Export and import vAPP directly from vCloud Director using OVFTool
OVFTool is a useful tool from VMWare that allows users to import and export OVA/OVF files directly from vCloudOrg and perform other operations. It runs from the command line.
The utility is available at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OVFTOOL440&productId=974 (registration on the VMWare website is required).
Last updated version 4.4 from 04/20/2020
To use the utility, you need to install it, then go to the folder containing the installed program in the command line
cd C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool
Before you start working with the tool, you should know the following information
1. vCloud URL
2. vCloud username and password
3. Organisation name
4. vDC name
5. vApp name
Note. VM/vApp must be powered off (stopped).
How to import into vCloud Director
Command syntax is simple enough ovftool.exe source target
ovftool -tt=vCloud c:\<LOCAL_FILEPATH>\<FILE_NAME>.ovf "vcloud://<ORG_USER>:<ORG_PASSWORD>@vcd.cloud4y.ru/cloud?org=<ORG_NAME>&vdc=<VDC_NAME>&vapp=<VAPP_NAME>".
<LOCAL_FILEPATH> absolute path to OVF image
<FILE_NAME> OVF file name
<ORG_USER> username for access to vOrg
<ORG_PASSWORD> user password
<ORG_NAME> your vCloud Org name
<VDC_NAME> your vCloud vDC name
<VAPP_NAME> desired vApp name where the image will be deployed
Import into catalogue
Instead of importing directly to vApp, you can upload OVF to a directory for later deployment.
ovftool -tt=vCloud c:\<LOCAL_FILEPATH>\<FILE_NAME>.ovf “vcloud://<ORG_USER>:<ORG_PASSWORD>@vcd.cloud4y.ru/cloud?org=<ORG_NAME>&vdc=<VDC_NAME>&vapp=<VAPP_NAME>&catalog=<CATALOG_NAME>”
<CATALOG_NAME> the full name of the directory where the image will be placed
How to export from vCloud Director
For exporting the VM command syntax will be as follows:
ovftool.exe --parallelThreads=4 --X:progressSmoothing=10 --X:vCloudTimeout=60000 --X:vCloudKeepAliveTimeout=60000 --X:logFile=f:\test\log.txt --X:logLevel=verbose "vcloud://<ORG_USER>:<ORG_PASSWORD>@vcd.cloud4y.ru/cloud?org=<ORG_NAME>&vdc=<VDC_NAME>&vapp=<VAPP_NAME>" c:\<LOCAL_FOLDER>\
<LOCAL_FOLDER> Specify path to folder. Inside it you will create a folder with the name vAPP
<ORG_USER> username for access to vOrg
<ORG_PASSWORD> user password
<ORG_NAME> your vCloud Org name
<VDC_NAME> your vCloud vDC name
<VAPP_NAME> Name of vApp to be downloaded
Optionally you can add keys:
1. for logging the process
--X:logFile=C:\<LOG_FILE_PATH> - log file name
--X:logLevel=verbose
2. To change the timeout, you can use the following options when exporting large files
--X:progressSmoothing=10
--X:vCloudTimeout=60000 (measured in sec. Default value 60 sec.)
--X:vCloudKeepAliveTimeout=60000.
3. The new version of OVFTool allows you to specify the number of parallel OVF import/export ports. On large VMs, this can increase the speed of the operation
--parallelThreads=4 value should preferably be equal to the number of CPUs
You can read more about this option from William Lam https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2020/04/really-cool-updates-with-ovftool-4-4-and-support-for-vsphere-7.html.
See https://code.vmware.com/docs/11747/ovf-tool-user-s-guide for basic documentation on the OVFTool utility.
