Content Library Support for OVF Packages

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an industry standard that describes metadata about a virtual machine image in an XML format. An OVF package includes an XML descriptor file and optionally disk images, resource files (such as ISO files), manifest files, and certificate files.

With the vSphere Automation API, you can use the virtual machine (VM) and vApp templates from an OVF package in a content library to deploy VMs and virtual appliances on hosts, resource pools, and clusters. You can also use the API to create OVF packages in content libraries from virtual appliances and VMs on hosts, resource pools, and clusters.

When you create library items to store OVF packages, you must set the item type to ovf. You can use the objects and methods provided by the Content Library API to manage OVF packages. To comply with the specific standards of the OVF packages, the vSphere Automation API provides the LibraryItem class.