Can VMware Workstation 14 run(!) OVF files?

[Pickwick81]

In the past I hosted VMs on the server using VMware Server, currently VirtualBox, but my development machine uses VMware Workstation instead. Because of that, I have VMs containing VMDKs and VDIs currently on the server and can not easily import server-VMs in my Workstation. Instead, I need to export to OVF and import that at my notebook. During some research about which format is supported by both products, I came across the following text:

OVFs must be installed before they can be run; a particular virtualization platform may run the VM from the OVF, but this is not required.

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/ovf_whitepaper_specification.pdf

From my understanding, VMware Workstation supports OVF only during an import, while the VM is converted to some internal format. Is this correct or am I missing something? VirtualBox seems to work the same, but is capable of exporting on the server side. But I was wondering if there was some way to tell VMware to e.g. import some OVF/OVA and keep using that to actually run the VM. At best with all support for snapshots, complex networks and all that stuff.

So is that possible? I guess not, but maybe I'm missing something. Thanks!

[virtualg_uk · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Workstation 14 supports import of OVFs and it can export a VM to OVF too.

And OVf is simply a packed up file which contains a Virtual Machine data and configuration. An OVF is not an executable file, simply a container which is useful to export and import into another solution.

Official documentation:

Import: Import an Open Virtualization Format Virtual Machine

Export: Export a Virtual Machine to OVF Format

[79zalo]

Hola, porqué con windows7 home premium en 32bits no me deja exportar al formato fichero *.ovf, ¿en futuras versiones de vmware14 se corregirá? Le hecharé un ojo a los manuales que usted pone. Gracias