Type>ovftool.system.error</Type>
+ <LocalizedMsg>
+ Incorrect login: vcloud://10.137.90.73/
+ </LocalizedMsg>
+ </Error>
+ </Errors>
RESULT
+ ERROR
But my login credentials are correct(VCD user details). Do I need to do any thing specifically
I am atempting to connect to a vcloud instance to download an OVF and no matter what I cannot authenticate. Even if I manually input the userid and password it continues to prompt for them. I have creayed a userid and password specifically for this task local to the vcloud and the password and username don't conatin ANY special characters.
Any ideas?
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'm experiencing a coredump when attempting to deploy an OVA into vCenter 5.0.0. I have downloaded the OVA to the Windows 7 PC locally and have run the ovftool from that path as follows:
ovftool --X:logToConsole=true --X:logLevel="verbose" --name=ovf-test --datastore=datastore-local-113 --network=VLAN-603 MVF-ver-2_OVF10.ova "vi://Administrator:**********@10.45.99.10/MitelDesignCenter/host/VLabCluster-03 (Intel G6, stand-alone)/10.45.12.113"
The verbose output looks like this:
2012-01-13T11:45:23.595-05:00 [04492 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 2 (SIGINT)
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]#
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>ovftool E:\vmdk2008\Windows2008\Windows
2008P2V.vmx vcloud://suresh:suresh1@10.137.90.73:443?org=Org1-Cloud1&vapp=myVA
PPTets&catalog=cat2&vappTemplate=junk&vdc=OrgVDC-org1-Cloud1
Opening VMX source: E:\vmdk2008\Windows2008\Windows2008P2V.vmx
Error: Missing vappTemplate or vapp key in locator
Completed with errors
'vapp' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'catalog' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'vappTemplate' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'vdc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>
Hi,
We currently are building a vmx using packer via either vmware workstation or vmware fusion, depending on whther it's running on ubuntu or a mac. When the vmx is either converted into an OVF, it maintains the network + nat i.e. connectiontype=nat etc. Despite passing in --vCloudTemplate when uploading it to vcloud, the template once uploaded still seems to maintain the network so when we provision. the "nat" is transposed into being an actual network name.
ovftool --version
VMware ovftool 4.0.0 (build-2060496)
Is the version i am using. I am not sure if when generating the ovf via ovftool with --vCloudTemplate whether the ovf generated should transform or whether it's purely just when you pass to vcloud:// protocol If the former, then i can test locally without uploading it.
Even using --nw:none causes it to want to find a network called "none".
This is becoming very inflexible for managing different images in different ways, if there isn't a consistent way of creating an image suitable for vcloud director. Is there something we should be doing, we don't want to be editing the vmx directly, however, that's basically what it is going to boil down to.
Any help gladly welcome.
What is the difference between OVF 1.0 and 0.9 version? I would be interested in knowing about the major enchancements made in the newer versions and thereby the advantages of the same.
Thanks in advance
Hello,
I am trying to migrate a VM from a my VMWare Server 2 to my ESXi 3.5 Server. I probably should say, that I have just the VMware infrastructure client running in a VMware Server 2 VM running XPPro.
OK, I can create a .ovf-file from the source, but I have problems inserting it into the destination.
I tried it using the VI-Client, but has problem with the envelope, because it can read only version 0.9 files.
So I have to import it using the vi:// option of ovftool. And that is where I have my problems.
I tried the following:
ovftool <ovf-File> vi://user:pass@esxi-host -> Error: Datacenter object not found
ovftool <ovf-File> vi://user:pass@esxi-host/ha-datacenter -> Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://root@esxi-host/ha-datacenter (I found that ha-datacenter when I created a VM.)
BTW, the ovftool is running on Linux, I am using the XP just because of the non-existant Linux VI-Client.
I also tried connecting to the VI-Client machine, but the connection gets refused, probably because I don't know, what ports are used, if this is the ciorrect way to go.
Can somebody please tell me, what I am doing wrong. What parameters do I have to pass to ovftool, so it imports the VM to ESXi? Does the VM has to exist in the ESXi-Server before doing the import?
Thanks in advance
Dieter
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:
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.
I have a compressed OVF file generated by OVF tool using "compress" option. However, I cannot convert the generated ovf file back to vmx. When I run OVF tool to perform conversion, it says "Disk Transfer Failed" and "Error: Failed to open source disk: disk1.vmdk.gz" .Any ideas how I should proceed with this?
I am trying to deploy a VM into ESXi 4.1 from .ova template using
ovftool. My ESXi is having two datastores:- datastore1 and datastore-2.
This is the syntax I am using:-
ovftool.exe --name=test -nw="VM Network" -ds="datastore1" CentOS.ova vi://10.102.143.30
It is shows the following messages:-
Opening OVA source: CentOS.ova
Please enter login information for target vi://10.102.143.30/
After entering the login information nothing happens. It returned me the prompt. It also doesn't print any error message.
Below is my ova file information obtained by probing:-
Opening OVA source: CentOS.ova
OVF version: 1.0
Name: CentOS
Download Size: 1.72 GB
Deployment Sizes:
+ Flat disks: 30.00 GB+
+ Sparse disks: 4.69 GB+
Networks:
+ Name: VM Network+
+ Description: The VM Network network+
Virtual Hardware:
+ Family: vmx-07+
+ Disk Types: SCSI-lsilogic+
Warning: No manifest file
Completed successfully
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
OVFTool fails with manifest issue of ova format, enclosed the command used and the output
ovftool C:\DevVM\Appliance\TestDev.ova C:\DevVM\TestDev\TestDev.vmx
Opening OVA source: C:\DevVM\Appliance\TestDev.ova
Opening VMX target: C:\DevVM\TestDev\TestDev.vmx
Writing VMX file: C:\DevVM\TestDev\TstDev.vmx
Disk Transfer Failed
Error: SHA1 digest of file TestDev-disk1.vmdk does not match manifest
I am using VMware ovftool 2.0.1 (build-260188). Any help and/or pointers appreciated. Thanks.
Hi all,
I have a problem in deploying Suse OVF image, built using Susestudio.
while deploying the OVF, there's a default SuSE Eula which comes up.
using --acceptAllEulas doesn't seem to accept it automatically.
This Eula blocks my automation work.
Did any of you face this issue ??
Any help/workaround would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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?