VMware Cloud Community
erickmiller
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

OVFtool bug when specifying datastore

It appears that ovftool 3.0.1 has an issue while specifying the target datastore when importing an OVF when the VI is a vCenter 5.0 server with ESX 5.0 Update 1 hosts that have a large number of Datastores.  The cluster where this problem occurs has 148 Datastores.

Some datastores work, most don't.  This is a new problem since ovftool 2.0.1 worked fine when this cluster was at ESX 4.0 Update 3.

An example statement that will cause the problem (with all names replaced with "test" names):

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\ovftool.exe" --acceptAllEulas --name="TestVM" --datastore="TestDatastore" --network=TestNetwork --vmFolder="TestFolder" http://192.168.0.1/public/ovfs/testvm.ovf vi://"username:password"@vcenter.test.com/"Data Center"/host/"HA and DRS"/Resources/"Test Resource Pool"

Which results in this error (with the datastore names replaced with TestDatastoreX), even though the Datastore clearly exists.  It worked fine prior to vSphere 5.0 and vCenter 5.0.  Any ideas?

Note that all "possible completions" specified below work fine!  Those that I have tried that are "not" in the possible completions do "not" work.

Error: Invalid target datastore specified (TestDatastore): Possible completions:
  TestDatastore1
  TestDatastore2
  TestDatastore3
  TestDatastore4
  TestDatastore5
  TestDatastore6
  TestDatastore7
  TestDatastore8
  TestDatastore9
  TestDatastore10
  TestDatastore11
  TestDatastore12
  TestDatastore13
  TestDatastore14
  TestDatastore15
  TestDatastore16
  TestDatastore17
  TestDatastore18
  TestDatastore19
  TestDatastore20
  TestDatastore21
  TestDatastore22
  TestDatastore23
  TestDatastore24
  TestDatastore25
  TestDatastore26
  TestDatastore27
  TestDatastore28
  TestDatastore29
  TestDatastore30
  TestDatastore31
  TestDatastore32
  TestDatastore33
  TestDatastore34
  TestDatastore35
Completed with errors
Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC http://www.genesishosting.com/ - Lease part of our ESX cluster!
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Hi Erick

We have found an issue with folders: When a datastore is in a folder, ovftool will not see it. If this is the case in your setup, we are aware of it and will fix it.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
10 Replies
vmwareapiuser
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I am also facing the same issue. I specified the --ds correctly but no luck. Any help on this?

Reply
0 Kudos
erickmiller
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Unfortunately not yet...  I have a ticket open with Vmware, though, so I'm hoping they can figure this out.

Eric

Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC http://www.genesishosting.com/ - Lease part of our ESX cluster!
Reply
0 Kudos
erickmiller
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Still no luck with VMware's support.  They are still looking at it, in theory, so I'll provide an update asap once they have a solution.

Eric

Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC http://www.genesishosting.com/ - Lease part of our ESX cluster!
Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Hi Erick

We have found an issue with folders: When a datastore is in a folder, ovftool will not see it. If this is the case in your setup, we are aware of it and will fix it.

Reply
0 Kudos
Defhead
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

This error was bugging me for hours until i found this post. Moving the datastore out of the folder worked for me.

Thank you

Reply
0 Kudos
erickmiller
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thank you!!  This is indeed the problem and solved the issue for us (temporarily, since we need folders in our environment).  Hopefully a fix will be issued soon.


Eric

Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC http://www.genesishosting.com/ - Lease part of our ESX cluster!
Reply
0 Kudos
diadorac
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

What is the status of fixing this error, please?

Reply
0 Kudos
erickmiller
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

I'd like to know too. Smiley Happy  Been waiting almost 7 months.

Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC http://www.genesishosting.com/ - Lease part of our ESX cluster!
icontender
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I think this is broken again in ovftool version 4.  I am having the exact same issue.  with ESXi 5.1 and ovftool 4.  The only difference is that ovftool suggest the datastores to use but even those don't work.

Reply
0 Kudos
elesueur
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

There does seem to be an issue with the way ovftool parses its arguments.

For me, --datastore datastore1 did not work, but --datastore=datastore1 did work, regardless of whether your vmx file is in the current directory or not.

I will see about getting that fixed in the next release of ovftool.

Reply
0 Kudos