vmware-vmx builder ova import functionality

[orcutt989]

Feature Description

Take an OVA artifact form vmware-iso or from anywhere else and use it to provision a machine with the vmware-vmx builder.

"source_path": "vmx or ova file path"

Use Case(s)

OVA is smaller than VMX format and would take up less space on the datastore. Vcenter/esx both have functionality to import OVA let's extend this to Packer.

[azr]

Hello @orcutt989, Packer can do this already and I think https://www.packer.io/docs/builders/virtualbox-ovf.html is what you are looking for.

Don't hesitate to ask the community for help ! Cheers !

[orcutt989]

@azr That is for VirtualBox not VMWare...

[azr]

Ah wait ! You asked for vmware !

[orcutt989]

Thanks for reopening 😄

[azr]

Sorry again, then my answer is a bit different ! I think this is a good idea and I am unsure if we will have time to work on this any soon but it sounds like really nice to have. As usual PRs welcome 🙂 !

[arizvisa]

@orcutt989: In the meantime, *.ova files are just tarballs w/ the disks compressed. You can extract the files and then use the vsphere-vmx builder as-is. I'm currently wrapping all of my builds in a Makefile and then using vmware-vmx to modify templates which should be pretty similar to most workflows.

[orcutt989]

That's a great suggestion. However it would be great if Packer could handle that. Right now I'm just using vmx artifacts and passing those around. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[ghost]

This issue has been automatically migrated to hashicorp/packer-plugin-vmware#9 because it looks like an issue with that plugin. If you believe this is not an issue with the plugin, please reply to hashicorp/packer-plugin-vmware#9.

[ghost]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.

If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.