Installing VMware ovftool on Mac OS X

Posted on Sun 08 January 2012 in Mac

VMware offers a free tool to convert virtual machine files in different formats for example from .vmx to .ovf.

This tool can be used to convert:

VMX -> OVF
VMX -> OVA
OVF -> VMX
VMX -> vSphere

Or you can deploy a OVF directly to a ESX host. It's  more powerful than it looks like.

The documentation can be found on the VMware site and it's short and clear.

Installation:

Download the documentation and the tool from the VMware site: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/

You need a VMware id to have access but the tool itself is free.

After you downloaded the tool you can install it using the installer. The stand alone version 2.1 (which I used) will be located here: /Applications/VMware OVF Tool/

Start a terminal and change to this directory:

cd /Applications/VMware OVF Tool/

Now convert your files like you want. For example:

ovftool vmxs/Fedora.vmx ovfs/Fedora.ova

More examples how the tool can be used are shown by the command

ovftool --help examples

Examples:

ovftool --vService:vDep1=provider_1 /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf
vi://username:pass@localhost/my_datacenter/host/esx01.example.com
(specify a vService dependency)
ovftool -tt=vmx /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf /vms/
(.ovf file to .vmx file. Result files are /vms/my_vapp/my_vapp.[vmx|vmdk])
ovftool /vms/my_vm.vmx /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf
(.vmx file to .ovf file. Result is put in /ovfs/my_vapp.[ovf|vmdk])
(.ova file to .vmx file)
ovftool /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf vi://username:pass@my_esx_host
(.ovf file to ESX host using default mappings)
ovftool /ovfs/my_vm.vmx vi://username:pass@my_esx_host
(.vmx file to ESX host using default mappings)
vi://username:pass@my_esx_host
(.ovf file from a web server to ESX host using defaults)
ovftool /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf \
vi://username:pass@my_vc_server/?ip=10.20.30.40
(.ovf file to vCenter server using managed ESX host ip address)
ovftool vi://username:pass@my_vc_server/my_datacenter?ds=\
[Storage1] foo/foo.vmx c:\ovfs\
(VM on ESX/vCenter server to OVF using datastore location query)
ovftool /ovfs/my_vapp.ovf \
vi://username:pass@my_vc_server/my_datacenter/host/my_host
(.ovf file to vCenter server using vCenter inventory path)
ovftool vi://username:pass@my_host/my_datacenter/vm/my_vm_folder/my_vm_name\
/ovfs/my_vapp.ovf
(VC/ESX vm to .ovf file)
ovftool /virtualmachines/MyVM.vmx \
~my_vApprun_workspace/
(Imports a .vmx file into a vApprun workspace using default name)
(shows summary information about the OVF package [probe mode])