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2 use OVF files to interact with Workstation and vSphere

You can export the virtual machine to an OVF file in Workstation or vSphere, and then interact with the virtual machine in vSphere or Workstation by "importing the OVF file". When using OVF files to interact between Workstation and vSphere, pay attention to the Workstation virtual machine and the version of the vSphere product. For example, if a virtual machine created in VMware Workstation 12 defaults to 12.0 hardware format, the OVF exported in Workstation cannot be imported into ESXi (because the current ESXi maximum version is 6.0 and can only support up to 11 hardware version). If you want to import the virtual machine of Workstation 12 into vSphere 6, you need to modify the hardware version to 11 before exporting the OVF file. Similarly, virtual machines created in ESXi 6, if the hardware version of the virtual machine is 11, need to be imported into Workstation 11 at least, not into Workstation 10. However, if the virtual machine hardware version 9 is used when creating the virtual machine in ESXi 6, it can be imported into the Workstation version of Workstation 9 and below. In ESXi, once a virtual machine is created, the hardware version of the virtual machine can only be "upgraded", while in Workstation, the hardware version of the virtual machine can be upgraded or lowered by "changing hardware compatibility".

The corresponding relationship between the virtual machine hardware version and the Workstation and ESXi versions is shown in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 corresponding to the hardware version of the virtual machine and the minimum Workstation and ESXi versions it supports

2.1 Export OVF in vSphere

The main steps for exporting a virtual machine to OVF in vSphere are as follows.

(1) use vSphere Client (vSphere Web Client can also be used as an example in this article) to connect to ESXi or vCenter Server, shut down the virtual machine that is ready to export to OVF file, then modify the virtual machine settings, and change "CD, DVD drive" to "client device", as shown in figure 1-14.

Figure 1-14 modify virtual machine settings

(2) Select a virtual machine with power off in the list on the left, and select "Export → Export OVF template" from the "File" menu, as shown in figure 1-15.

Figure 1-15 Export OVF template

(3) in the "Export OVF template" dialog box, set the name of the export, select the exported directory, and select whether to export a folder (OVF) or a single file (OVA) in the format list, as shown in figure 1-16.

Figure 1-16 Export OVF template

(4) then start exporting the OVF template until the export is complete, as shown in figure 1-17.

Figure 1-17 Export template

[description]: folder location of OVF and OVA files. If you type C:\ OvfLib as the new OVF folder and set the name of the virtual machine to MyVm, the following files may be created:

C:\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm.ovf

C:\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm.mf

C:\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm-disk1.vmdk

If you type C:\ NewFolder\ OvfLib as the new OVF folder and set the name of the virtual machine to MyVm, the following files may be created:

C:\ NewFolder\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm.ovf

C:\ NewFolder\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm.mf

C:\ NewFolder\ OvfLib\ MyVm\ MyVm-disk1.vmdk

As shown in figure 1-18, this is the exported file when using d:\ esxi-ovf\ ws12r2-tp as the folder and ws12r2- 02 as the virtual machine name in figure 1-16.

Figure 1-18 Export OVF file

If you choose to export to OVA format and type MyVm, a C:\ MyVm.ova file is created. As shown in figure 1-19, this is a screenshot of a single OVA file exported with d:\ esxi-ovf as the folder and ws03r2-tp as the virtual machine name.

Figure 1-19 Export OVA screenshot

2.2 deploy OVF templates in vSphere

When using vSphere Client to connect directly to the host, you can deploy the OVF template through a local file system accessible to the vSphere Client computer or through Web URL.

(1) Log in to vCenter Server using vSphere Client, and select "deploy OVF template" on the File menu, as shown in figure 1-20.

Figure 1-20 deploy the OVF template

(2) in the Source dialog box, click the Browse button to select the OVF or OVA template, as shown in figure 1-21.

(3) in the "OVF template details" dialog box, shows the template virtual machine to be deployed, the disk space occupied (thin disk space and thick backup disk space), as shown in figure 1-22.

Figure 1-21 browse the selection template figure 1-22 OVF template details

(4) in the name and location dialog box, specify a name and location for your deployed template, as shown in figure 1-23.

(5) in Host / Cluster, select the template on which you want to run the deployment, as shown in figure 1-24.

Figure 1-23 name and location figure 1-24 Select a host or cluster

(6) in the Resource Pool dialog box, select the resource pool in which you want to deploy the template, as shown in figure 1-25.

(7) in the "memory" dialog box, choose where to store the virtual machine files, you can choose as needed, as shown in figure 1-26.

Figure 1-25 Resource Pool figure 1-26 memory

(8) in the disk format dialog box, select the format in which to store the virtual disk, as shown in figure 1-27.

(9) in the Network Mapping dialog box, select which network to use for the deployed virtual machines, as shown in figure 1-28.

Figure 1-27 disk format figure 1-28 network mapping

(10) in the "ready to complete" dialog box, the deployment information is displayed, and after the check is correct, click the "finish" button, as shown in figure 1-29.

Figure 1-29 is about to be completed

(11) then start deploying the virtual machine until the deployment is complete, as shown in figure 1-30.

Figure 1-30 deployment completed

After deployment, the virtual machine appears in the inventory, as shown in figure 1-31.

Figure 1-31 deploy a virtual machine from a template

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