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Import a virtual machine to the public cloud

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Through the VMware Cloud Director® panel, you can upload OS images (ISO) and virtual machine templates (.ova, .ovf) to content libraries. OS images and VM templates are stored in catalogs. You can share catalog data with other users or organizations within Cloud Director or publish it for access by organizations from the outside.

You can upload files to an existing catalog or create a new one.

In virtual data centers in the cluster SILVER-1, there are restrictions on importing custom VM ISO images. If you encounter issues with importing, create a ticket and provide a link to the ISO image.

  1. Optional: create a catalog.
  2. Upload a virtual machine template to the catalog.
  3. Upload an OS image.

1. Optional: create a catalog

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → section Cloud Director.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Open the Content Hub tab.
  4. Go to the Catalogs section.
  5. Click New.
  6. In the Name field, enter the catalog name.
  7. Optional: in the Description field, enter a catalog description.
  8. Optional: to select a storage policy, turn on the Pre-provision on specific storage policy switch and select a policy.
  9. Click OK. The new catalog will appear in the list of available catalogs.

2. Upload a virtual machine template

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → section Cloud Director.

  2. Open the virtual data center page.

  3. Open the Content Hub tab.

  4. Go to the Content section.

  5. Click ADD → OVA/OVF.

  6. At the Select Source stage:

    6.1. Upload the template:

    • in the URL field, enter the URL of the .ovf /.ova file;
    • or in the Browse field, upload the file from your computer.

    6.2. Click Next.

  7. At the Select vApp Template Name stage:

    7.1. In the Name field, enter the template name.

    7.2. Optional: in the Description field, enter a template description.

    7.3. In the Catalog field, select the catalog to which you want to upload the template.

    7.4. Click Next.

  8. At the Ready to Complete stage:

    8.1. Check the data.

    8.2. Click Finish. The upload time depends on the size of the template and your internet connection speed. The new template will appear in the Content Libraries → vApp Templates.

3. Upload an OS image

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → section Cloud Director.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Content section.
  4. Click ADD → Media.
  5. In the Catalog field, select the catalog to which you want to upload the image.
  6. In the Select media to upload field, select the ISO file to upload.
  7. Optional: in the Name field, change the name that was filled in automatically.
  8. Optional: in the Description field, enter an image description.
  9. Click OK. The upload time depends on the size of the template and your internet connection speed. The new template will appear in the list of available templates in the Content Libraries → Media & Other.
  10. Optional: after installing the OS from the ISO, install the integration package VMware Tools™.

Error when importing a template

If an import task for a VM template in .ova format fails, it can be fixed in Cloud Director or by using the VMware vcd-cli.

  1. Unpack the OVA file with an archiver (e.g., tar, 7zip). The extracted folder will contain the VM template files in .ovf, .mf and .vmdk.
  2. Upload the template. When performing step 6 in the Select Source section, upload all files extracted upon unpacking the .ova.