Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters

When you deploy a VM template from an OVA, you can enter the parameters as VM variables and the platform will make them available on the deployed VM as the OVF environment parameters. 

To deploy an OVA with parameters on ESXi hosts (vCenter or vCenter clusters):

1. Add an OVA template with parameters into the Apps library. See Upload OVA templates from the local filesystem

   • The template must have guest tools installed

2. To add parameters to the template to use in all VMs, go to Variables
   For each parameter, create a variable with a key that has the prefix "ovfenv."
   For example, if the OVA has a parameter called "ovaParam1" and we want to set it to "ovaValue1", we would use this Key and Value combination:

   "ovfenv.ovaParam1" : "ovaValue1"

3. Create a VM from the template. 

4. Optionally add or update parameters in the VM. Go to Edit VM → Variables and add parameters as described above for the template.

5. Save and deploy the VM

From the deployed VM, you can retrieve the parameters inside the OVF environment document using guest tools, with the following command.

vmtoolsd --cmd "info-get guestinfo.ovfenv"

This initial version of the feature has the following limitations:

1. You can only set guest variables when you first deploy a VM
2. When you capture a VM, Abiquo does not read the OVF environment variables. But it does read regular variables from "guestinfo.abiquo.<variable-name>" extra configurations.
3. Abiquo does not check if the guest OS has tools installed or running
4. Abiquo does not manage the required properties for a template
5. Using this feature will enable the VAppConfig of the VM but abiquo only sets the transport=guesttools and the OVF parameters. All the other possible configurations are the default (IP assignments / install on boot / EULA / other OVF sections (e.g. product))