Managed Object - OvfManager(vim.OvfManager)

Property of

ServiceContent

See also

Datastore, HostSystem, ManagedEntity, OvfCreateDescriptorParams, OvfCreateDescriptorResult, OvfCreateImportSpecParams, OvfCreateImportSpecResult, OvfOptionInfo, OvfParseDescriptorParams, OvfParseDescriptorResult, OvfValidateHostParams, OvfValidateHostResult, ResourcePool

Since

vSphere API 4.0

Managed Object Description

The purpose of this interface is to make it easier for callers to import VMs and vApps from OVF packages and to export VI packages to OVF. In the following description, the term "client" is used to mean any caller of the interface.

This interface only converts between OVF and VI types. To actually import and export entities, use ImportVApp, ExportVm and ExportVApp.

Import

For the import scenario, the typical sequence of events is as follows:

The client calls parseDescriptor to obtain information about the OVF descriptor. This typically includes information (such as a list of networks) that must be mapped to VI infrastructure entities.

The OVF descriptor is validated against the OVF Specification, and any errors or warnings are returned as part of the ParseResult. For example, the parser might encounter a section marked required that it does not understand, or the XML descriptor might be malformed.

The client decides on network mappings, datastore, properties etc. It then calls createImportSpec to obtain the parameters needed to call ImportVApp.

If any warnings are present, the client will review these and decide whether to proceed or not. If errors are present, the ImportSpec will be missing, so the client is forced to give up or fix the problems and then try again.

The client now calls ImportVApp, passing the ImportSpec as a parameter. This will create the virtual machines and VirtualApp objects in VI and return locations to which the files of the entity can be uploaded. It also returns a lease that controls the duration of the lock taken on the newly created inventory objects. When all files have been uploaded, the client must release this lease.

Export

Creating the OVF descriptor is the last part of exporting an entity to OVF. At this point, the client has already downloaded all files for the entity, optionally compressing and/or chunking them (however, the client may do a "dry run" of creating the descriptor before downloading the files. See CreateDescriptor).

In addition to the entity reference itself, information about the choices made on these files is passed to createDescriptor as a list of OvfFile instances.

The client must inspect and act upon warnings and errors as previously described.

No matter if the export succeeds or fails, the client is responsible for releasing the shared state lock taken on the entity (by ExportVm or ExportVApp) during the export.

Error handling

All result types contain warning and error lists. Warnings do not cause processing to fail, but the caller (typically, the user of a GUI client) may choose to reject the result based on the warnings issued.

Errors cause processing to abort by definition.

Properties

Methods

CreateDescriptor(createDescriptor)

To create the complete OVF descriptor, the client must already have downloaded the files that are part of the entity, because information about these files (compression, chunking, filename etc.) is part of the descriptor.

However, these downloads can be quite time-consuming, so if the descriptor for some reason cannot be generated, the client will want to know this before downloading the files.

For this reason, the client may do an initial "dry run" with the ovfFiles parameter unset. Default filenames will then be used in the descriptor, and the client can examine any warnings and/or errors before downloading the files.

After the final call to this method, client must release the lock on the entity given to it by ExportVm or ExportVApp.

Required Privileges

System.View

Parameters

Return Value

Faults

Events

CreateImportSpec(createImportSpec)

• An ImportSpec to use when importing the entity.
• A list of items to upload (for example disk backing files, ISO images etc.)

Required Privileges

System.View

Parameters

Return Value

Faults

Events

ParseDescriptor(parseDescriptor)

Typically, this method is called once without a deploymentOption parameter to obtain the values for the default deployment option. Part of the result is the list of possible deployment options. To obtain the values for a particular deployment option, call this method again, specifying that option.

Required Privileges

System.View

Parameters

Return Value

Faults

Events

ValidateHost(validateHost)

More specifically, this means whether or not the host supports the virtual hardware required by the OVF descriptor.

Required Privileges

System.View

Parameters

Return Value

Faults

Events