Export to ova with attached iso in ESX 5.5

[Brett_Riverboat]

Evening,

So, I have an ESX5.5 environment and I have a handful of vApps. These vApps each have one VM in them, Linux OS (and I do not have access to the core OS). Each has an ovf document mounted as an iso on a virtual CD-Rom and, upon boot, each will attempt to validate that ovf file and if it isn't there then the validation fails and the boot process stops.

I need these to be exported as single ova files that can be deployed back into another ESX 5.5 environment. The problem is that every time I export the vApp it does not seem to take the iso with it as the resulting ova file will not deploy. It gives an error saying that it cannot find the iso file and the deployment bombs out.

Previously, in an ESX4.1 environment, this process of exporting the vApp to an ova that can be redeployed worked flawlessly.

Is there any way I can export the vApp and still have the virtual CD-Rom and mounted iso as part of that ova file? I have tried all sorts of things and just can't get it to work.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

BR.

[Brett_Riverboat · Accepted solution]

Update:

This is now fixed. In case anyone wants the solution to this rather niche issue, here it is:

With the vApp powered off, edit the VM Settings and change the CD/DVD drive to “Client Drive”:

• Edit Settings -> CD/DVD Drive 1 -> Client Device

Export the vApp as an OVA file and then import the OVA (with a different vApp name if necessary to avoid overwriting the original). The vApp should import without any errors, but the CD/DVD drive will be set to “Client Drive”. Don’t try to change this setting. Start the vApp and the CD/DVD drive settings will be restored. The VM should boot and read all the correct parameters from the variables embedded in the vApp.

If you check the CD/DVD Drive settings when the vApp is running you should see that it is using the ISO file created by the vApp again. When you power off the vApp you should see that “Use ISO image file:” is checked instead of “Client Drive” and the filename is shown as “[]”, as expected.