Install ovftool on the platform of your choice
Syntax For the command. You will notice that I am exporting thin-provisioned .vmdk files
ovftool -dm=thin "vi://<ESXi IP>/<VM name>" <name of ova file to create>.ova
For username, type root and press enter.
For password, type the password and press enter.
ovftool -dm=thin "vi://192.168.93.142/template_2016" template_2016.ova
When I tried importing this via the GUI, I noticed that at the final window of the Create/Register VM wizard, I would see an error that states "A required disk image is missing." It did allow me to click Finish and the import would work without any issues. However, I did not want the error so I found that it was b/c the .ovf file contains references to the nvram file. The steps below walk you through extracting the .ova file, editing the .ovf file by removing any lines that say "nvram", and then deleting the files you do not need.
You can untar the contents of the .ova file
tar -xvf template_2016.ova
rm *.mf
rm *.nvram
vi template_2016.ovf
/nvram
Delete the line by pressing dd
Press n to go to the next result
Delete the line by pressing dd
Press :wq to save the file and quit
Once you have tested importing the .ovf and .vmdk files, delete the ova file
Now you can import your VM the normal way using the Create/Register VM wizard. You will select the .ovf and all .vmdk files instead of an .ova file.
