This morning I needed perform several OVF uploads using ovftool and provide that information to engineering to investigate some performance issues. I tend to error on the side of providing more information than requested. The ovftool provides some really useful debugging options that are really handy in these situations but are un-documented. I can never seem to remember the exact syntax and hence I am documenting them here. I will also file a documentation bug to ensure these get added 🙂
UPDATE (08/19/13) - Thanks to one of the OVF engineers, it turns out you can see all the debug options and their definitions by running ovftool --help debug
The two options that I am referring to are:
--X:logFile=
--X:logLevel=
The first option allows you to log the entire ovftool session to a file which you can then send off to someone and the second option allows you to control the verbosity of the logs which I normally set to use verbose.
Here is an example of how you would use these ovftool options:
/Applications/VMware\ OVF\ Tool/ovftool --X:logFile=upload.log --X:logLevel=verbose -ds=mini-local-datastore-2 '--net:Network 1=VM Network' VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.10200-1235310_OVF10.ova vi://root@mini
Once the ovftool has completed its operation, you can take a look at the log and you will see quite a bit of information including some additional ovftool options that can be specified on the command-line which start with /X:
--> /X:httpTimeout = "0"
--> /X:imageReadSize = "262144"
--> /X:logFile = "upload.log"
--> /X:logLevel = "verbose"
--> /X:maxNumberOfTermSignals = "5"
--> /X:maxRedirects = "256"
--> /X:maximalDeltaConfSize = "8"
--> /X:maximalDeltaTreeSize = "6"
--> /X:progressSmoothing = "60"
--> /X:useMacNaming = "true"
--> /X:vCloudEnableGuestCustomization = "false"
--> /X:vCloudKeepTemplate = "true"
--> /X:vCloudTimeout = "3600"
--> /X:vimSessionTimeout = "600"
Note: I would not recommend tweaking the other options as the defaults should be sufficient, but logging to a file or upping the verbosity can be useful for troubleshooting
You can see many of these debug option in OVF Tool by invoking the --help option with a debug argument
$ ovftool --help debug
Thanks for the comment Anders. I guess we should also document the "debug" option in help 🙂
Hi William,
I ran the following command, using ovftool version: VMware ovftool 4.0.0 (build-2189843)
Against a standalone host running ESXi-5.5.0-20141004001-standard
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>".\ovftool.exe" --X:injectOvfEnv --powerOn --X:logFile=upload.log --X:logLevel=verbose --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCent
er_Server_Appliance=10.4.5.20 --prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.0.1 --prop:vami.hostname=srvvcnt02 --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter
_Server_Appliance=10.4.3.21 --prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.0.0 --prop:vm.vmname=test-VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance --nam
e=vcsa --datastore=iSCSI-VMs-NAS02 --diskMode=thin --network="VM Network" --acceptAllEulas G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-S
erver-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OVF10.ova vi://root:[email protected]/
Opening OVA source: G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OVF10.ova
The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]:443/
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: vcsa
Task Completed
Completed successfully
However I still get the message "No networking detected. Please log in and run the command...."
Not sure what I am doing wrong. Let me know if you see anything I missed.
Sorry William, I realized that I reply to the wrong post. Too many browser tabs open 🙂 I meant for this to be on the post regarding -X:injectOvfEnv. All the same assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I've seen this error before, usually indicates that the portgroup the VCSA is connected to isn't connected to a network, either the vNIC has been disconnected or it can't obtain an IP Address. I would double check your network and possibly even perform a manual deployment just to make sure network is functional for the IP you're specifying
Hi William,
It turned out to the --prop:vm.vmname setting that was causing the problem. The first command works fine the second one fails. In the second command I put "test-" in front of the vmname setting. Possibly I exceeded a variable size??
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>.\ovftool.exe --X:injectOvfEnv --powerOn --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.3.21 --prop:vami.netm
ask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.0.0 --datastore=iSCSI-VMs-NAS02 --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.5.20 --prop:vami.gateway.
VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.0.1 --prop:vami.hostname=srvvcnt02.provider.priv --prop:vm.vmname=VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance --name=vcsa --diskMo
de=thin --network="VM Network" --acceptAllEulas G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OVF10.o
va vi://root:[email protected]/
Opening OVA source: G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OVF10.ova
The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]:443/
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: vcsa
Task Completed
Completed successfully
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool>.\ovftool.exe --X:injectOvfEnv --powerOn --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.3.21 --prop:vami.netm
ask0.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=255.255.0.0 --datastore=iSCSI-VMs-NAS02 --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.5.20 --prop:vami.gateway.
VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance=10.4.0.1 --prop:vami.hostname=srvvcnt02.provider.priv --prop:vm.vmname=test-VMware_vCenter_Server_Appliance --name=vcsa --d
iskMode=thin --network="VM Network" --acceptAllEulas G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OV
F10.ova vi://root:[email protected]/
Opening OVA source: G:\Software\VMWare\Products\vSphere\vSphere55U2\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.20200-2183109_OVF10.ova
The manifest validates
Source is signed and the certificate validates
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]:443/
Transfer Completed
Powering on VM: vcsa
Task Completed
Completed successfully