In vCenter 6.5, we have a 2.9GB OVA for an appliance we are trying to deploy. We downloaded it to a local machine, then from the cluster, selected Deploy OVF Template and entered all the configuration details and set the location to the directory where the file was downloaded. Normally, OVA/OVF deployments are fairly quick to initiate and then setup once the VM is powered up, but this sat for about a half hour or longer at 0% before we got an error that popped up that showed an issue with the deployment. The VM was created, the storage cluster appeared after a while in the VM summary tab, as did the port group on the distributed switch, but the VM never powered on and it sat at 0% for at least another 15 minutes after the error appeared (there were two status bars sitting at 0% - "Deploy OVF template; "Import OVF package").
1) Is there a way to upload the .ova file from another linux machine directory rather than a workstation? Can I upload it first to a shared datastore the VCSA has access to? The only two options I saw are from a URL and selecting a local directory on your workstation. I just want to ensure the upload portion goes smoothly.
2) Is there a log file I can tail on the VCSA CLI or the ESXi host to better monitor the deployment process to determine if 0% is incorrect or not?