An OVF template captures the state of a virtual machine or vApp into a self-contained package. The disk files are stored in a compressed, sparse format.

Prerequisites

Power off the virtual machine or vApp.

Required privilege: vApp.Export

Procedure

  1. Navigate to a virtual machine or vApp and from the Actions menu, select Template > Export OVF Template.
  2. In the Name field, type the name of the template.
    For example, type MyVm.
    Note: When you export an OVF template with a name that contains asterisk (*) characters, those characters turn into underscore (_) characters.
  3. (Optional) In the Annotation field, type a description.
  4. Select the Enable advanced options check box if you want to include additional information or configurations in the exported template.
    The advanced settings include information about the BIOS UUID, MAC addresses, boot order, PCI Slot numbers, and configuration settings used by other applications. These options limit portability.
  5. Click OK and respond to the prompts to save each file associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, .mf).