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TerryLemons
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Contributor

Documentation for vSphere OVF descriptor file

Hi

What document(s) describes the contents of the OVF descriptor file (.ovf)?

Thanks!

tl

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DCasota
Expert
Expert

Hi,

See here and here.

 

edited:
See ovf 4.3 release notes
Although it supports OVF specifications 0.9 and 1.0, OVF Tool does not support OVF specification 2.0 (not to be confused with OVF Tool version 2.0). For workarounds to allow import of VirtualBox OVF 2.0, see this web page.

 

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TerryLemons
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Thanks very much for the fast reply. Looking at DSP0243, I'm finding the depth of information that I seek.

I'm trying to introduce stricter value checking in my product's .ovf file for several values, including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. I would have thought that the standard would include validators for these basic requirements. But I only find this example, which doesn't do any validation:

2425 <Property ovf:key="app_ip" ovf:type="string" ovf:defaultValue="192.168.0.10">
2426 <Description>The IP address of this appliance</Description>

Any thoughts on how best to do validation of IPv4/IPv6 addresses?

Thanks!

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DCasota
Expert
Expert

this ?

edited:
DSP2043 is 2.0 ++ . Afaik there are no IP related validators in 1.0, so you have to deal with "string". See ovftool guide (4.3) page 13. It shows how injectOvfEnv parameter is used, and there is no type declaration.

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TerryLemons
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for finding this. It's interesting, but it seems to apply to a VMware REST API, and not to the ovf descriptor file. I think.

 

Thanks

tl

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DCasota
Expert
Expert

btw. VMware Studio was the grandfather of grandfather authoring tool 🙂 Unfortunately many weblinks are outdated there and are not (yet?) linked to VMware {code} community.

For sure you get a qualified answer in VMware {code} Discussions & Docs.

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TerryLemons
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Contributor

Hi @DCasota , thanks very much for all of the information you provided. I'll try this topic in the forum that you mentioned, Thanks again!

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@DCasota Rather than suggesting a different area to create a duplicate post, you can choose Report Inappropriate Content from the menu (3 vertical dots) to the right of any comment, asking moderators to move the post to a different location that you suggest.

I have now done that for this post, and reported the duplicate post for deletion since there are other replies already in this post.

 


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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DCasota
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Thanks Scott 🙂 After fifteen years, happy to know I could use this functionality! I always thought "inappropriate" has to do with swearing, blaming and other rituals developers typically do before starting fixing an issue 8-)

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Anything you'd like to bring to the attention of the moderators - everything you state, plus any spam posts, or posts which need moving.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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TerryLemons
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Contributor

My original ask was "What document(s) describes the contents of the OVF descriptor file (.ovf)?". What are the best sources for this information?  Thanks.

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