VMware OVF Tool Release Notes

OVF Tool 4.4.0 Patch 1 | 22 June 2020 | Resource on code.vmware.com
For vSphere 7.0 | Last document update 17 June 2020
Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

These release notes cover the following topics:

About the OVF Tool

OVF Tool 4.4.0 Patch 1 coincides with vSphere 7.0 Patch 1.

VMware OVF Tool is a command-line utility that allows you to import and export OVF packages to and from virtual machines running on VMware virtualization platforms. OVF Tool gets called internally by many VMware products.

Before You Begin

You can download the OVF Tool for installation on Windows 64-bit or 32-bit, Linux 64-bit or 32-bit, Mac OS X 64-bit, and ARM 64-bit. The OVF Tool landing page provides a link to the software download group for each release. OVF Tool 4.4.0 Patch 1 supports the same operating systems as OVF Tool 4.4.

What's New?

This is a patch release of OVF Tool. See resolved issues below

Compatibility Notices

When customers try to install vCenter Server 7.0 from a browser on Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina, a popup dialog appears saying “vcsa-deploy.bin cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified” and installation fails with error “ovftool cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.” This is due to greater security in Catalina. OVF Tool called by vcsa-deploy is not notarized for Apple. One workaround in Chrome browser is to click the dialog and type thisisunsafe to proceed. A more universal workaround is to run the following commands in Terminal:

  1. sudo spctl --master-disable
    sets “Allow apps download from” anywhere in Security and Privacy.
  2. sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine Path-to-ISO
    then mount the ISO, open UI Installer, and install.
  3. sudo spctl —-master-enable
    to re-enable security.

Resolved Issues

Fixed in this release:

  • OVF Tool could crash with no datastore specified.

    When the user did not specify a datastore, OVF Tool should have displayed an error message, but instead it crashed with a segmentation fault. The workaround was to specify the datastore argument. This issue has been fixed in this release.