VMware Communities : All Content - Open Virtualization Format Tool

ovftool coredumped

klassenvmware — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:50:16 GMT

We expect the next version to be released about the same time as the next version of vSphere.

Kristian

how to change ovf exported from vsphere to be compatible with workstation?

zoomprofile — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:51:13 GMT

Thank you, i know where was problem. I try with ovf tool and import was successful. And when I look into configuration it create vmware workstation 5 virtual machine format. Now I'm trying to import it from ovf 0.9 directly to workstation to 5 format.

and what about vmware ready? it is sufficient to have OVF format from vSphere export for certify ? of course with taking test from vmware ready matrix.

OVF 0.9 with Debian

balous — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:05:08 GMT

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.

Deploy OVF template with monolithicFlat VMDKs

NarayanVenkat — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:51:48 GMT

I am currently trying to deploy a OVF template that points to a VMDK of createType=monolithicFlat. At the time of deployment I get an error ..

Failed to deploy OVF package: The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error

There are other posts in this forum that point to incorrect sizes in the OVF file as one of the potential issues. But none of these seem to correspond to VMDKs of monolithicFlat type. I have listed below the References and DiskSection of my OVF file and VMDK file descriptor. I will appreciate it if someone can point out potential errors.

<References>
<File ovf:href="disk.vmdk" ovf:id="Disk" ovf:size="1073741824"/>
</References>

<DiskSection>
<Info>Virtual disk information</Info>
<Disk ovf:diskId="Disk" ovf:fileRef="Disk"
ovf:capacity="1073741824" ovf:capacityAllocationUnits="byte"
ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized" />
</DiskSection>

# cat disk.vmdk

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="UTF-8"
CID=67632d29
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="monolithicFlat"

# Extent description
RW 2097152 FLAT "disk-flat.vmdk" 0

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "7"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "2080"
ddb.geometry.heads = "16"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "ide"

Thanks

Task was canceled by user - ovf package and vShpere

stefaanv — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:00:48 GMT

I have seen the same problem, can anybody help me with this?

Thanks,

Stefaan

Unsupported element 'Property'

Divyen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Issue resolved. Thanks to Rene, for the clarification.

See the comments in this blog entry.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vapp/2009/07/commandline-ovf-deployments-.html

I was trying to deploy OVF package which has some custom properties directly to ESX server using OVF tool. Via vCenter its uploading fine with the same command line tool.

Regards,

Divyen Patel

OVF imports but gives disk error on power-on

aandriolli — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:27:17 GMT

Fellows,

We just imported an .ova file using the vSphere Client GUI
successfully. But when we try to power on the VM, the VM console only shows
"A disk error" and nothing else. This is a time-sensitive production
pilot and does not look good!

Anyone experienced this before? Couldn't find anything on
the topic.

The .ova was created using the same version of vCenter at
another site.

thanks

When will OVF support disk reference paths and not embed disk data into mgiration file?

Schorschi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:26:20 GMT

Common disk formats already exist, VHD and VMDK, so that is not the issue, the issue is disk encapsulation. Want the option to migrate VM, but not have to encode and decode the VM disks since they are already in the correct or common location. Others have tried this, in fact, I have tried tricking the OVF import application/tools from VMware to do this, but direct edit of the OVF files breaks the self validation method integrated into the OVF file format. So the logical next step is to get this concept integrated into the standard. Per my reasoning, theremore, there is no need for creating or establishing a common disk format since VHD and VMDK are sufficient for the migrations expected, so this feature would seem to be a very simple addition to OVF specification. The fact that a common datastore reference path feature does not already exist, is driven, by the fact that common disk formats would not exist, and yet they do, or if you will, not a common disk format but a format that is supported across multiple vendors.

Unsupported hardware

Eske — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:01:16 GMT

you could use converter but even better is to use ovftool to deploy the ovf.

We have a blog post about using ovftool at: ovftool cmdline options

But basically you just do

ovftool PATH_TO_OVF.ovf vi://USERNAME@VC_HOSTNAME/DATACENTER_NAME/

eske

URGENT ---- Connection time out with Virtual Center

pietroC — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:15:12 GMT

Hi, I'm trying to connect to virtual center (v 2.5) to obtain real time performance for my virtual machines, but i've this error:

_svcRef===>>> ServiceInstance

Caught Exception : Exception : org.apache.axis.AxisFault Message : ; nested exception is:

java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect StackTrace :

AxisFault

i've used the same code to obtain the same performance from an other VC (v 2.5) and all work good.

could someone give me some information about this error.

attached two different cases.

tks

cannot run ovftool in Win2k3 SBS

trlblzr — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:16:03 GMT

I ran the 32bit installer from inside 32bit Windows itself.

ovftool --nodisks still creates .ovf file with disk information

mblake4u — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:31:53 GMT

Hi Kristian,

Thanks for your reply - that worked. It imported the appliance to my ESXi server without any reference to the old disk.

It looks like there might be some problems with the GUI (VM Converter) but scripting will work fine

Thanks again for your help, Michael

OVF entry to embed .vmx data?

Will DeHaan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:55:22 GMT

Thanks for your response, much appreciated.

Tried hacking it into VMware Studio 1.0's mkovf xslt but saw an error on ESX4i import. I'm butchering Studio 2 OVF now...

Will DeHaan

HyTrust, Inc.

ovftool --nodisks still creates .ovf file with disk information

mblake4u — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:34:56 GMT

Hi All,

I'm using ovftool with the --noDisks option, but there still seems to be disk information in the .ovf file (see attachments).

I'm trying to import the virtual appliance on a ESXI 3.5 update 2 server, using VM Converter 4.0.1.

When I try and import the virtual appliance, I get the following error:

FAILED: Unable to download the OVF file 'http:
//xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/vm_ovf_backups/esxi-test-disk1.vmdk'.

I thought the --noDisks option would leave out any information relating to the disks - am I wrong?

Regards,
Michael

ovftool --nodisks still creates .ovf file with disk information

mblake4u — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:33:27 GMT

Unable to parse xml element 'Envelope'

cjs22600 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:16:54 GMT

Thanks. Until ovftool support is more widespread we're going with converting to VMware Server 2 as the lowest common denominator.

OVF Tool memory range error

frwilliam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:39:25 GMT

The host OS is: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3

The guest OS is: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.2

Here is the OperationSystemSection from the ovf file. This worked fine when deployed on the ESX server as a virtual appliance:

<Section xsi:type="ovf:OperatingSystemSection_Type" ovf:id="88" ovf:version="5">
<Info>Guest Operating System</Info>
<Description>Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (32-bit)</Description>
</Section>
<Section xsi:type="ovf:VirtualHardwareSection_Type" ovf:required="true">
<Info>4096 MB , 2 CPU, 1 disk, 1 nic</Info>
<System>
<vssd:InstanceId>0</vssd:InstanceId>
<vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>system id</vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>
<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
</System>
<Item>
<rasd:Caption>2 virtual CPUs</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>Number of Virtual CPUs</rasd:Description>
<rasd:InstanceId>1</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceType>3</rasd:ResourceType>
<rasd:VirtualQuantity>2</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:Caption>4096MB of memory</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>
<rasd:InstanceId>2</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceType>4</rasd:ResourceType>
<rasd:AllocationUnits>MegaBytes</rasd:AllocationUnits>
<rasd:VirtualQuantity>4096</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
</Item>

Packaging from VMX to OVF removes information

Eske — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:59:26 GMT

it is not so easy to "just" define resource types. Resource types are also defined as a std and in this case ShardedFolder is not a "device"/hardware item so I would be needed to define somewhere else.

Each vendor can use the resourceType=0 (==other) and then use subresourceType to define a different type. We do this for soundcards and other items.

I atm working on a method to define some of the features we need to support but I'm still in the planning

So to answer you question: There are no resourceType for "Shared Folders" because it is not a device and atm we do not support on setting this in a OVF file but we are working on it.

eske

Error: Device 'cdrom1' has a backing type that is not supported.

wuhanyunfei — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:54:44 GMT

Set the connection to device like cdrom or even floppy as 'Auto detect'.

ovf tool fails on device paths

Eske — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:39:06 GMT

A limit in the way VMware supports OVF is that we for now dont support attached ISOs or devices on cdrom and floppies. This is something we are looking into support.

So a fix is the remove the un attach the iso or deivce before converting the VM to an OVF file.

eske

ovftool 1.0 and virtualcenter 2.5 update 4 Envelope error importing ovf

Eske — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:29:08 GMT

To follow up on renes post you can also say

ovftool c:\SOMEPATH\MyVm.vmx vi://hostname/

eske

no love for Fusion users?

Eske — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:25:37 GMT

I can only say that we working on it. At the moment I have no dates or anything

eske

Cannot Import OVF into ESXi 3.5

Eske — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:23:53 GMT

Could you describe how you get this error. normal this error only shows if the version of the VMware workstation you are using do not support hardware version 7. A quick work around could be to include a vmx-07, vmx-04 into the ovf file if the hardware represented in the OVF files is working on hardware version 4

eske

ovftool crashes

renes — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:08:29 GMT

Or better, click on my name (it is a link) and use 'Send private message'.

Error deploying ovf file created with OVFTOOL 1.0 VMware converter 4.0.1. Please help

bobbarjung — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:02:44 GMT

Hi Lachi,

Thanks for letting us know. Good to know that it works without the VPN

Invalid value '1.0' for attribute 'version' on element 'Envelope'

sprotsman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:18:06 GMT

Indeed. What a mess. I exported an ovf using VBox 3.0 and ran it through ovftool and got some nasty output:

] ovftool akm.ovf vmware/akm.vmx
Opening OVF source: akm.ovf
Warning: No manifest file
Opening VMX target: vmware/akm.vmx
Error:
- Line 8: Unsupported value 'http://www.vmware.com/specifications/vmdk.html#sparse' for attribute 'format' on element 'Disk'.
- Line 33: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 41: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 44: Unsupported element 'AllocationUnits'
- Line 50: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 53: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 54: Unsupported element 'Address'
- Line 59: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 62: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 63: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'
- Line 70: Unsupported element 'ResourceSubType'
- Line 71: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 72: Unsupported element 'Connection'
- Line 77: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 80: Unsupported element 'Address'
- Line 85: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 88: Unsupported element 'HostResource'
- Line 89: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 90: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'
- Line 95: Unsupported element 'Description'
- Line 98: Unsupported element 'AutomaticAllocation'
- Line 99: Unsupported element 'Parent'
- Line 100: Unsupported element 'AddressOnParent'

I'll stick to 0.9 legacy for now. Hopefully they can get this sorted. I'll post it to their user community too. Thanks for your help, Eske.

New blog entry about deploying a OVF (OVA) using ovftool

Eske — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:34:32 GMT

Rene posted a nice blog entry about using ovftool to deploy an OVA.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vapp/2009/07/commandline-ovf-deployments-.html

eske

ovftool. Cannot execute binary file

Eske — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:11:06 GMT

no problem. glad we could help

specially value for hardware in ovf

Eske — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:11:38 GMT

no not yet, sorry

do it have large performance impact if you dont set it?

eske

References ovf:href

Eske — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:06:14 GMT

yes it is possible to use http based references. supported schemes are:

http, https and localpath.

I'm a bit puzzled about the error msg.

You should not be editing the references section by yourself.

if the OVF is placed on a webserver ovf:href could just point to a relative path from where the OVF is placed. Please take a look the ovf 1.0 spec

You should be able to use:

ovftool http://my.url/path_to_ovf.ovf vi://VC_HOSTNAME/DATACENTER_NAME/host/HOSTNAME

eske

OVF Tool HELP!!!!!!

Eske — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:38:57 GMT

there are many ways for you to create a OVF file.

if you are using VMware workstation you can do

ovftool PATH_TO_A_VM.vmx c:\Temp\MyVm.ovf

if you are using VMware Server 2 you can do:

ovftool vi://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOSTNAME:8333/VmName c:\Temp\MyVm.ovf

but you will have to have a VM that you want to export.

Please read the user guide at http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ovf10/ovftool_10_userguide.pdf

You could also tell us a bit about what you want to do and could could give some pointers in the right direction

eske

Can't import OVA

martinamdisen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:00:01 GMT

Hi,

I've replied on this other thread:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/217733

Failure on disk import

jslagle — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:30:34 GMT

It looks like this fixed it. We have a C program that converts a compressed hard drive image to vmdk format. I modified that to set the version to 3 and was then able to import via ovftool and vSphere. Thanks for your help!

difference between ovf version 0.9 and 1.0?

klassenvmware — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:38:52 GMT

Hi,

There are a several. Here are a few of the new additions in OVF 1.0:

OVA packages
Multi-VM suppor
OVF environment
OVF properties
Manifests and certificates
DeploymentOptionSection
ApplicationUrl

OVF tool crashing?

Eske — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:56:21 GMT

I'm glad that it works now. With that said odd things should not happen.

OVFs from virtualbox

Eske — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:31:48 GMT

ah ok, in Workstation (,server, and esx) they are defined as PS2 devices.

normally the OS inside the VM should be able to find out that new devices was attached. What OS was inside the VM?

I will try to play around with it a bit and see if I can work up a solution.

eske

OVF format expectations

itguybri — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:38:06 GMT

I actually have quite a few.

How hardware is defined in the OVF is dependant on the source (virtualization platform, back-up / archive source, etc.) of the configuration data. Each source will have more or less information, and all contain non-vmware hardware specific information.

For example:

bews08r2x64.ovf is a physical conversion to OVF

dslfromxs.ovf is a v2v from a xen vm backup (.xva)

These samples were created with the latest Citrix XenConvert 2 tool

Here is the forum link: http://forums.citrix.com/forum.jspa?forumID=511

The latest revision will be uploaded shortly.

OVF Specification 1.0 Annex D

Eske — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:13:35 GMT

sorry for the late response.

It was a left over that was not removed before ovftool 1.0 was made public.

We will make a post later this week on how VMware specifications for sections should be interpreted in the vmware.xsd

eske

Probe Mode does not work

Eske — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:20:30 GMT

VMware-OvfTool-1.0.0-117388.i386.zip is the old pre-tech ovftool. Please download from

http://www.vmware.com/downloads/download.do?downloadGroup=OVF-TOOL-1-0

This should link to an windows installer for win32 bit and two linux installers (32/64 bit)

(The old pre-tech ovftool should be removed from the webpage and I will look into this.)

Welcome OVF Tool users !

heyitspablo — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:13:30 GMT

We are excited about this new community and welcome all to participate and discuss OVF Tool topics.