The OVA can be deployed using vSphere UI or ovftool in CLI console. This topic majorly focuses on deploying OVA using ovftool. For more information on using vSphere UI to deploy OVA, see Deploying OVA using vSphere UI.

By using the ovftool deploy OVA, you can add all the required instructions in one command line and run the command, then let wait for powering on the VM.

For more information about the vAppliance properties, see vAppliance properties list.

Prerequisites

  • A machine with ovftool installed where you can access vSphere from it. Ensure that install ovftool 4.4.0 or higher version. The tool's version lower than 4.4.0 may cause unexpected issues when deploying OVA. For downloading and installing of ovftool, see VMware developer website.

Procedure

  • Deploy OVA using ovftool.

    Once the ovftool is deployed, it will handle everything and print progress.

Example: Example of deploy OVA via ovftool

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --noSSLVerify --skipManifestCheck --X:injectOvfEnv  --diskMode=thin \        --datastore=<datastore-name> \        --network=<network-name> \        --vmFolder=<vm folder on vsphere> \        --powerOn \        --X:waitForIp \        --prop:guestinfo.ip_family='IPv4' \        --prop:guestinfo.admin_password='<admin_password>'  \        --prop:guestinfo.harbor_password='<harbor_password>' \        --prop:guestinfo.root_password='<root_password>' \        --prop:guestinfo.dhcp=True --prop:dbpassword='<password>' \        --prop:enableFileIntegrity=False \        --prop:enable_sshd=True \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_bu='TEST BU' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_ca_common_name='example.com' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_country_name='US' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_county='PA' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_organization='VMW' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_state_name='CA' \        --prop:guestinfo.cert_type='Generate-New' \        --prop:guestinfo.enable_proxy=False \        --prop:guestinfo.hostname='test001.example.com' \        
<path-to-ova> \
vi://<vc_username>:'<vc_password>'@<vc_ip>/<datacenter_name>/host/<vSphere-cluster-name>/Resources/<resource-pool-name>