Importing the OVA file to an ESXi Datacenter via vCenter using VMware OVF Tool


You can import the OVA file into a VMware ESXi Datacenter via VMware vCenter 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 commands like this:

Determine the Datacenter name:
ovftool vi://administrator@vsphere.localdomain:Vagrant1\!@photon-machine
Error: Found wrong kind of object (Folder). Possible completions are:
Datacenter1/

Determine the Datacenter available options:
ovftool vi://administrator@vsphere.localdomain:Vagrant1\!@photon-machine/Datacenter1/
Error: Found wrong kind of object (Datacenter). Possible completions are:
vm/
host/

Determine the Datacenter host IP or FQDN:
ovftool vi://administrator@vsphere.localdomain:Vagrant1\!@photon-machine/Datacenter1/host/
Error: Found wrong kind of object (Folder). Possible completions are:
172.16.37.128/

Import Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova which is in the current directory, in this example using vSphere option --diskMode=thin:
ls -la
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 903864320 Jul 29 13:09 Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --name="omk_vm9_centos7" --diskMode=thin Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova vi://administrator@vsphere.localdomain:Vagrant1\!@photon-machine/Datacenter1/host/172.16.37.128
Opening OVA source: Opmantek-20200708-VM9-Centos7.2003-3-64bit.ova
Opening VI target: vi://administrator%40vsphere.localdomain@172.16.37.130:443/Datacenter1/host/172.16.37.128
Deploying to VI: vi://administrator%40vsphere.localdomain@172.16.37.130:443/Datacenter1/host/172.16.37.128
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