Hello,
I'm new to VMWare and on this forum, so please tell me if this is not the appropriate place for this kind of questions.
I'm in the process of buildind a virtual appliance with the goal of getting through the certification process. I've seen that many appliances are simply bundled with .VMX and .VMDK files. However, it seems VMWare now recommends to use the OVF (open virtual machine format) which is much more high-level and provides lots of interesting functionalities (licence agreement, easy installer, ....).
The certification matrix doesn't make reference to OVF format. Instead, it still refers the old VMX format:
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/partner/certified/test_matrix.html (point 4,5,6,7)
How to conform to the certification matrix with the OVF format ? Is it possible ? Is it acceptable ?
Also, the OVF specification doesn't seem to be relevant to what Virtual Center can accept. For example, the "ProductSection" tag is not accepted, as well as the "PropertySection" whereas they are described in the specification. I've read the OVF file that comes with the VMWare CLI Appliance, and it doesn't use those tags. Are they unsupported ?
An additional problem comes from the VMDK format. I want to be able to create a VMDK using "vmware-vdiskmanager" in VDDK, and setting the disk type to "preallocated ESX-type virtual disk" which is the mandatory format for certification. Doing so creates 2 or more files: a .VMDK text file and multiple subfiles. Those are rejected when i try to install them with the OVF file ("invalid header") . It is not rejected when I create a file with type: "compressed disk optimized for streaming". Is this correct ? If so, how to force the VMDK format to "preallocated" when it's being installed ?
Well, should I revert to the old-style "VMX" format, and wait OVF goes mature ? The installation process with VMX files is a bit more complex for an average user, I think.
