Using the OVF Tool (with Fusion)

The OVF Tool is included as part of the 'Full' sized Fusion 3.1 installer. I've recently written a brief article on how to make sure that it is installed for you when you first install Fusion. This article shows how to convert a virtual machine into an OVF template using this command line tool.

If you followed my previous article, you'll have ovftool available in your path. When you drop to a Terminal prompt, test this by running the following:


Toms-MacBook-Pro:/ tom$ ovftool --help
Usage: ovftool [options] []
where
: Source URL locator to an OVF package, VMX file, or virtual machine in
vCenter or on ESX Server.
: Destination URL locator which specifies either a file location, or a
location in the vCenter inventory or on an ESX Server.

If is not specified, information about the source is displayed to the
console.

[etc etc]

Converting a virtual machine into an OVF package is very simple. At it's most basic, the command syntax is as follows. In this example, I've changed directory into the virtual machine folder.


Toms-MacBook-Pro:Virtual Machines tom$ cd W2K3\ Server\ Base\ Image.vmwarevm/
Toms-MacBook-Pro:W2K3 Server Base Image.vmwarevm tom$ ls
Applications W2K3 Server Base Image-s011.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.nvram
W2K3 Server Base Image-s001.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s012.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.vmdk
W2K3 Server Base Image-s002.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s013.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.vmsd
W2K3 Server Base Image-s003.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s014.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.vmx
W2K3 Server Base Image-s004.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s015.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.vmx.lck
W2K3 Server Base Image-s005.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s016.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image.vmxf
W2K3 Server Base Image-s006.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s017.vmdk appListCache
W2K3 Server Base Image-s007.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s018.vmdk vmware-0.log
W2K3 Server Base Image-s008.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s019.vmdk vmware.log
W2K3 Server Base Image-s009.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s020.vmdk
W2K3 Server Base Image-s010.vmdk W2K3 Server Base Image-s021.vmdk


The conversion is as follows:


Toms-MacBook-Pro:W2K3 Server Base Image.vmwarevm tom$ ovftool W2K3\ Server\ Base\ Image.vmx /Users/tom/Scratch/w2k3baseimage.ovf
Opening VMX source: W2K3 Server Base Image.vmx
Opening OVF target: /Users/tom/Scratch/w2k3baseimage.ovf
Writing OVF package: /Users/tom/Scratch/w2k3baseimage.ovf
Disk progress: 20%


This (eventually) created the following files:

Some useful options to make use of are:

--compress. This compresses the disks in the OVF. A value of 1 is fast, while a value of 9 is high compression.

-dm/--diskMode. This changes the disk format of the disks within the OVF package. Valid options are: monolithicSparse, monolithicFlat, twoGbMaxExtentSparse, twoGbMaxExtentFlat, streamOptimized, thin (VI target) and thick (VI target)