Run OVF Tool With ESXi and vCenter Target Locations

If you are deploying with the ovftool command targeting vCenter Server, you can use the command line options in the table below to specify parameters when you deploy.

If you are deploying with the ovftool command targeting an ESXi host, you must “inject” the parameters into the resulting VM when it is powered on. This is because the ESXi host lacks a cache to store the OVF parameters, as with vCenter Server. Therefore, you must use the --X:injectOvfEnv debug option with the --poweron flag in the command line if you are deploying a virtual machine targeting ESXi. Example below. (You can also do this using the Create a VM from an OVA/OVF option in the ESXi host client, then browse to the .ova file.)

>./ovftool/ovftool\
--name="Cloudvm_2074586_with_inject"\
--X:injectOvfEnv\
--X:logFile=ovftool.log\
--X:logLevel=trivia\
--acceptAllEulas\
-ds=cl-storage-1\
-dm=thin\
--net:'Network 1=VM Network'\
--X:enableHiddenProperties\
--noSSLVerify\
--allowExtraConfig\
--machineOutput\
--prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.255.0\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.prefix=24\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.gateway=X.X.X.123\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.time.tools-sync=True\
--prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=X.X.X.123\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.dns.servers=X.X.X.1,X.X.X.2\
--prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=X.X.X.145\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.passwd=vmware\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr=X.X.X.145\
--prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=X.X.X.1,X.X.X.2\
--prop:vami.vmname=vmc-srm-vc10\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.shell=/bin/bash\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.vmdir.first-instance=True\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.ssh.enabled=True\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.mode=static\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr.family=ipv4\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.vmdir.domain-name=vsphere.local\
--prop:guestinfo.cis.vmdir.password=vmware\
--powerOn\
--X:waitForIp\ 
http://<directory_w/cloudvm>/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.0.0.XXXX-XXXXXXX_OVF10.ovf\
vi://root:pwd@vm_name

You will need to replace the variables (IP addresses, build numbers, root password, and VM names) in the above example with values from your own system.