Nov 23, 2017 Hello All, Can anybody please help me with the VMware OVF Tool command line utility? Keep in mind I'm already 'inside' the server's Linux shell. Linux.iso: VMware Tools image for Linux OS with. VMware Tools 10.1.0 Release Notes. OVF templates on a web server that is behind a proxy cannot be deployed.

1. Ubuntu Ovf File

VMware OVF Tool Release Notes Release date: 15 NOV 2016 Build number: 4586971 Version 4.2.0. Last document update: 7 NOV 2017 Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes. Contents. New Features in This Release This software supports Open Virtualization Format (OVF) packages created with previous versions of the OVF Tool, and produces files compatible with OVF specifications 1.0 and 0.9.

OVF Tool 4.2 has some new features including many that emphasize security. Added SHA256 and SHA512 support for both manifest validation and digital signing. Improved security by disabling TLSv1.0 protocol. Added -sslVersion option to specify SSL version for HTTPS connections. Improved security by disabling Diffie Hellman cipher from the default cipher suite.

Ubuntu Ovf File

Added -sslCipherList option to override default cipher suite. New NVRAM support for the EFI boot type (secure boot). System Requirements for OVF Tool The OVF Tools supports the following operating systems and software.

I have been meaning to write about this neat little feature that was added to the late last year that allows you to easily deploy any OVF/OVA without the need of ovftool. You might ask, why not use ovftool? Well, if you just need to perform a very basic OVF/OVA deploy and prefer not to install anything on your desktop, this can be a nice alternative. Govc is provided as a simple binary that is platform agnostic and supports Windows, Linux & Mac OS X. Govc is built using and this also means you can consume this capablitity beyond just the CLI but also programmatically if you wish. Obviously, the CLI is the easiest method which I will demonstrate below.

Just to be clear, there is still a huge amount of value in using ovftool as it contains a large mount of functionality that is not found any where else. It is still the recommended tool for deploying OVF/OVA across all VMware based Hypervisors and is extensively used by other VMware's products for general OVF/OVA deployment. Here are the steps on using govc to deploy an OVF/OVA: Step 1 - Download the latest govc binary for your platform which can be found. In this example, I will be running govc on my Mac OS X system and you can easily download it by running the following commands: curl -L gunzip -d /usr/local/bin/govc chmod +x /usr/local/bin/govc Step 2 - To verify that govc is working, go ahead and run the following command to retrieve the version which should display v0.5.0: govc version Note: If you are new to govc and want a quick primer on how it works, please head over to this article for more details. Step 3 - Next, we need to setup a couple of GOVC environmental variables which will define the vSphere environment (ESXi or VC) you plan to deploy to.

You also have the option to specify this in the command-line using the -help option for more details. In this example, I will just set them as environmental variables. Below is an example of my environment which is going to be deploying directly to an ESXi host, you will want to update these variables based on your environment. Export GOVCINSECURE=1 export GOVCURL=nuc.primp-industries.com export GOVCUSERNAME=root export GOVCPASSWORD=vmware123 export GOVCDATASTORE=vsanDatastore export GOVCNETWORK='VM Network' export GOVCRESOURCEPOOL='./Resources' Note: If you are new to govc and want a quick primer on how it works, please head over to this article for more details. Step 4 - To ensure that govc can properly communicate with your vSphere enviornment, you can run the following command which should return details about the system you are connected to: govc about Step 5 - To deploy an OVF/OVA, we first need to create a spec file by inspecting the actual OVF/OVA using the import.spec command which will output in a JSON format. To make it easier to read, we will format the output using python.

To do so, run the following command (replace with the OVF/OVA you wish to deploy): govc import.spec /Volumes/Storage/Images/Current/VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-3634788/vcsa/vmware-vcsa python -m json.tool As you can see from the screenshot above, we are inspecting the OVA for the latest vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.0 and it has automatically generated all the OVF properties that can be specified for this OVA. We then just need to re-direct the output to a file in which we can then edit the properties and pass that configuration when we deploy. We can do so by running the following command: govc import.spec /Volumes/Storage/Images/Current/VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-3634788/vcsa/vmware-vcsa python -m json.tool vcsa.json Step 6 - Now, we just need to open up the JSON file we saved and edit the values before we can use it in our deployment. You may have also noticed that there is an InjectOvfEnv param which means you can use govc to also 🙂 Here is an example of the vcsa.json for deploying an Embedded VCSA.

Note: There is a known bug currently in which the 'Deployment' pararm is always generated. You will need to delete this if you have an OVA that does not use this parameter.

I have already been reported. Step 7 - Finally, we just need to use the import.ova command and specify the path to our JSON configuration file as well as the path to our OVA. To do so, run the following command: govc import.ova -options=vcsa.json /Volumes/Storage/Images/Current/VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-3634788/vcsa/vmware-vcsa Note Note: There is known bug in which you will see a warning about Invalid value for the network which you can ignore. I have already reported the issue. Once the VM powers on, the OVF properties will automatically be injected into the VM and in a few minutes, you will have a fully configured VM. Pretty cool right!? What I really love about this solution beyond its simplicity is that the tool allows you to easily generate the OVF property spec file. This is much easier than having to manually inspect an OVF/OVA and then extract the params by hand which can be very error prone.

Lastly, I want to give a big shoutout to who was the Engineer who had implemented this awesome feature and is also one of the Engineers who created govmomi. Thanks Peter! Hello, I would like to experiment with a VM distributed as an OVA with properties. But is the above supposed to work on ESXi with a free license?

This is what I get with govc (first the output of “about”, followed by the error reported by “import.ova”): Name: VMware ESXi Vendor: VMware, Inc. Version: 6.0.0 Build: 3620759 OS type: vmnix-x86 API type: HostAgent API version: 6.0 Product ID: embeddedEsx UUID:./govcdarwinamd64: Line 151: Unsupported element ‘Property’ Trying through the web interface (EHC), vSphere Client and ofvtool raises the same kind of error message. Many thanks in advance, Axel. I have an ova that is stored locally on a ESXi host.

From esxi shell I can see the full path of the file as – /vmfs/volumes/HDD01/ova/ubuntu.ova My environment is set with the following value for datastore export GOVCDATASTORE=HDD01 I am able to see the ova file using govc datastore.ls -l ova or govc datastore.ls -l /ova However it is not clear to me, what path I need to provide for govc import.spec. I tried govc import.spec /ova/ubuntu.ova govc import.spec ova/ubuntu.ova Both return with “no such file or directory” I’d appreciate any help on this.