Creating a Template VM from a OVA image

This document outlines the general procedure for adding new Template VMs in vSphere for .ova images.

The template VM in this guide refers to a regular vSphere VM and not VM Templates according to the vSphere terminology. The difference is quite subtle, but VM Templates are not supported yet by machine-controller.

WebUI procedure

  1. Go into the vSphere WebUI, select your datacenter, right click onto it and choose “Deploy OVF Template”
  2. Fill in the “URL” field with the appropriate url pointing to the OVA file
  3. Click through the dialog until “Select storage”
  4. Select the same storage you want to use for your machines
  5. Select the same network you want to use for your machines
  6. Leave everything in the “Customize Template” and “Ready to complete” dialog as it is
  7. Wait until the VM got fully imported and the “Snapshots” => “Create Snapshot” button is not grayed out anymore

Command-line procedure

Prerequisites:

  • govc: tested on version 0.37.2
  • jq

Procedure:

  1. Download the OVA for the targeted OS.

    curl -sL "${OVA_URL}" -O .

  2. Extract the specs from the OVA:

    govc import.spec $(basename "${OVA_URL}") | jq -r > options.json

  3. Edit the options.json file with your text editor of choice.

    • Edit the NetworkMapping to point to the correct network.
    • Make sure that PowerOn is set to false.
    • Make sure that MarkAsTemplate is set to false.
    • Verify the other properties and customize according to your needs. e.g.
    {
  "DiskProvisioning": "flat",
  "IPAllocationPolicy": "dhcpPolicy",
  "IPProtocol": "IPv4",
  "PropertyMapping": [
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.hostname",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.flatcar.config.data",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.flatcar.config.url",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.flatcar.config.data.encoding",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.name",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.mac",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.dhcp",
      "Value": "no"
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.role",
      "Value": "public"
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.ip.0.address",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.route.0.gateway",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.interface.0.route.0.destination",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.dns.server.0",
      "Value": ""
    },
    {
      "Key": "guestinfo.dns.server.1",
      "Value": ""
    }
  ],
  "NetworkMapping": [
    {
      "Name": "VM Network",
      "Network": "Kubermatic Default"
    }
  ],
  "MarkAsTemplate": false,
  "PowerOn": false,
  "InjectOvfEnv": false,
  "WaitForIP": false,
  "Name": null
}

  4. Create a VM from the OVA:

    govc import.ova -options=options.json $(basename "${OVA_URL}")