XenCenter

Export VMs as OVF/OVA

May 14, 2024

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You can export one or more VMs as an OVF or OVA package using the XenCenter Export wizard. To open the wizard, select the VM you want to export and on the VM menu, select Export. The VMs must be shut down or suspended before they can be exported.

You need an RBAC role of Pool Admin to export to OVF/OVA. The Export wizard performs checks when it starts up to ensure that you have a Pool Admin role before allowing you to continue. For more information, see RBAC overview.

Note:

It might not always be possible to run an imported VM that was exported from another server with a different CPU type. For example, a Windows VM created on a server with an Intel VT CPU, then exported, might not run when imported to a server with an AMD-V CPU.

You cannot use OVA/OVF to export virtual machines with an attached vTPM.

Prerequisites

To be able to export a VM as an OVF/OVA package, you require certain permissions. The Export wizard performs checks to ensure that you have a required role in the destination pool before allowing you to continue. For more information about the RBAC roles that are required, see Definitions of RBAC roles and permissions.

Export an OVF/OVA package

Open the Export wizard: select the pool or server containing the VMs you want to export, then on the VM menu, select Export.
On the first page of the wizard, enter the name of the export file. Specify the folder where you want the files to be saved. Select OVF/OVA Package (*.ovf, *.ova) from the Format list. Select Next.
Select the VMs you want to export. Select Next.
On the EULAs page, you can add previously prepared End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) documents (.rtf, .txt) in the package. To view the contents of a EULA in a text editor, select it in the list and select View. If you do not want to include a EULA in the package, select Next to continue.
On the Advanced options page, specify any manifest, signature, and output file options, or select Next to continue:
1. To create a manifest for the package, select the Create a manifest check box. The manifest provides an inventory or list of the other files in a package. The manifest is used to ensure the files originally included when the package was created are the same files present when the package arrives. When the files are imported, a checksum is used to verify that the files have not changed since the package was created.
2. To add a digital signature to the package, select the Sign the OVF package check box. Browse to locate a certificate. Enter the private key associated with the certificate in the Private key password box. When a signed package is imported, the user can verify the package creator’s identity by using the certificate’s public key to validate the digital signature. Use an X.509 certificate that you have already created from a Trusted Authority and exported as either a .pem or .pfx file that contains the signature of the manifest file and the certificate used to create that signature.
3. To output the selected VMs as a single (tar) file in OVA format, select the Create OVA Package check box. For more information on the different file formats, see Open Virtualization Format (OVF and OVA).
4. To compress the virtual hard disk images (.VHD files) included in the package, select the Compress OVF files check box. By default, when you create an appliance package, the virtual hard disk images that are exported consume the same amount of space that was allocated to the VM. For example, a VM that is allocated 26 GiB of space has a hard disk image that consumes 26 GiB of space, regardless of whether the VM actually requires that much space. Compressing the VHD files makes the export process take longer to complete, and importing a package containing compressed VHD files takes longer as the Import wizard must extract the VHD images as it imports them.
If both the Create OVA Package and Compress OVF files options are checked, the result is a compressed OVA file *.ova.gz.
On the final page of the wizard, review the settings you have selected on the previous pages. To have the wizard verify the exported package, select the Verify export on completion check box. Select Finish to begin exporting the selected VMs and close the wizard.

The export process can take some time. The export speed depends on the size of the virtual disks, the available network bandwidth, and the disk interface speed of the XenCenter host. Progress is displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the XenCenter window and on the Events view under Notifications.

To cancel an export in progress, select Notifications > Events, find the export in the list of events, and select Cancel.

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Export VMs as OVF/OVA

May 14, 2024

Contributed by:

May 14, 2024

Contributed by:

Export VMs as OVF/OVA

Prerequisites

Export an OVF/OVA package

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