"The OVF package is invalid and cannot be deployed" error when deploying the OVA

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server 6.0
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• Deploying the OVA via the vSphere Client fails.
• You see this error:
  
  The OVF package is invalid and cannot be deployed.
  The following manifest file entry (line 1) is invalid: SHA256 (xxxxxxx.ovf).

Environment

VMware vSphere Integrated Containers 1.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the vSphere Client does not support the SHA256 hashing algorithm, which the latest VIC OVA was made of (from 1.1.1).

 

It also affects any OVA deployments via PowerCLI when using the Get-Ovf Configuration cmdlet.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, deploy vIC via the vSphere Web Client or ESXi Embedded Host Client because both support SHA256.
 

However, if you still want to automate your deployments, you must convert the OVA from the Cryptographic Hash Algorithm SHA256 to SHA1.

To do this, you can use OVFTool which is available on all OS at: Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Tool

 

To do the conversion, run this command:

ovftool.exe --shaAlgorithm=SHA1 \path\to\the\original\ova_file.ova \path\to\the\new\ova\file-SHA1.ova

You can now use the new ova generated with SHA1 for your future deployments without experiencing any format error.