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techraf
Asked: 2017-01-08 21:00:18 +0800 CST

VMware ESXi - how to deploy a VM from OVA and prevent it from booting automatically?

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I am trying to deploy a CoreOS machine from OVA on VMware ESXi 6.0 web client (not vCenter).

I want to customise the machine before first boot, however the "Power on after deployment" checkbox seems to be missing in this interface:

enter image description here

After clicking Finish the machine starts up. How can I prevent the newly deployed machine from starting?

vmware-esxi

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Is this a screenshot of the HTML5 client connected directly to an ESXi host? ESXi /must/ power on an OVF-VM immediately as ESXi has no ability to persist the OVF Environment anywhere.

    The flash-based web client connected to vCenter Server certainly does have a PowerOnAfterDeployment checkbox in the deploy-from-OVF wizard. And VC stores the OVF Environment in its database. See screenshot https://www.nakivo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/power-on-after-deployment.png

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  2. ESXi /must/ power on an OVF-VM immediately as ESXi has no ability to persist the OVF Environment anywhere.

    This is generally the case if there are OVF properties defined in the OVA, but for the CoreOS image, there is not. The ESXi Embedded Host Client could also hold onto the OVF properties in memory while allowing a user to edit the virtualHW prior to submitting the request, so I think there's an option.

    For now, you'll need to use the vSphere Web/C# Client to edit the VM prior to power on. I'll drop a message to the EHC developer and see if we can get this added as a feature in the future.

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