NOTE - We do not support OVA import to VMware ESXi directly or via VMware vCenter using a browser.

NOTE - We require the VMware OVF Tool if importing to VMware ESXi directly or via VMware vCenter:

Importing the OVA file directly to ESXi using VMware OVF Tool

You can import the OVA file directly into ESXi using VMware ovftool, from the PC or server you run ovftool.
Remember to set the Virtual Machine name you like, the datastore you want, the network you want, and point it at the server you want to deploy to.
Run the command like this:

ovftool --name="NMIS9" -dm="thin" -ds=datastore_name-number -nw="network_name-number" Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova vi://user:escaped_password@host_ip_address


Opening OVA source: Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova
Opening VI target: vi://user@host_ip_address:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://user@host_ip_address:443/
Transfer Completed
Warning:
- No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm8-centos7-disk001.vmdk'.
- No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm8-centos7-disk002.vmdk'.
- No manifest file found.
Completed successfully



Another example

johns@omkvmb9:/omk_vm_appliances/abi4$ ENCODED_PASSWORD=`echo 'not the\`password\'you want' | perl -MURI::Escape -wlne 'print uri_escape $_'`
johns@omkvmb9:/omk_vm_appliances/abi4$ cd /omk_vm_appliances/abi4/ova
johns@omkvmb9:/omk_vm_appliances/abi4/ova$ ls -l omk_vm9_centos7.ova
-rw-r--r-- 1 omkvmb omkvmb 1273077760 Jan  4 02:23 omk_vm9_centos7.ova
johns@omkvmb9:/omk_vm_appliances/abi4/ova$ time sudo ovftool -ds=sata_ssd_mx500 --diskMode=thin -n=omkvm9_centos7_2023-01-04 omk_vm9_centos7.ova vi://omkadmin:$ENCODED_PASSWORD@zeus.opmantek.net
[sudo] password for johns:
Opening OVA source: omk_vm9_centos7.ova
Opening VI target: vi://omkadmin@zeus.opmantek.net:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://omkadmin@zeus.opmantek.net:443/
Transfer Completed
Warning:
 - No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm9-centos7-disk001.vmdk'.
 - No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm9-centos7-disk002.vmdk'.
 - No manifest file found.
Completed successfully

real    0m47.790s
user    0m17.206s
sys     0m2.204s
johns@omkvmb9:/omk_vm_appliances/abi4/ova$