It is possible to specify files or websites as a URL by prefixing the path with file:// or http://, as shown in the following examples.
Examples of file locations:
file://c:\folder1\folder2\package.ovf (Absolute, Windows) file:///folder1/folder2/package.ovf (Absolute, Linux) file://package.ovf (Relative for both Windows and Linux)
Encoding Special Characters in a URL
When you specify a URL, special characters must be escaped with percent % followed by the respective ASCII hex value. For instance, if you use at-sign @ in a URL, it must be specified as %40, and backslash in a Windows domain name (\) must be specified as %5c.
When you specify a login name and password in a URL, or interactively, ovftool uses an open source library for URL encoding, also called percent encoding, to make the result acceptable on the web. For VI and vCloud locations, percent encoding is unnecessary and not done.
HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP Locators
You can use HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP to refer to an OVF package (OVF or OVA file) on a Web server. You can only use these protocols to specify a source locator. In the following syntax, protocol is HTTP, HTTPS or FTP:
protocol://username:password@host:port/<path to OVF package>
It is possible to omit the user name and password from the locator. If needed, OVF Tool prompts you for them. If you use the standard port, it is not necessary to specify the port. Standard Ports shows the standard ports.
| Protocol | Port |
|---|---|
| HTTP | 80 |
| HTTPS | 443 |
| FTP | 21 |
