Dear all,
My company will be closed soon and we need export the finance related VM to keep for several years for audit purpose.
We are using vCenter 5.0 right now. Which format should we used for export VM? OVF or OVA?
There will have chance that the VM need import again and we hope the format will be more favour to be import in the future vCenter after 5-6 years.
Please kindly help.
Ivan
Hello
Can we ask ovftool to mark a machine exported as template on the destination ?
It's working for exporting a template on one vcenter to another, but at destination the template became a virtualmachine.
I didn't find how to force to keep as template or convert it :s
Thanks
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:
I recieve the following error "- Unsupported hardware version: 3". Please assist. Converting a vmx to a ovf. Recieve error when vmx file is opened.
Hi,
I exported a VM from my ESXi 4.0.0 server using ovftool for Windows but the type of NIC seems to have been changed as part of the conversion. It was VMXNET3 on the host but ends up being VMXNET in the OVF.
The export was done as follows..
ovftool --eula@=c:\MyEULA --powerOffSource vi://root:password@esxi4_host/MyVapp d:\dev\vapps\
Snippet from the original .vmx
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"
Snippet from the .ovf that was generated
<VirtualHardwareSection> ...snip.. <Item> <rasd:AddressOnParent>7</rasd:AddressOnParent> <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation> <rasd:Connection>VM Network</rasd:Connection> <rasd:Description>VmxNet ethernet adapter on "VM Network"</rasd:Description> <rasd:ElementName>ethernet0</rasd:ElementName> <rasd:InstanceID>6</rasd:InstanceID> <rasd:ResourceSubType>VmxNet</rasd:ResourceSubType> <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType> ...snip.. </VirtualHardwareSection>
Is this a known issue ? Any workarounds ?
Hi,
I have problems copying a VM from an esxi 3.5 Server to a VMware Server 2 using ovftool. I already created the vm on VMWare server, but that did not help
I am trying with the command line:
ovftool vi://esxiserver/vm vi://localhost:8333/hostname/vm
and get the following error:
Error: Locator does not refer to an object: vi://localhost:8333/hostname/vm
If I use the following command line:
ovftool vi://esxiserver/vm vi://localhost:8333/vm
the error message is:
Error: Found wrong kind of object (VirtualMachine)
I am confused about what to specify for the object. Can somebody please tell me the correct statement for copying the vm over?
Thanks in advance
Dieter
I need access to my deployed virtual machine's serial console, not through a GUI window, but through ssh or telnet. I finally found how to define a serial console so that I can telnet in, which is perfect, but now I'd like to automate the defining of that serial device without using the vSphere Client GUI.
I can define my serial port from the vSphere Client GUI after deploying my VM by powering off the VM, Edit Settings -> Add a Serial Port, check "Connect via Network" -> Network Backing -> Server (VM listens for connections), Port URI = telnet://10.36.0.85:7001, where 10.36.0.85 is my ESXi 4.1 server's IP address and 7001 is a random port. When I power on my VM, I can telnet 10.36.0.85 7001 from a remote system and viola, I have serial console/terminal access.
In the vmx file, I can see
serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.yieldOnMsrRead = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "network"
serial0.fileName = "telnet://10.36.0.85:7001"
The question is, how can I define the above either in the ovf file before I deploy, as I deploy (I'm using ovftool from a remote system), or via a remote command afterwards, e.g. a vSphere CLI command? When I try exporting the ovf template from the vSphere client, I get "Device 'Serial port 1' cannot be exported."
Hello,
I download VMware-ovftool-1.0.0-166674-win.i386.exe,and setup it in D:\Program Files\VMware successfully.
But when I execute the ovftool in this directory , a error mesage pop up " 无法定位程序输入点".
When I reinstall the tool in c:\Program Files\VMware successfully, it execute correctly.
There is no explicit description for the install directory requirement, so I share it with us.
I recently had an issue where I exported a VM as an OVF using the vSphere client, a few weeks later I needed to import the VM back into our environment and after importing I received an "Error loading Operating System" error. I have imported and exported countless VMs as OVF files, and this is very frustrating. I also have VMs sent to me from Government entities and I always express how they should send them as an OVF file since it makes it very easy for me to import. Recently I had 1 out of 3 errors after the import with the same "Error loading Operating System" message.
I have tried to change the HD controller on the VM, I also created a New VM with the "custom" option and I chose the exact OS and vHardware for the VM, and I tried to use the existing .vmdk files and that does not work. I'm just wondering if there is some simple fix out there for what I thought was a simple import and export.
I'm using ESXi 4.1 Update 2 on HP BL hardware...oh, I also have VMware Workstation 8, and I can mount the vmdk files.
Hi All,
Everytime I manually export a VM using vsphere client, I am getting the resultant ovf of much larger size. ( i.e. size of .vmdk's are much larger, increases by 10% everytime )
I looked at various temporary files and log files and deleted them before taking the ovf, but it also doesnt reduces the size significantly.
My vm doesnt do any huge IO on the disks.
Is there a best practice for exporting an ovf .? ( Ex. SLES based vms. )
Thanks
Nikunj
Hey,
Is anybody aware of what network flows exist when deploying an ovf file using ovftool through a vCenter? Right now ovftool is continually erroring out with the following message:
Transfer Failed
Error: Network connection was lost.
Completed with errors
When watching on the vCenter I can see that the virtual machine is created but then it looks like data is never actually transferred. So I know that the initial connection to vCenter is successful.
I'm guessing the initial connection happens with vCenter and then the data transfer occurs directly with the ESX. Would be very appreciative if somebody could confirm this and identify the port that the data transfer happens on.
Thanks,
-Chris
Hi,
Am trying to export an ova from a VM using ovftool. Something along the lines of...
ovftool --prop:Version=100 --privateKey=./id_rsa.pem --eula@=./eula.txt vi://root:mypass@myserver.mydomain.com/myVM ./myOVA.ova
Everything looks good except that I haven't been able to define the 'Product', 'Version' and 'Vendor' that appears in the initial dialog when customers deploy the template into a running ESX / vCenter instance.
Assume this must be a v common question but have not found how this might be done from the ovftool user guide (http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ovf301/ovftool-301-userguide.pdf) or the VMware communities. Closest I've found is http://communities.vmware.com/thread/328504 which indicates that defining a vCenter vApp allow configurable properties to be set.
Is there any way to define these parameters via ovftool? If not, is there a way to hack the .ova manually to define them?
Thanks in advance,
Frank.
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
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
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 used the ovf tool with the export of an ova created in VirtualBox. I am getting an error:
The OVF package requires unsupported hardware.
Details: Line 83: OVF hardware element 'Resource Type' with instance ID 7: No support for the virtual hardware device type '35'.
I am not sure where to go and what value to change it to. Thanks for any advice that you can provide.
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 All,
I have just come across ovftool and was giving a try to it. I am fairly new to VMware world.
I have a .OVF which I exported using vSphere client 4.0. This .OVF comprises of 3 Suse Linux based virtual machines. i.e. I created a vApp on ESX (4.1) host, in this vApp I put my 3 SLES VMs and then exported it as OVF.
It has a total size of around 4.5GB.
Now I ran this command to compress this .OVF as well as gave an option to create deltadisks.
C:\> ovftool --compress=9 --makeDeltaDisks --skipManifestCheck MyVMCluster\MyVMCluster.ovf E:\
output:
{{{
The manifest does not validate
Generating delta disks for 2 disks (capacity 40960 MB)
Reading disks
Disk Transfer Completed
Determining optimal configuration for capacity group
Writing configuration to disk
Disk Transfer Completed
Completed successfully
}}}
Now when I checked my E:\ It had created a folder with the same name and put related files there. I saw a significant reduction in the new vmdk size. ( around 2.3GB now )
Now when I manually deploy this new ovf on vSphere client, it goes till certain %age and then flags an error:
{{{
Error uploading file to server ( E:\MyVMCluster\disk3.vmdk.gz ) Not a supported disk format ( Invalid sparse vmdk header )
}}}
and then it stops and everything rolledback.
Any pointers ?
Thanks
Nikunj
HI guys
I am trying to assign an ip address to a windows VM that i am deploying from ova. i have a few basic questions first
1. I have created a property under advanced in the vapp options (category of ip and value of 10.1.1.1)
Now i want to know how to make the vm take that value ?? Before we go into detail on how to do it via ovftool i have tried to do this using the vmware tools command and nothing happens
vmtoolsd.exe --cmd "info-get guetsinfo.ovfEnv"
I presumed then that this command would take the value from the properties (10.1.1.1) and assign to vm
I am missing something fundamental here - can anyone help ?
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.