Steps to edit an OVF file after exporting a Virtual Machine to a OVF template

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

These steps can be used to edit the contents of an OVF file in order to make changes to the VM metadata.

Environment

• vSphere 7.x
• vSphere 8.x

Cause

There may be situations where the VM metadata in an .ovf file needs to be modified in order for an OVF import to complete successfully.  For example:

• When attempting to import an OVF with a VM using a virtual hardware version higher that what is supported on the vCenter Server.

Resolution

• When a VM is exported as an OFV template, three files will be created including:
  • .ofv: The VM metadata
  • .vmdk: The virtual disk file
  • .mf: The manifest file which contains a checksum of the OVF and MF files
• Make the necessary changes to the .ovf file
  • For example, change the virtual hardware version of the VM
• The manifest file will contain the SHA256 checksum of the .vmdk and .ovf files.  For example:
  • SHA256(Example-VM.vmdk)= #########################################
SHA256(Example-VM.ovf)= #########################################

• Update the manifest file with the updated checksum of the updated .ovf file
• In order to calculate the SHA265 checksum of a file:
  • Windows Powershell
    • Get-FileHash .\Example-VM.ovf -Algorithm SHA256
  • Linux terminal:
    • sha256sum ./Example-VM.ovf
  • Mac terminal:
    • shasum -a 256 ./Example-VM.ovf
• Copy the new hash value, and replace the old hash value of the .ovf file in the .mf file
• Import the OVF into vSphere