I don't think so and I see no option in the user manual - but just wanted to check and see if I had missed anything?

Hello,

I am brand new to the OVF Tool and am currently reading the documentation and experimenting with the utility.

I would like to know if the OVF Tool is a good utility for performing VM backups (copies) in a vSphere environment.

It is not clear, if that is one of the intended uses of the OVF Tool.

How would one accomplish this (backup and restore later) with the OVF Tool command line utility?

1)  Convert vmx config file to ovf (what happens to the original vmx file and the vmdk, vmxf, nvram, etc... files?)

Once you have an ovf package, what is the best way to import it (restore the VM)?  If you use the "Deploy OVF Template" feature in vSphere client, does it launch a wizard that prompts you for all the required meta configuration?  Do you need to remember certain config settings from when you created the OVF package?

Thanks for any insight as I come up to speed with the OVF Tool.

Thanks,

Bryan

Hi, I'm having a problem with ovftool. I'm running ovftool against a ESXi host with a trial license. The command shows the ovf properties that I've set on the commandline, but once I'm on the virtual machine, the ovf environment is not present at all. If I do the deployment through the vSphere client, it works perfectly, same OVA file.

I see the output from ovftool:

--> /prop/ip0 = "192.168.43.159"

--> /prop/ip1 = "192.168.43.185"

but also get the warnings:

Hello:

I am working in a Windows environment with ovftool 3.01.

When running the ovftool in a directory that contains an ovf and a .ovftool file, the ovftool does not seem to pick up the local configuration file.

> ovftool --help config

This will show as "Currently no local configuration options in .ovftool"

I have tried a number of permutations: ".ovftool", "<name>.ovftool", even "ovftool.cfg" on the off chance it is looking for the global name.

But none of these options work.

When I move the file to C:\Documents and Settings\$USERNAME\VMware\ovftool.cfg, which makes it global, it works just fine. So, I know the file is working.

But I am managing dozens of unique OVAs, and so having the local configuration option would be most helpful.

Am I misnaming the local config? Or is this a known bug or linux-only feature?

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi,

We have been trying to create the monolithicSparse Image for the Vapp Ovf using the following OVF Tool command-Line Options

/usr/bin/ovftool --acceptAllEulas -dm=monolithicSparse Test_Vapp.ovf NEW_Vapp.vmdk

But the Ovf tool fails to do the conversion with the following message

Error: OVF Package is not supported by target.

We have also tried validating the Vapp ovf file using the ovftool schemaValidate and did not find any issues with this.

Please let us know if the Ovf tool supports conversion for multiple virtual machines (i.e support for Vapp OVF)

Thanks in advance

OVFTool keeps failing when I try to convert an OVA image to vmdk, since I don't have a domain on our network, a la vi://hostname.domain.

What should I do?

It's a Mitel Linux Image.

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?

Hi,


I have ovftool version (4.0.0).I am trying to create an ovf  of a VM with extra config parameters. How do i specify the exportFlags command line option to allows the config parameters to translate from the VM to the ovf ? The documentation says I need to specify a extraconfig vSphere source .


This works fine : ovftool --allowAllExtraConfig  --extraConfig:ethernet1.coalescingScheme=disabled --extraConfig:ethernet0.coalescingScheme=disabled


but this doesn't : ovftool --exportFlags=extraconfig 


I don't want to add the key:value in the command line , rather pick up these from the VM  I am using to create the ovf.


Is there something that I am missing out ?


Thanks in advance


 

Hi,

When i try to configure deployment job from Jenkins, i am getting

error in command line, Not sure how to find solution, i was able to use the same command from my local system directly from my user account.

This error i am getting after message

Opening OVF source: myfile.ovf

thanks in advance,

vduggirala

I'm trying to use ovftool to automate OVA deployments to vCloud Director 5.1. I have installed ovftool 3.0.1 on Ubuntu and tested out some operations. Everything seems to work except that I always get a segmentation fault when I invoke a vcloud target.

Here is the logging output:

2013-04-12T09:38:22.261-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] [SSL_DB] Using /home/evan/.ovftool.ssldb as SSL DB
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 2 (SIGINT)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 4 (SIGILL)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 6 (SIGABRT)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 8 (SIGFPE)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 15 (SIGTERM)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 1 (SIGHUP)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 3 (SIGQUIT)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 5 (SIGTRAP)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 9 (SIGKILL)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Subscribing to signal: 13 (SIGPIPE)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] OvfTool Version: VMware ovftool 3.0.1 (build-801290)
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Using home directory: /home/evan/.ovftool
2013-04-12T09:38:22.263-07:00 [7F987B01E740 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"
--> /fencedMode = "bridged"
--> /prgPath = "/usr/lib/vmware-ovftool"
--> /source = "vcloud://vclouddirector.intapp.net/"
--> /vCloudTemplate = "false"
-->
2013-04-12T09:38:22.270-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Done initializing libs
2013-04-12T09:38:22.270-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Determining source
2013-04-12T09:38:22.270-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] Determining target
2013-04-12T09:38:22.302-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.617-07:00 [7F986BFFF700 verbose 'Default'] CURL: header data removed
2013-04-12T09:38:22.619-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] VCloud request body:
-->
2013-04-12T09:38:22.641-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] VCloud response body:
--> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
--> <SupportedVersions xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/versions" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/versionshttp://vclouddirector/api/versions/schema/versions.xsd">
-->     <VersionInfo>
-->         <Version>1.5</Version>
-->         <LoginUrl>https://vclouddirector.intapp.net/api/sessions</LoginUrl>
   ... schema output snipped ...
-->
2013-04-12T09:38:22.648-07:00 [7F987B01E740 verbose 'Default'] VCloud version used: 5.1

The end of the strace output:

[pid 15407] munmap(0x7f8b32f7c000, 135168) = 0
[pid 15407] munmap(0x7f8b32f9d000, 135168) = 0
[pid 15407] munmap(0x7f8b3cadb000, 135168) = 0
[pid 15407] write(6, "\25\3\1\0\30B& 2\7\30\3259W0n~(4\216\375\"\35\310c\211{+\350", 29) = 29
[pid 15407] close(6)                    = 0
[pid 15407] brk(0x2c17000)              = 0x2c17000
[pid 15407] brk(0x2c38000)              = 0x2c38000
[pid 15407] write(1, "2013-04-12T09:40:54.198-07:00 [7"..., 882013-04-12T09:40:54.198-07:00 [7F8B3CB7F740 verbose 'Default'] VCloud version used: 5.1
) = 88
[pid 15407] --- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) @ 0 (0) ---
Process 15404 resumed
Process 15407 detached
[pid 15410] +++ killed by SIGSEGV (core dumped) +++
[pid 15409] +++ killed by SIGSEGV (core dumped) +++
[pid 15408] +++ killed by SIGSEGV (core dumped) +++
[pid 15411] +++ killed by SIGSEGV (core dumped) +++
<... wait4 resumed> [{WIFSIGNALED(s) && WTERMSIG(s) == SIGSEGV && WCOREDUMP(s)}], 0, NULL) = 15407
write(2, "/usr/bin/ovftool: line 23: 15407"..., 91/usr/bin/ovftool: line 23: 15407 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) "$OVFTOOL_BIN" "$@"
) = 91
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
--- SIGCHLD (Child exited) @ 0 (0) ---
wait4(-1, 0x7fff27453e98, WNOHANG, NULL) = -1 ECHILD (No child processes)
rt_sigreturn(0xffffffffffffffff)        = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGINT, {SIG_DFL, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x7f70fceb44a0}, {0x43f140, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x7f70fceb44a0}, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, NULL, [], 8)  = 0
read(255, "", 409)                      = 0
exit_group(139)                         = ?

Installed ovftool 3.5 on CentOS 5.9.  Install went without any errors, says Installation Successful.

Running ovftool yields about 5 errors similar to:

/usr/lib/vmware-ovftool/ovftool.bin: /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.9' not found (required by /usr/lib/vmware-ovftool/libvmomi.so)

CentOS 5.9 doesn't support GLIBC 3.4.

The ovftool documentation says it supports CentOS 5 and 6.

What's the problem here?

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!!!

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

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-

Hello

When using ovftool:

# ovftool file.ova file

Opening OVA source: file.ova

The manifest validates

Opening VMX target: file

Error: OVF Package is not supported by target:

- Line 60: OVF hardware element 'ResourceType' with instance ID '3': No support for the virtual hardware device type '7'.

Completed with errors

When trying to deploy ova via vCenter i got similar error:

Details: Line 60: OVF hardware element Resource Type with instance ID 3. No support for the virtual hardware device type 7.

When looking at the xml file i can see that device type 7 is related to the following:

<rasd:Address>1</rasd:Address>

<rasd:Description>VIRTIO Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:ElementName>VIRTIOController 0</rasd:ElementName>

<rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>

<rasd:ResourceType>7</rasd:ResourceType>

How can i make it working ?

Is there any way to exclude that element from ova file ?

Thanks,

Michal

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.

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.

This is driving me crazy! How do you specify which datastore to use when there are multiple?

I ran exactly the same command on a box that had one datastore and it worked fine (as expected). It created the VM folder in the root of the DS and then pulled across the VM from the OVF. However with multiple it just says no target datstore specified. I've tried a million combinations of ?-ds= with square brackets, without. Sometimes it says not found in inventory. I guess it's looking for a folder. But surely this can't be that hard?

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool&gt;ovftool P:\Downloads\PanoManagerVM-2.8.0

-ovf\panomanager.ovf "vi://root@192.168.1.5

Opening OVF source: P:\Downloads\PanoManagerVM-2.8.0-ovf\panomanager.ovf

Warning: No manifest file

Please enter login information for target vi://192.168.1.5/

Username: root

Password: *********

Opening VI target: vi://root@192.168.1.5/

Error: No target datastore specified

Datastores found on target:

  SAN Storage

  storage1

Hi All,

    I have just exported an vApp using ovf from my vCenter v4u2. When I try to import into Vmware Workstation 7.1(running on Window 7 Ent 64bit) I get the following error message "The OVF descriptor file could not be parsed."  I have attached the log.

Cheers!

Hi all,

I am trying to implement an OVF support for some virtualization software, which is using raw images for disks. I use qemu-img to convert raw images to vmdk format. Then I use ovftool to convert ovf file into vmware instance.

When the file I have is a simple ovf descriptor + manifest + disk - all is fine, it works even if I'm using qemu-img without "compat6" option

When the disk is compressed or the OVF package is packed into OVA - there are errors being thrown. Moreover when I create OVA package with no disk, the conversion works.

Here is the fragment of results for the OVA file:

Writing VMX file: test_ova.vmx
[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Using file size as progress measure
Disk progress: 0%[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource as StreamVmdk failed. Exception: Cannot open disk source: Not a supported disk format (sparse VMDK version too old)
Disk Transfer Failed                      
Error: Failed to open source disk: 3f66f54d-a9fa-4aa8-806d-d757d6f34a59.disk0.vmdk
[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Backtrace:
[00] rip 00007f09767453e4 
[01] rip 00007f09765e99d4 
[02] rip 00007f097658e038 
[03] rip 00000000004fef51 
[04] rip 000000000054aaa5 
[05] rip 000000000054ae78 
[06] rip 000000000049c41a 
[07] rip 00007f0974e62c4d 
[08] rip 000000000047ec7a 

[2011-10-03 16:34:35.685 7F097D2C1720 verbose 'ovftool'] Deleting file: ./test_ova-disk1.vmdk

Same fragment when I unpack OVA and then run ovftool on the .ovf file:

Writing VMX file: test_ovf.vmx
[2011-10-03 16:35:53.934 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Using file size as progress measure
Disk progress: 0%[2011-10-03 16:35:53.935 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource as StreamVmdk failed. Exception: Cannot open disk source: Not a supported disk format (sparse VMDK version too old)
Disk progress: 99%[2011-10-03 16:35:54.106 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Ovf::GetFileSource: Opened 3f66f54d-a9fa-4aa8-806d-d757d6f34a59.disk0.vmdk as diskLib source
[2011-10-03 16:35:54.106 7F7E899C4720 verbose 'ovftool'] Opening disk target /xcinstall-1.corp.google.com/VirtualLsiLogicController0:0
Disk Transfer Completed                   
Completed successfully

Thank you.