You can create and deploy a vApp directly from an OVF package without creating a vApp template and a corresponding catalog item.
VMware Cloud Director has its own restrictions for OVF deployments that differ from the restrictions in vCenter Server. As a result, an OVF deployment that is successful in vCenter Server might fail in VMware Cloud Director.
VMware Cloud Director supports OVF 1.1, but it does not support all the sections of the OVF 1.1 schema. For example, the DeploymentOptions
section in OVF is not supported.
An OVF deployment in VMware Cloud Director involves many components, such as TransferService
, spool area on NFS mount, NFC connection to vCenter Server, checksum validation, and so on. If any of these components fail, this results in OVF upload failure.
If you upload an OVF package with a manifest file, VMware Cloud Director validates the SHA-1 hash of the OVF descriptor file and all VMDK files to the values in the manifest.mf
file. If any hash does not match, the upload fails. A system administrator can deactivate this check by setting the CONFIG
property to ovf.manifest.check.disabled
.
For VMware Cloud Director 10.4.2 and later, uploading an OVF with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) RASD
section attaches a new TPM device to each VM with a defined TPM. For more information on VMs with TPM devices, see Working with Virtual Machines.
Prerequisites
- Verify that you have an OVF package to upload and that you have permission to upload OVF packages and deploy vApps.
- Verify that the OVF version in the OVF descriptor file is not 0.9.
- The default maximum supported size of an OVF descriptor file in VMware Cloud Director is 12 MB. You can override this by editing the
CONFIG
propertyovf.descriptor.size.max
. - Verify that the default maximum allowed size of the manifest file (.mf extension) is 1 MB.
- Verify that the OVF package complies with the OVF XSD schema.
- If a hardware version is provided in the
VirtualSystemType
element of the OVF descriptor file, verify that it is lower than the highest hardware version that is supported in the VDC where you upload the OVF. - If the OVF descriptor file contains
ExtraConfig
elements, verify that your system administrator included these elements inAllowedList
ofextraConfigs
elements. Elements that are not included in theAllowedList
cause the OVF upload to fail with a validation error.