Re: Issues with OVF Template

jeremydixon · ‎07-15-2011

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. :smileycry:

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.

jeremydixon · ‎07-15-2011

Here is the OVF file... I bolded the changes I made per the docs online:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

</References>

<Info>List of the virtual disks used in the package</Info>

</Section>

<Info>Logical networks used in the package</Info>

<Description>Logical network used by this appliance.</Description>

</Network>

</Section>

<Info>A virtual machine</Info>

<Info>A human-readable annotation</Info>

<Annotation>STERCI WUI Virtual Machine</Annotation>

</Section>

<Info>The kind of installed guest operating system</Info>

<Description>Linux26_64</Description>

<vbox:OSType ovf:required="false">Fedora_64</vbox:OSType>

</Section>

<Info>Virtual hardware requirements for a virtual machine</Info>

<vssd:ElementName>Virtual Hardware Family</vssd:ElementName>

<vssd:InstanceId>0</vssd:InstanceId>

<vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>STERCI-WUI-1.0</vssd:VirtualSystemIdentifier>

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07</vssd:VirtualSystemType>

</System>

<Item>

<rasd:Caption>2 virtual CPU</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:AllocationUnits>MegaBytes</rasd:AllocationUnits>

<rasd:Caption>2048 MB of memory</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>2</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>4</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:VirtualQuantity>2048</rasd:VirtualQuantity>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>0</rasd:BusNumber>

<rasd:Caption>ideController0</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>3</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>PIIX4</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item>

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

<rasd:BusNumber>1</rasd:BusNumber>

<rasd:Caption>ideController1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>4</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>PIIX4</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>0</rasd:BusNumber>

<rasd:Caption>sataController0</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>SATA Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>5</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>AHCI</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceType>20</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:Caption>Ethernet adapter on 'Bridged'</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Connection>Bridged</rasd:Connection>

<rasd:InstanceId>6</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>E1000</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>

<rasd:BusNumber>0</rasd:BusNumber>

<rasd:Caption>usb</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>USB Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>23</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item ovf:required="false">

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>3</rasd:AddressOnParent>

<rasd:Caption>sound</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Sound Card</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>7</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:ResourceType>35</rasd:ResourceType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>ensoniq1371</rasd:ResourceSubType>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>

<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>

<rasd:Caption>cdrom1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>CD-ROM Drive</rasd:Description>

<rasd:InstanceId>9</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>

<rasd:ResourceType>15</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

<Item>

<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>

<rasd:Caption>disk1</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>Disk Image</rasd:Description>

<rasd:HostResource>/disk/vmdisk1</rasd:HostResource>

<rasd:InstanceId>10</rasd:InstanceId>

<rasd:Parent>5</rasd:Parent>

<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

</Section>

<vbox:Machine ovf:required="false" version="1.11-windows" uuid="{a8738685-249f-46ed-b2f5-ccdcd6a9bdf2}" name="STERCI-WUI-1.0" OSType="Fedora_64" snapshotFolder="Snapshots" lastStateChange="2011-06-16T13:04:18Z">

<ovf:Info>Complete VirtualBox machine configuration in VirtualBox format</ovf:Info>

<Description>STERCI WUI Virtual Machine</Description>

</CPU>

<Boot>

</Boot>

<BIOS>

</BIOS>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

<NAT>

</NAT>

</DisabledModes>

</Adapter>

</Network>

<UART>

</UART>

<LPT>

</LPT>

<IO>

</IO>

</Hardware>

</StorageController>

</AttachedDevice>

</StorageController>

</StorageControllers>

</vbox:Machine>

</Content>

</Envelope>

CRad14 · ‎07-18-2011

This might be silly of me to ask, but if you already have the OVF Template, why then convert to a vmx....Have you tried just Deploying the OVF Template as is, from File-Deploy OVF Template, in vCenter?

Conrad www.vnoob.com | @vNoob | If I or anyone else is helpful to you make sure you mark their posts as such! 🙂

jeremydixon · ‎07-18-2011

Ya I've tried to deploy it directly in vCenter but it blows up.

Says the OVF package is invalid and can not be loaded then sites all the errors ovftool gets.

admin · ‎07-20-2011

this is a virtual box OVF. They do not conform completely to the std.

Can you try to export it as OVF 1.0 from virtualbox and use the --lax option on that.

eske

jeremydixon · ‎07-20-2011

Hi Eske,

I saw several of your other posts while I was searching for a solution to this and made sure to try --lax when I ran it. As noted in my post, it did not help anyway. I got the same errors with or without that option.

Thanks

Erock4 · ‎08-30-2011

any luck on this? i've been messing around for a little while, and I'm seeing the same issues.

I tried deleting all the items with unsupported elements, but that blew up too, it wants the memory item at least.

admin · ‎08-30-2011

I remember that there is an option in virtualbox to export it as an OVF 1.0 have you tried that?

I forgot about your problem but will try to look into it this week. Sorry.

eske

Erock4 · ‎08-30-2011

Awesome! yes, that appears to have been it! (at least most of it)

yes, there is an option to export and 'write legacy OVF 0.9, which is what was giving me errors. I left it off and exported.

I used this page to manually change the formatting

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

Then I received an error:

Error:

- Line 66: OVF hardware element 'ResourceType' with instance ID '5': No support for the virtual hardware device type '2

0'.

so i changed this item:

<Item>

<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>

<rasd:Caption>sataController0</rasd:Caption>

<rasd:Description>SATA Controller</rasd:Description>

<rasd:ElementName>sataController0</rasd:ElementName>

<rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>AHCI</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceType>20</rasd:ResourceType>

</Item>

into this item:

     <Item>
        <rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
        <rasd:Caption>SCSIController</rasd:Caption>
        <rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
        <rasd:ElementName>SCSIController</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>5</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>

export just finished, so i'll keep going. if I run into more trouble, i'll post again, but so far so good now, thanks!

admin · ‎08-30-2011

cool, do ping me if you get stock again.

eske

jeremydixon · ‎08-31-2011

I ended up having to give the user a desktop running VirtualBox because our hundreds of thousands of dollars in VMWare gear couldn't handle the request. :smileyangry: [talk about having to eat crow with the end user who wanted VirtualBox in the first place]

All the guides I saw always mentioned making sure to use the 0.9 version of OVF format and then edit out the elements. If I run into another one of these I will try the 1.0 export and hope for the best.

Appreciate the help.

Erock4 · ‎08-31-2011

So I ended up doing the 1.0 export, doing the manual changes I mentioned above, and then finding and using the 'Deploy OVF Template...' under the file menu of the vSphere cleint. It took a little while, but it brought my fedora 15 machine right in.

Fedora seems to have not liked the change of host though; the progress bar of loading fedora goes all the way through, but then freezes up. I'm wondering if it's looking for the virtualbox, and can't find it..?

it doesn't seem to respond to my commands at this point. its been sitting for a couple hours now...

Erock4 · ‎09-08-2011

I wanted to put in one last update to this. Fedora just doesn't seem to like vmware for some reason, maybe the way I'm doing it, but I don't care about that too much at this point.

I was however able to port two of my MS Server 2003 servers over, without any problem at all.:smileygrin:

I just had to activate windows again upon bootup, uninstall the virtualbox addins, then install the VMware addins. overall not too bad! :smileycool:

Thanks,

Eric

dandye · ‎04-01-2015

Sorry to answer this 4 years too late but for the other sufferers of this problem who stumble on this page, here is the likely cause of this issue:

"The DMTF RASD specifies a set of fields that can be set. We only a subset of those fields in an OVF descriptor. The fields in a RASD must be ordered alphabetically."[1]

[1] http://blogs.vmware.com/vapp/2009/11/virtual-hardware-in-ovf-part-1.html