When exporting ovf from vSphere Client takes more than 4 hours, .mf file is not generated and the task was failed with timeout.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When exporting ovf from vSphere Client takes more than 4 hours, .mf file is not generated and the task was failed with timeout.

Logs similar to the following may appear. The transfer status of the .mf file remains in the WAITING state even after all other files have completed downloading. The export task will eventually fail with a vim.fault.Timedout error approximately five minutes after the other files finish downloading.

# vpxd.log
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z info vpxd[4184308] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=592063b2-01] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-43189520 -- ### -- VirtualMachine.ExportVmLRO -- 
:::
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z error vpxd[4184308] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=592063b2-01] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-43189520 --  -- ### -- VirtualMachine.ExportVmLRO: :vim.fault.Timedout

# cls.log
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####.mf, URI = manifest:/, status = WAITING
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####-4.vmdk, URI = https://###/nfc/52bd7cb1-fce1-5534-1796-93e2049e1748/disk-3.vmdk, status = DONE
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####-5.nvram, URI = https://###/nfc/52bd7cb1-fce1-5534-1796-93e2049e1748/disk-4.nvram, status = DONE
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####-1.vmdk, URI = https://###/nfc/52bd7cb1-fce1-5534-1796-93e2049e1748/disk-0.vmdk, status = DONE
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####-3.vmdk, URI = https://###/nfc/52bd7cb1-fce1-5534-1796-93e2049e1748/disk-2.vmdk, status = DONE
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####.ovf, URI = text:/, status = DONE
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z | DEBUG    | ### | cls-simple-activity-6     | TransferServiceUtil            | file = ####-2.vmdk, URI = https://###/nfc/52bd7cb1-fce1-5534-1796-93e2049e1748/disk-1.vmdk, status = DONE

Environment

VMware vCenter Server

Cause

vSphere Client has an internal timeout value for ovf operation, which is set 4 hours by default. Existing file transfers will remain even after the timeout, but if they exceed the timeout, downloading .mf file will never triggered and the ovf task is treated by Timedout by vpxd.

Resolution

Extend timeout value if the ovf operation is expected to take a long time.

1. Login to vCenter Server's bash shell.
2. Edit /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/webclient.properties file.
   
   # Before (Example: default value 4hour)
   ovf.download.timeout=14400000
   
   # After (Example: changed to 8 hour)
   ovf.download.timeout=28800000

3. Restart vsphere-ui service.

   service-control --restart vsphere-ui