Deploy a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client

Use the New Virtual Machine wizard to deploy virtual machines from OVF and VMDK files, or from OVA files.

OVA deployment is limited to files under 1 GB in size due to Web browser limitations. To deploy an OVA file greater than 1 GB, extract the OVA file using tar and provide the OVF and VMDK files separately.

Procedure

1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM.
   
2. On the Select creation type page, select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file and click Next.
3. On the Select OVF and VMDK files page, provide a unique name for the virtual machine.
   Note: Virtual machine names can contain up to 80 characters.
4. To select an OVF and VMDK, or an OVA file to deploy, click the blue pane.
   Your local system storage opens.
5. Select the file that you want to deploy your virtual machine from and click Open.
   The file you selected appears in the blue pane.
6. Click Next.
7. On the Select storage page, select the storage type for the virtual machine.
   1. To save all the virtual machine disks and configuration files on a standard datastore, click the Standard button.
   2. To save the virtual machine hard disks on the host-local PMem datastore, click the Persistent Memory button.
   3. Select a datastore from the list and click Next.
      Important: The configuration files cannot be stored on a PMem datastore. If you choose to use PMem, you must select a regular datastore for the configuration files of the virtual machine.
8. On the Deployment options page, select the network mappings, disk provisioning, and whether you want the virtual machine to power on after deployment.
9. Click Next.
10. On the Ready to complete page, review the details and click Finish.

Results

The virtual machine appears in the VMware Host Client inventory under Virtual Machines.