Problem Running OVF in Player 3.0

[fortipaul]

When I try to run an OVF in Player I get the following syntax error:

Error opening virtual machine /hafh/vmware/Filetransfer_ovf/Filetransfer.ovf: File "/hafh/vmware/Filetransfer_ovf/Filetransfer.ovf" line 1: Syntax error.

I'm runnig Player 3.0 (build 203739) on Ubuntu 8.04 (32-bit). I've tried loading OVFs generated from ovftool 0.9 and ovftool 1.0. Neither works. Attached is the OVF that produced the above syntax error. There are no logs because it seems Player can't even parse the file.

What do I need to do to run an OVF in Player? The documentation says it's supported, so right now I'm stumped.

[Troy_Clavell]

I don't know much about player, but I took your appliance and tried to run it, got the error that it couldn't find the source VM. It's a very small file and I can't extract anything out of it as well. Where are the source files?

[admin · Accepted solution]

OVF is not a runtime file type. You will need to convert it to an vmx file before you can run it with player.

Download ovftool (http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/ovf?view=overview)

do something like:

ovftool MyFile.ovf MyFile.vmx

point player to the MyFile.vmx created.

[fortipaul]

I can't upload the whole VM here because it's 250MB. You could download it though and see how it works for you.

[fortipaul]

I see. Thanks for that.

Does that mean that ESXi and Server do the conversion automatically when they load the OVF?

A colleague tells me Player for Windows can load the OVF. Is there a difference in OVF handling between the Linux & Windows versions?

[admin]

if server is VMware vSphere and you are using VMware vSphere vi client you can use the import OVF template from the file menu. This works on both esxi, esx, and vSphere.

If server is VMware Server you will have to use ovftool for that too.

You can also use ovftool to import ovfs to esx, esxi, and VSphere but see the ovftool manual for syntax or blog posts at http://blogs.vmware.com/vApp/ (ovftool share blog with VMware studio, OVF, vApps etc)

As for player importing OVF on windows I'm not sure there should not be any difference between the windows and linux version. (I know they are working on getting OVF support in player) Until they are done I would use ovftool as it uses the most up-to-date version of the OVF std.

[edsouza]

I am the collegue, and I run Player 3.0.0 build-203739 on windows. It already has a file association for .ovf files, If I double click on the file, it opens player, and does the conversion automatically. This is only for OVF version 0.9. version 1.0 format gives me an error on openning the file.

[admin]

ah ok. I did not know that.

ovftool opens both OVF 0.9 and OVF 1.0 and a lot of other stuff. ovftool also opens up for automatic testing OVF appliances on a great range of VMware product by using the command line options (e.g.. plug it into a script).

If you have any questions for ovftool we also have a forum for that at http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/ovf

feel free to ask any questions there related to OVF or ovftool

[mdri]

I'm also having this problem with VMware Player 3.0.1 build 227600. My organization wants to standardize our virtual appliance on OVF 1.0. Previous appliances in OVF 0.9 format easily imported into VMware Player 2.5. Asking prospects to use another tool to convert formats they are likely unfamiliar with is not a friendly option, especially if Player is supposed to import OVF directly.

Doesn't Player 3.0 support OVF 1.0?

[amrjcb]

ovftool -tt=vmx C:\file.ova C:\destination_folder

wait conversion and done

mount the disk on vmplayer