Unable to deploy virtual appliance from OVF template via vSphere Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• OVF deployment using the vSphere Client UI fails with an error message:

Failed to deploy OVF package. Cause: A general system error occurred: Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate file.

• When reviewing the content library service log, /var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log, the following error can be seen:

  2026-01-16T10:14:43.695+01:00 | ERROR    | m49un9f0-85042395-auto-1emr4s-h5:77498832-9d-7e | cls-simple-activity-1     | ImportSessionActivity          | OVF import session 42948898-4c2c-4595-aeed-cccd84d2ca41 failed with server error.
  com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.ServiceUnavailable: ServiceUnavailable (com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.service_unavailable) => {
      messages = [LocalizableMessage (com.vmware.vapi.std.localizable_message) => {
      id = com.vmware.ovfs.ovfs-main.ovfs.transfer_failed_mf_cert_retrieval_timeout,
      defaultMessage = Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate file.,
      args = [],
      params = <null>,
      localized = <null>
  }],
      data = <null>,
      errorType = SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

This issue can occur when the OVF contains one or more large disk files.

In some cases the content library tries to read the manifest file (.mf)  of the OVF after the disk(s), at which point the preconfigured timeout for file transfers might have already expired.

Resolution

Option A - increase the transfer thread pool size:

• Edit /etc/vmware-content-library/config/ts-config.properties using the VI editor
• Find the following line:

  transfer.threads.poolSize=20

• Change the value, e,g. to 40
• Save and exit the editor
• Restart the content-library service:

  # service-control --restart vmware-content-library
  

 

Option B - increase the transfer session timeout for the content library:

• Edit /etc/vmware-content-library/config/ts-config.properties using the VI editor
• Find the following line:

  transfer.http.request.timeout.seconds=120

• Change the value, e,g. to 240
• Save and exit the editor
• Restart the content-library service:

  # service-control --restart vmware-content-library