The OVF Standard

The OVF specification describes a secure, portable, efficient, and flexible method to package and distribute virtual machines and components. It originated from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) after vendor initiative. Companies that contributed to the OVF standard include VMware, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, XenSource, and Citrix.

Version 1.1 was published in January 2010, which supersedes the 1.0 specification published April 2009, and is available on the DMTF Web site, along with a white paper.

• Specification: http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/DSP0243_1.1.0.pdf
• Whitepaper: http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/DSP2017_1.0.0.pdf