How To Use Vmware Ovf Tool For Mac

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.

I have downloaded and installed OVF Tool for Mac, and the documentation doesn't have any help for Mac users. I tried to run some simple commands but nothing I do seems to work. I just need to be able to run OVF Tool to convert a Fusion 7 VM into an.ovf format I can then import into vSphere 5.5. 5 This OVF Tool User Guide provides information about how to use VMware® OVF Tool to package virtual machines and vApps into Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard packages. Intended Audience This book is intended for anyone who needs to convert an OVF package to a virtual machine, or a virtual.

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.
  • Added --sslCipherList option to override default cipher suite.
  • New NVRAM support for the EFI boot type (secure boot).

VMware Knowledge Base. See What's New. This article provides information on downloading OVF/ISO files from VMware vCloud Air to a Mac or Linux system using OVF Tool. To download OVF/ISO files from vCloud Air to a Mac or Linux system. Copy the location path where OVF Tool is installed. By default, in Mac and Linux.

System Requirements for OVF Tool

The OVF Tools supports the following operating systems and software.

Supported Operating Systems

The OVF Tool supports the following Windows 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64) operating systems:

  • Windows 10 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 64-bit
  • Windows 8.1 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
  • Windows 7 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64)

The OVF Tool supports the following Linux operating systems:

  • CentOS 7.1 and earlier
  • Fedora 22 and earlier
  • Oracle Linux 7.1
  • RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.1 and earlier
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12.1 and earlier
  • Ubuntu 15.04 and earlier
  • VMware Project Photon

The OVF Tool supports the following Mac OS X 64-bit operating systems:

  • Mac OS X 10.11
  • Mac OS X 10.10
  • Mac OS X 10.9

Supported VMware Products and Platforms

Version 4.2 of the OVF Tool supports the following VMware software:

  • vSphere 6.5, 6.0, and 5.5
  • vCloud Director 8.20, 8.10, 8.0, 5.6, and 5.5 (source from OVF or OVA types only)
  • ESXi 6.5, 6.0, and 5.5
  • vCloud Suite 6.5, 6.0, and 5.5
  • Horizon View 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x
  • VMware Workstation 12.x
  • VMware Fusion 8.x
  • App Volumes 3.0, 2.11, 2.10, and 2.9
  • VMware Studio can generate OVF packages.

OVF support is built into the vSphere (Web) Client that installs from vCenter Server. It is compatible with vSphere and ESXi hosts. Newer versions of vSphere supply later versions of the OVF Tool. ESXi and vCenter Server versions older than 5.5 are deprecated; the next release will not support them.

Space Requirements for OVF Packages

A virtual machine is stored as a set of files on disk. In the VMware runtime format, these files have extensions .vmx, .vmdk, .vmsd, .vmxf, and .nvram. The VMware hypervisor requires these file formats, which are optimized for efficient execution. An ESXi host often uses fully allocated flat disks in a VMFS file system to optimize virtual machine performance.

The OVF standard supports efficient, secure distribution of vApps and virtual machine templates. OVF is optimized for these goals, rather than for efficient runtime execution. OVF does not include specific information on runtime disk format because such information is not required until the virtual machine is deployed. When you package appliances with OVF, you can optimize one vApp for high performance in a production environment, and optimize another for minimal storage space during evaluation.

The following table contrasts a virtual machine in VMware file format with a virtual machine in OVF format. OVF employs a compressed sparse format for VMDK files. Virtual disks in that format cannot be used directly for execution without conversion.

VMware FormatOVF FormatOVA Format
Files LinuxAppliance.nvram
LinuxAppliance.vmdk
LinuxAppliance-s001.vmdk
LinuxAppliance-s002.vmdk
LinuxAppliance.vmsd
LinuxAppliance.vmx
LinuxAppliance.vmxf
LinuxAppliance.ovf
LinuxAppliance-0.vmdk
LinuxAppliance-1.vmdk
LinuxAppliance-2.vmdk
LinuxAppliance.ova
Total Size 251MB using thin provisioning
4000MB using thick provisioning
132MB132MB

Installing the OVF Tool

Download the Installer

  1. Download the VMware OVF Tool as an installer or an archive (zipped/compressed) file:
    Operating SystemDownload Filename
    Linux 32-bitVMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-lin.i386.bundle
    Linux 64-bitVMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-lin.x86_64.bundle
    OS X 64-bitVMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-mac.x64.dmg
    Windows 32-bitVMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-win.i386.msi
    Windows 64-bitVMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-win.x86_64.msi
  2. Install the downloaded file using the appropriate method for your operating system:
    Operating SystemDownload Filename
    Linux 32 bitRun the shell script as ./VMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-lin.i386.bundle
    Linux 64-bitRun the shell script as ./VMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-lin.x86_64.bundle
    Mac OS X 64-bitDouble-click the package installer, VMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-mac.x64.dmg
    Windows 32 bitDouble-click the installation file, VMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-win.i386.msi
    Windows 64-bitDouble-click the installation file, VMware-ovftool-4.2.0-*-win.x86_64.msi

Complete the Installation Steps

Follow this procedure for all installations:

  1. At the Welcome screen, click Next.
  2. At the license agreement, read the license agreements, select “I agree...” and click Next.
  3. Accept the path suggested or change to a path of your choice and click Next.
  4. When you finish choosing your installation options, click Install.
  5. When the installation is complete, click Next.
  6. Deselect Show the readme file if you do not want to view the readme file, and click Finish to exit.

Running the OVF Tool from a Windows Command Line

Vmware Ovf Tool For Linux

After installing the OVF Tool on Windows, you can run the OVF Tool from the Windows command line.

  1. From the Start menu, click Run.
  2. In the Run dialog, enter cmd to open the Windows command line tool.

If you have the OVF Tool folder in your Path environment variable, you can run the OVF Tool from the command line.

Adding the OVF Tool to your Path Environment Variable

The following instructions are for Windows 7, but the steps are similar on other Windows systems.

Mac
  1. Right-click My Computer.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Select Advanced system settings.
  4. Select Environment Variables.
  5. Highlight (select) the Path variable in the System variable (lower) pane.
  6. Click the Edit button and type the path to the folder where you installed the OVF Tool (at the end of the existing path).

Known Issues in This Version

The ovftool option --allowAllExtraConfig is no longer supported. The command-line option --allowAllExtraConfig never worked as designed. As of release 6.5 U1, vSphere no longer supports this option. The workaround is to use --allowExtraConfig instead to import additional configurations.

The OVF Tool supports OVF specifications 0.9 and 1.0, but 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.

The ovftool--proxy=proxy.example.com option should work, but when used within vSphere, it does not. To make a network connection through the proxy server, you must add the --X:viUseProxy option as documented in the OVF Tool User's Guide.

You cannot use OVF Tool for deploying a VM to static DVS port groups. To work around this issue:

  1. Use vCenter Server to create an ephemeral port on the desired network.
  2. Deploy the appliance to that port group on an ESXi host.
  3. Switch the appliance over to that static port group.
  4. Use vCenter Server to delete the ephemeral port group.

Deprecated Features

There are no deprecated features in version 4.2 of the OVF Tool, but support for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 has been discontinued.

You can export a virtual machine from Workstation to OVF format.

OVF is a platform-independent, efficient, extensible, and open packaging and distribution format for virtual machines. OVF format provides a complete specification of the virtual machine, including the full list of required virtual disks and the required virtual hardware configuration, including CPU, memory, networking, and storage. An administrator can quickly provision an OVF-formatted virtual machine with little or no intervention.

How To Use Vmware Ovf Tool For Mac

You can also use the standalone OVF Tool to convert a virtual machine that is in VMware runtime format to an OVF virtual machine. The standalone version of the OVF Tool is installed in the Workstation installation directory under OVFTool. See the OVF Tool User Guide on the VMware Web site for information about using the OVF Tool.

Verify that the virtual machine is not encrypted. You cannot export an encrypted virtual machine to OVF format.

Verify that the virtual machine is powered off.

Select the virtual machine and select File > Export to OVF.

2

Type a name for the OVF file and specify a directory in which to save it.

Click Save to start the OVF export process.

The export process can take several minutes. A status bar indicates the progress of the export process.