Export to OVA on VMWare vSphere ESXi & vCenter Server 6.5 – 6.6 – 6.7

VMWare no longer allows you to export to .ova from the Web GUI. Here’s is how I got around that.

To skip to the different methods use the following:
1:39 – vSphere Standalone Tool for ESXi Host *This only works on v 6.5*
3:10 – OVF Tool on vCenter Server Web Gui
4:51 – OVF Tool on vSphere ESXi Host Web GUI

Download Links:
VMware vSphere Client 6.0 Update 3
http://vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/5/1/1/2/5/0/8/VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-5112508.exe

VMware Open Virtualization Format Tool 4.3.0
https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OVFTOOL430&productId=742

OVF Tool User’s Guide
https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ovftool-430-userguide.pdf

Local path for OVF Tool:
C:Program filesVMWareVMWare OVF Tool

OVF Tool Commands

vCenter Server:
ovftool.exe “vi://[username]:[password]@[vCenter or vSphere host FQDN]:443/[datacenter name]/vm/,VM Name]” “D:[Local Path][VM Name].ova”

example:
ovftool.exe “vi://[email protected]:[email protected]:443/ISE Demo Lab/vm/Demo Lab_ISE 2.4” “D:LAB VM BackupISEDemo Lab_ISE 2.4.ova”

The breakdown:
ovftool.exe is the name of the application

vi://[email protected]:[email protected]:443/ISE Demo Lab/vm/Demo Lab_ISE 2.4 contains the URL for the vcenter VM. The username and password are separated by a colon. The at symbol is the separator between the user details and the server FQDN, then the port number. This is followed by the Datacenter in which the VM is stored, then the designator for vm and finally the name of the specific VM you want to export. It is important to remember to enclose this section in quotes if there are spaces in the URL.

D:LAB VM BackupISEDemo Lab_ISE 2.4.ova is simply the location to which you want to export. Note the file extension of ova here. The choices are ova and ovf, and as I said before, I want ova. Again, enclose this section in quotes if there are spaces in the path.

vSphere ESXi Host:
ovftool.exe “vi://[username]:[password]@[FQDN or IP Address of vSphere ESXi]:443/[VM Name]” “D:[Target Directory][VM Name].ova”

For vSphere ESXi, the command is slightly different and does not include a datacenter name or the vm designator:
ovftool.exe “vi://[email protected]:443/Demo Lab_ISE 2.4” “D:LAB VM BackupISEDemo Lab_ISE 2.4.ova”