HowTo: Export VM from a

VMware vCenter as OVF

template

Technical Support | Operations Team

Free for use
1.1 Overview

In order for virtual machines to be used by Siemens Technical Support,

they must be in a specific format.
Depending on the environment our customers have, different methods
are required to create a suitable VM.

This document describes how to proceed if the customer has a VMware

vCenter Server. Guidance at VMware is here.

1.2 Accessing vCenter via Browser

Open the vCenter Server web interface with a browser and log in to it.

1.3 Selecting the view of VMs and templates

In the upper left corner click on the icon to view VMs and templates:

In the overview you get the most important information about the VM.
1.4 Search VM:

Call up the VM via the search function:

Alternatively, the VM can also be searched in the folder structure

1.5 Prepare VM

If the VM is still on, please be sure to shut it down and turn it off.
Open the context menu of the VM with a right click on its name.
Select “Edit settings”.
If the VM has a CD/DVD drive, set it to "Client device" and save the
setting.

1.6 Export VM

Open the context menu of the VM with a right click on its name.
First click "Template" then "Export OVF Template”.

1.7 Start OVF-Export

Download the VM from the vCenter by clicking "OK"..

The following files are downloaded:
1. a single file whose name corresponds to the name of the VM and
has the file extension "ovf".
2. a single file with the file extension "vmdk" is downloaded for
each hard disk of the VM.
3. a single file with the file extension "mf".
The first and last files are small. The vmdk file(s) are as large as it
corresponds to the used disk space.

1.8 Upload

Upload all the files downloaded in the previous step to the TS Fileshare
provided by us.
The files do not need to be compressed, encrypted or split into parts. If
this should be done anyway, please use the free program 7-Zip for this
purpose: https://www.7-zip.org/
Please notify us when the upload is complete.