Split and Export or Import OVF Packages Using OVF Tool
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Split and Export or Import OVF Packages Using OVF Tool

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Article ID: 452206

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When exporting and importing a large virtual machine as an OVF package, depending on the VMDK file size, splitting the OVF package may be required to bypass single file size limitations at the destination or for transfer optimization.

Environment

vSphere 8.0
vSphere 9.0

Cause

The vSphere Client and Host Client do not have the split export and import features for OVF packages implemented. Therefore, when splitting an OVF package is required, it is necessary to perform the split export and import using OVF Tool.

Resolution

  • Split and export a virtual machine from vCenter:

Using the --chunkSize option of OVF Tool, it is possible to split and export an OVF package at a specified size.

ovftool.exe --noSSLVerify --chunkSize=<Size split to>  "vi://<vCenter username>@<vCenter name>/<Datacenter name>/vm/<VM folder name>/<VM name>" "<Destination file of ovf>"

Example (When splitting in 2GB units):

ovftool.exe --noSSLVerify --chunkSize=2gb "vi://[email protected]@vc.example.com/Datacenter/vm/VM_Folder/vm-example" "D:\vm-example.ovf"

Note: If the VMDK size is larger than the specified size, it will be split and exported as follows:

vm-example-disk1.vmdk.000000000
vm-example-disk1.vmdk.000000001
vm-example-disk1.vmdk.000000002

  • Import an OVF template to vCenter:

During import, simply execute the import by specifying the ovf file, and the --chunkSize option is not required.
Since vSphere Client and Host Client do not recognize split and exported VMDK files, the import must be executed using OVF Tool.

ovftool.exe --noSSLVerify --name=<VM name> --datastore=<Datastore name> --diskMode=<Disk mode> --network="<Network name>" <Path file ovf to> vi://<vCenter username>@<vCenter name>/<Datacenter name>/host/<Cluster name>/<ESXi hostname>

Example:

ovftool.exe --noSSLVerify --name=vm-example --datastore=iscsi-01 --diskMode=thin --network="VM Network" D:\vm-example.ovf vi://[email protected]@vc.example.com/Datacenter/host/Cluster/esxi.example.com

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