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dendicott
Contributor
Contributor

OVF export fails with timeout error

When I try to export a VM to OVF, it fails with error "Failed to Export Virtual Machine: The Operation has Timed Out." The event long shows that the task was cancelled by a user. I have tried this from 2 different workstations and the vcenter console with no change in symptoms. I have also tried different VMs with no change. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DLE

33 Replies
TobiasKracht
Expert
Expert

And what is your goal? Maybe for you is simplier to copy VM`s files or convert it to other format.

StarWind Software R&D

StarWind Software R&D http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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dendicott
Contributor
Contributor

I could just copy the files, but this feature should work. I need to

determine why it is failing and repair it.

Thanks,

DLE

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 22, 2009, at 7:38 AM, "TobiasKracht" <communities-emailer@vmware.com

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techierick
Contributor
Contributor

Curious that this has never been answered. I have the exact same problem, but it only effects Suse Linux 11. I'm using ver 4.0 now, and still have the problem.

mike_tummy
Contributor
Contributor

I am seeing the same issue exporting a system to OVF, also as an OVA. Watching the temporary file get written to the host running vsphere, data transfer slows down to a crawl and eventually stops when the timeout occurs. Because of these timeouts exporting the templates I'm now unable to use templating at all at this point.

Has anyone else seen this or been able to diagnose or trouble-shoot it?

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obriensl
Contributor
Contributor

I am also having this same issue on vSphere - mine is a SLES10 x64 vm. Has anyone found a reason/fix?

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mike_tummy
Contributor
Contributor

I've not found a reason or an actual fix but I was able to effect a workaround of sorts. I had previously exported these systems to my windows management host running the vsphere client. I created new VMs on a different ESXi server using these templates, updated them and re-exported (to OVF template) which worked. So basically, exporting from one host workd but not from another. It used to work just fine from the host that it now fails on.

This wouldn't work for a production system but worked for me for these systems I only use as templates. All servers involved are running 4.0.0. It's certainly a frustrating issue.

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MartinMPP
Contributor
Contributor

This happens for me as well, the system is running 4.0, timeout is at random completion levels.  Guest OS is Ubuntu 10.04 server, 2 hard drives in the guest that are sat on 2 physical drives (12GB/50GB), on thin Provisioning, the 50GB is barely used at all.

I'm going to try copying the file off using the datastore browser, but it's not really the best way to do this... should this not be working?

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JuBa22
Contributor
Contributor

I'm also experiencing this issue.

I use vcenter 4.1 and esx 4.0 U1.

Regards,

JB

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srujal
Contributor
Contributor

I have same issue..

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mikelane
Expert
Expert

I am currently experiencing this issue (so far on a single VM (Ubuntu 10.4 - thing provisioned). Below is my log (FWIW) for the evening trying to look at this problem ...

I did successfully export a different VM so that was cool.

I had been using a thinstalled version of the vSphere client so I installed the full application and found that this made no difference at all.

So I tried to copy all of the files from the affected VM folder to a new folder and got tons of windows with the following error:

Connection timeout while waiting in the queue.

Error stack

Call "PropertyCollector.CreateFilter" for object "ha-property-collector"

This took a little while and resulted in a Purple Screen Of Death as I ran out of disk space. I rebooted (deleted the new folder I had tried to copy the VM to) and deleted all of the snapshots for the affected VM.

After this I managed to export it successfully (using the thinapped vSphere client).

So for me either removing snapshots or rebooting (or both) *appears* to have fixed the issue ... YMMV ...

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JuBa22
Contributor
Contributor

Problem solved in esxi 4.1.

Best regards,

JB

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derekAndree
Contributor
Contributor

This is *not* fixed in 4.1.  I am having this exact issue with 4.1.

- all my disks are thin provisioned

- i can export smaller VMs

- brand new VM with 200G disk thin provisioned will not export to OVA (total size is probably 1G)

Every time I try to export I get a timeout error, usually around "37 minutes remaining"

I've exported VMs with a larger utilization although thin provisioned with no issues.  It appears to only happen on these larger thin provisioned disks.

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Zydox
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue with ESXi 5.0.0.

Works great for guests with a thin disk of 100GB or less, but if the disk is above 200GB it fails every time.

I also find it quite intressting that once I've deleted the guest from vSphere, the guest directory is still left on the datastore with just the 200GB disk files... and these are possible to delete though the vSpere's browse datastorage, so I'm assuming its not an issue on the NFS server side (QNAP 459)

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sandybruce
Contributor
Contributor

I also am having this issue on 5.0.0, with the most up to date build. I have a 1TB volume assigned to this RHEL6 64bit VM. I've taken backups before of this system. However, I may not have used snapshots when I did that backup. After reading this thread, maybe I'll try to delete all the snapshots and then re-do the image export. Maybe it does have to do with volumes larger than 200GB as another poster suggested.

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henshawp
Contributor
Contributor

Can any one in the community please help with this?

I am experiencing the same issue. VM is Running Red Hat Enterprise 5 (32 bit) Version 7 on ESX Host 4.0.0 Build 208167

Export to OVF times out.

2 Disks, 280 GB Thick Provisioned.

Thanks

PH

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ITJock
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue I am having.

In fact, I am unable to export to OVF, OVA or download the files directly from datastore to antoher location on my LAN.

Seems to work fine however with VMs of a small size, perhaps 100gb or less.

Anyone know of a resolution for this issue??

Kind Regards

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JackStephen
Contributor
Contributor

I've run into this same problem recently.  In my case, I also noticed that I get an error when I try to view/edit the VM's configuration.  I removed the VM from inventory and re-added and that resolved both problems (viewing/editing VM config AND ability to export VM to OVF/OVA).

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AndreGarcia73
Contributor
Contributor

Hi everyone

I'm VMware beginner (from Brazil)

I have the same issue.

Exporting .ova I got "Failed to export Virtual Machine: The operation has timed out."

I experience this error after setting fixed IP properties in VM (Windows Server 2003).

I imagine that this error was caused by client.

After trying export in different environments using vSphere Client (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003) I tried switch back the IP properties (of the VM) to DHCP (My Network Places, IP properties, Obtain IP/DSN automatically).

Than I tried to export again.

It makes no sense, BUT... IT WORKS !

(my suspicious is that the exporting procedure makes something with the information of the Network Adapter of the VM and, for instance, the ISA server (I have in my environment) denies something causing the timeout).

Hope I help.

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ITJock
Contributor
Contributor

I am currently Out of the Office. I will return on Monday 1st October.

Regards,

Paul

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