OVF

The OVF Datasource provides a datasource for reading data from on an Open Virtualization Format ISO transport.

For further information see a full working example in cloud-init’s source code tree in doc/sources/ovf

Configuration

The following configuration can be set for the datasource in system configuration (in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg or /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/).

The settings that may be configured are:

  • disable_vmware_customization: disable or enable the vmware customization based on vmware customization files. (default: True)

  • allow_raw_data: enable or disable the vmware customization based on raw cloud-init data including metadata and userdata. (default: True)

  • vmware_cust_file_max_wait: the maximum amount of clock time in seconds that should be spent waiting for vmware customization files. (default: 15)

On VMware platforms, VMTools use is required for OVF datasource configuration settings as well as vCloud and vSphere admin configuration. User could change the VMTools configuration options with command:

vmware-toolbox-cmd config set <section> <key> <value>
The following VMTools configuration options affect cloud-init’s behavior on a booted VM:
  • a: [deploypkg] enable-custom-scripts

    If this option is absent in VMTools configuration, the custom script is disabled by default for security reasons. Some VMware products could change this default behavior (for example: enabled by default) via customization specification settings.

VMWare admin can refer to (https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/blob/main/cloudinit/sources/helpers/vmware/imc/config.py) and set the customization specification settings.

For more information, see VMware vSphere Product Documentation and specific VMTools parameters consumed.