How to Fix “The OVF Virtual Machine Cannot Be Deployed” Error in VMware

Deploying virtual machines in VMware using OVF (Open Virtualization Format) is a common practice, but sometimes administrators encounter the dreaded error:
“The OVF virtual machine cannot be deployed.”

This issue can be frustrating because it stops you from quickly provisioning VMs in VMware vSphere or ESXi. In this guide, we’ll explain the root causes, provide step-by-step fixes, and share VMware best practices to prevent the error from happening again.

Common Causes of the OVF Deployment Error

Before fixing the issue, it’s important to understand why VMware reports this error. The most frequent causes include:

• Corrupted or incomplete OVF/OVA file during download or transfer.

• Version incompatibility between the OVF package and your VMware ESXi or vCenter version.

• Storage or datastore limitations preventing the deployment.

• Network mapping issues when importing multi-NIC VMs.

👉 According to VMware’s official documentation (VMware Docs), many deployment failures are related to file corruption or unsupported configurations.

How to Fix “The OVF Virtual Machine Cannot Be Deployed” Error

1. Try on VMware ESXi 7.0

Suspecting it was a VMware Workstation issue, we tried importing it to VMware ESXi 7.0, but the error persisted

2. Check the hash values of ovf

We then compared hash values, suspecting the file might have been corrupted during transfer. First, navigate to the file directory in CMD and verify the hash in the .mf file using: Certutil -hashfile [File name] SHA256, as shown below

3. Check the hash value of the .vmdk file

 using the same method: Certutil -hashfile [File name] SHA256

4. Write the right hash value to the .mf file

Open the .mf file with a text editor and replace both hash values in their corresponding positions, as shown below. (If needed, convert the OVF using OVF Tool (VMware OVF Tool)

5. Verify whether the issue has been resolved or not

Then, attempt to import into VMware Workstation again - it imported successfully. Issue resolved

Best Practices for Successful OVF Deployment

To avoid running into this issue in the future:

• Always download OVF/OVA files from official vendors or VMware Marketplace.

• Store OVF files on a reliable storage system.

• Regularly update VMware vCenter and ESXi to the latest supported versions.

• Test deployment in a lab environment before production rollout.

📌 For more VMware troubleshooting, check our internal guide: VMware ESXi Virtual Disk Type Conversion

How to Reset VMware vCenter 6.7 Root Password – Step-by-Step Guide

In daily VMware vCenter operations, the root user is our critical access point for entering the VAMI console and troubleshooting system issues. But if you find that you've forgotten the password, can't SSH in, and can't access the 5480 management page either, don't panic! This guide will walk you through safely resetting the root password for vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 using GRUB single-user mode.

Whether you're a seasoned operations veteran or a newcomer to virtualization, just follow these steps to unlock your vCenter. We recommend bookmarking this guide for future reference!

Why Resetting the vCenter 6.7 Root Password is Needed

The root account in vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.7 is critical for system administration. If the password is forgotten or expired, administrators may lose access to essential services, patching, or troubleshooting tasks. VMware provides secure ways to reset it.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Reboot the vCenter Server Appliance

During the boot process, when you see the VMware vCenter Server Appliance progress bar, press the 'e' key on your keyboard to enter GNU GRUB edit mode.

2. Modify Boot Parameters

Locate the line starting with 'linux' and append the following content to the end of the line: then press F10 to reboot.

 
rw init=/bin/bash

3. Enter Command Line and Mount File System

The system will boot into bash shell mode. Run the following commands:

 
mount-o remount,rw /

4. Reset Root Password

: Enter the following command and set a new password:

 
passwd root

5. Unmount File System and Reboot

: Run the following commands to complete the operation:

 
umount /
reboot -f

Pro Tip

Force the system to stop prompting for password expiration.

 
chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 root

Verification and Next Steps

After rebooting, press F2 to attempt logging in with the new password.

If you need to enable SSH, enter "Troubleshooting Mode Options" and turn on the SSH service.

Use an SSH tool to connect to the system and verify that the root user can log in normally.

By following these steps, you can successfully reset vCenter's root password and restore access.

Best Practices After Resetting

• Immediately update password policies to prevent future lockouts.

• Store root credentials securely in a password manager.

• Regularly rotate admin passwords.

• Use vSphere Single Sign-On (SSO) for role-based access instead of relying only on root.

How to Fix VMware vCenter Installation Errors – Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Guide

When installing VMware vCenter Server using only IP addresses in an environment without domain control or DNS, there are often inexplicable errors. In my opinion, these are mostly network-related errors, specifically DNS issues. Today, I'll demonstrate the installation process of vCenter Server, where some critical steps cannot be overlooked—they are key to success or failure! Screenshots of key steps.

Operation Steps:

1. Run the vCenter Server UI installer and click "Install"

2. Click Next

3. Accept the agreement and click Next

4. Enter which ESXi host to deploy vCenter on, including the ESXi IP address and account credentials

5. Accept the certificate fingerprint

6. Enter the vCenter VM name (i.e., the display name in ESXi)

7. Set the deployment size for vCenter; choose according to needs

8. Select storage and enable "Thin Disk Mode" (recommended), where disk space isn't allocated immediately but as needed

9. This step is crucial: first, select the port group. Without DNS, enter the same IP address for both FQDN and IP address—this IP is vCenter's IP. Do not leave the FQDN blank. For DNS Server, enter 0.0.0.0. Fill in other details as appropriate.

10. Confirm the information and click Finish

11. Wait for deployment

12. After the first phase completes, click Continue

13. You can proceed via the UI, but sometimes there's a bug preventing you from clicking Next. In such cases, open a browser and go to https://vCenter_IP:5480 (e.g., https://172.19.31.60:5480), verify the password, and proceed.

14. Click "Installer"

15. Click Next

16. Confirm the information; you may need to re-enter 0.0.0.0 for DNS servers. For time synchronization, usually select "Synchronize time with ESXi host." Enable SSH access as needed, then click Next.

17. Enter the SSO domain (typically vsphere.local) and the SSO password, which is the password for logging into the vCenter management interface.

18. Opt out of CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) and click Next.

19. Review the configuration and click Finish.

20. Click Confirm.

21. Wait for the second phase of installation and deployment.

22. Deployment complete.

Why vCenter Installation Fails

VMware vCenter is the core of vSphere management, but installation can fail due to:

• Insufficient system resources (CPU, RAM, disk)

• DNS and hostname resolution issues

• Unsupported OS or vCenter version mismatch

• Database connection errors

• Corrupted installation media or ISO

Best Practices for Smooth vCenter Deployment

• Always check VMware Compatibility Matrix before installation.

• Use static IP & DNS entries (avoid DHCP for vCenter).

• Keep firewall rules open for required vCenter ports.

• Apply the latest patches to avoid known bugs.

• Snapshot or backup the host before the deployment attempt.

Quickly Set Up Kasten K10 on Kubernetes – Single Cluster Installation Guide

To set up a Kasten K10 lab environment, the basic requirement is a K8S cluster. Kasten K10 is a native cloud application that relies on the K8S environment to run and handles backup and recovery for K8S objects. Therefore, the challenge becomes setting up a K8S environment quickly and easily and deploying a simple stateful application. This is particularly difficult without internet access. I have now used the unique OVF (Open Virtualization Format) method in virtualization to package this process into a virtual appliance, greatly simplifying the setup of this demo lab. It allows you to set up such a single-node cluster without any internet downloads and includes a WordPress application with a MySQL database built in. Netizens who need this appliance file, please comment or contact me.

Please note that this virtual appliance is for personal testing and research purposes only and must not be used for any commercial purposes. I do not guarantee the security, reliability, or stability of this device; users must judge for themselves.

Usage Instructions:

Step 1 import OVA

Import this OVA file into VMware vSphere (vSphere only). During the import, the import wizard will prompt you to configure the network and IP address information, as shown in the image below:

Step 2 config

After the import is complete, the virtual appliance will automatically configure the device's IP address during its first boot. Once the configuration is complete, you can use SSH to log in to the system for basic K8S environment configuration. The initial username and password for access are:

 
username: k10
Password: P@ssw0rd

After logging into the system, use the `sudo -i` command to switch to the root user.

K8S cluster initialization requires executing the five script files in the /root/ directory in order:

 
0-minio.sh
1-createk8s.sh
2-loadimage.sh
3-storage.sh
4-wordpress.sh

All necessary files involved in the script execution process have been placed in the /root/ directory, and the scripts will automatically call these files.

0-minio.sh

This script uses MinIO (https://minio.io), the leading open-source object storage solution, to create a local object storage. After the command is executed, the object storage will be up and running. You can access the object storage web interface at https://<Virtual Appliance IP>:9000. The initial username and password for the web interface are:

 
username: minioadmin
Password: minioadmin

1-createk8s.sh

This script uses Kind technology (K8S in Docker) to quickly deploy a K8S cluster by running K8S nodes in containers. The container images required for K8S have been pre-built into this appliance, so there's no need to download the approximately 1.3GB K8S Docker images from the internet. You can verify that the K8S Docker images are ready before running the script with the following command:

 
$ docker images list | grep kind

After the script finishes running, you can use kubectl commands normally to view all K8S resources. At this point, all kubectl commands will work. For example, you can try this:

 
$ kubectl get nodes

2-loadimage.sh

This script doesn't have any special secrets; it simply prepares for the fourth and fifth scripts by loading the Docker images built into the local Ubuntu into Kind for Kind to use.

3-storage.sh

This script creates a local CSI Hostpath driver for the K8S cluster. The script used can be found at (https://github.com/kubernetes-csi/csi-driver-host-path). I modified the internet download links required by this script to use all yaml files from the local /root/ folder. Additionally, all Docker images used in this script were pre-pulled from the internet and loaded into Kind in the previous step.

Before running the script, you can check the storage classes before deployment with the following command:

 
$ kubectl get sc

After the script finishes running, you can run this command again to see the newly configured storage class.

Furthermore, this step will deploy multiple pods to the default namespace. Another useful command to check the deployment status of this step is:

 
$ kubectl get pod

4-wordpress.sh

The purpose of this script is simple: deploy a WordPress application with a built-in MySQL database. After deployment is complete, you need to run the following command for port forwarding and then use a browser to access the following address for further configuration: http://<Virtual Appliance IP>.

 
$ kubectl port-forward --address 0.0.0.0 svc/wordpress 80:80 -n wordpress

The above is a brief usage guide for this virtual K8S appliance. After deploying this environment, you can proceed with the normal installation and configuration of Kasten using the documentation at (https://docs.kasten.io/latest/).

What is Kasten K10?

Kasten K10 by Veeam is a Kubernetes-native data protection platform designed for backup, disaster recovery, and mobility. It simplifies stateful application protection in Kubernetes environments.

Why Use Kasten K10 for Kubernetes?

• Native Kubernetes integration

• Application-aware backups and restores

• Policy-driven automation

• Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud support

• Ransomware protection with immutable backups

VMware Backup Best Practices – Reliable VM Protection & Recovery Guide

Why VMware Backup Best Practices Matter

VMware environments host critical workloads, making data protection and disaster recovery essential. Following VMware backup best practices ensures data integrity, fast recovery, and minimal downtime during system failures, hardware crashes, or ransomware attacks.

Let's take a look at several different best practice considerations when backing up and restoring VMware vSphere virtual machines. We will discuss the following:

• Understanding RPO and RTO and how they relate to backup and recovery
• Understanding what constitutes a backup and what does not
• Using Changed Block Tracking to back up VMs
• Following the 3-2-1 backup best practice methodology
• Not forgetting about backup security
• Evaluating VM housekeeping
• Staying current with the latest vSphere releases
• Leveraging the cloud as an off-site storage location
• Protecting against ransomware

1. Understanding RPO and RTO and how they relate to backup and recovery

Often, organizations configure backups without considering RPO and RTO. Simply put, RPO, or Recovery Point Objective, determines the amount of data loss a business can tolerate. In other words, if backups for a specific VM are set to run daily, the worst-case scenario is potentially losing 24 hours of data. The business must determine if this level of data loss is acceptable. Scheduling backups every 6 hours could result in 6 hours of data loss, and so on.

Setting a VM backup schedule should not be arbitrary. This should be carefully considered from a business perspective to determine what an acceptable loss would be.

RTO is the Recovery Time Objective. This determines the time required to restore a virtual machine. If backups are configured to run hourly, you might only lose one hour of data. However, due to the large amount of data, restoring that VM might take three hours. The Recovery Time Objective defines the acceptable amount of time your business can operate without the data specified in the RPO.

When considering best practices for backing up VMware vSphere VMs, understanding the value of these two metrics as they relate to your specific business is absolutely critical. There is no right or wrong answer for every business, and the answer will likely differ for each organization.

2. Understanding what constitutes a backup and what does not

Often, IT administrators believe they have what they consider to be a "backup," when in reality it is not a true backup. One of the most common scenarios is viewing VMware vSphere VM snapshots as backups. However, snapshots are not backups. Why?

Let's think about what a true backup actually is. A backup should be a completely independent copy of the virtual machine, allowing that VM to be restored without relying on the production infrastructure. This is not the case with VMware vSphere snapshots. VMware vSphere snapshots consist of a chain of delta disks that are interdependent to create a complete copy of the data. If anything happens to one of the disks in the chain, both the VM and the snapshot are lost. In this case, you cannot rely on a snapshot as a backup because it is not a complete copy of the data. Furthermore, it is not an independent copy separate from the production infrastructure. If there is an issue with the physical infrastructure hosting the VM, it means the VM (including its snapshots) is gone. Again, a backup should not depend on the production infrastructure.

3. Using CBT to Back Up Virtual Machines

In the old days of backup, every time a backup ran, it was likely configured to take a full copy of the data. This was very inefficient both in terms of the backup time required and the backup storage space needed to store multiple full copies of the data. A much more efficient way to back up data is to only copy the changes that have occurred since the last backup. By doing this, backups become highly efficient. The actual changed or new data is likely trivial compared to the entire data volume.

One feature of the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection is Changed Block Tracking (CBT). Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a VMkernel feature that tracks which storage blocks of a virtual machine have changed over time. The VMkernel tracks block changes on the VM, enhancing the backup process for applications developed to leverage VMware's vStorage API. VMware vSphere tracks the changed blocks that occur on a virtual machine. Backup solutions can then leverage this information to copy only the changed blocks each time a VM backup is run.

This offers many benefits, significantly reducing not only the backup window but also the backup storage space required for the VM backups. One crucial point to note when targeting a VM for backup with a backup solution is that CBT cannot be enabled on a VM that has an existing snapshot or is powered off.

4. Following the 3-2-1 Backup Best Practice Methodology

The backup industry best practice methodology, the 3-2-1 backup rule, ensures multiple copies of data are stored in a protected manner.

The 3-2-1 backup rule recommends storing (3) copies of your data on at least (2) different types of media, with at least (1) copy stored offsite. As seen from this description, these principles enforce storage diversity. First, you have multiple copies of the data. You store these multiple copies on different media types. This could include storing backups on hard disks and tape media. Finally, you have at least one backup copy stored offsite. This ensures that if all other data copies are lost locally, you have another data copy available for recovery.

Today, many businesses leverage the cloud for this aspect of the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Cloud storage is a cheap, efficient storage location that allows for keeping a copy of data off-site. This helps protect against ransomware attacks, as ransomware can infect all online storage locations locally. It can even encrypt all copies of backups. Choosing the cloud as an off-site storage location helps ensure a copy of the data is safe from these types of risks.

5. Don't Forget About Backup Security

When creating and building backups, don't forget about security. Protecting backups is crucial.

Encrypting backups is already an industry-standard practice during the backup process. If you are not doing this, or if your backup solution cannot do this, you need to look elsewhere. Not only should the backup data itself be encrypted, but the transmission process should also be encrypted.

When storing tape media, pay attention to the physical security of the storage location. Tapes should be under effective supervision, and storage facilities should not allow unauthorized access.

6. Evaluating VM Housekeeping

As your VMware vSphere environment continuously evolves, you will certainly experience VM sprawl within your environment. This sprawl also affects your backups. Keeping your vSphere assets lean helps ensure you are not backing up irrelevant content or retaining worthless backup data.

Furthermore, when talking about VM housekeeping, ensure your VMware vSphere virtual machines do not have lingering snapshots. Keeping virtual disks tidy helps reduce corruption and other adverse side effects. Modern backup solutions leverage snapshots to redirect I/O from the base disk so data can be copied to the backup. If a VM already has a snapshot present when targeted for backup, the backup solution will create another snapshot on top of the existing one. This can further degrade performance and increase the risk that snapshots won't commit properly under high load and other conditions.

7. Staying Current with the Latest vSphere Updates

Keeping your vSphere environment up to date is a general best practice. It helps ensure things run smoothly. It also helps ensure users benefit from the latest improvements in performance and other tweaks. Having the latest version of vSphere ensures you benefit from these improvements with your data protection solution. However, it's important to note that users need to ensure their implemented data protection solution is compatible with the latest version of vSphere.

8. Leveraging the Cloud as an Offsite Storage Location

When implementing the 3-2-1 backup rule, most organizations are using cloud storage for off-site storage. This makes perfect sense for backup storage, as it is relatively inexpensive, nearly limitless, scalable, and resilient. Businesses don't need to provision, maintain, and continuously allocate physical infrastructure to meet backup storage needs. This helps ensure physical backup storage does not become a barrier to effective backups.

Cloud storage from various providers also includes powerful built-in features, such as immutable backups. This helps protect against ransomware.

9. Protecting Against Ransomware

Ransomware has become a major problem for businesses today. Ransomware attacks can shut down and impact critical services, which can take days or even weeks to recover from. Devastating ransomware attacks can have severe consequences for businesses and the areas they impact.

Ensure your backup environment is set up with an air gap: whether through credentials or by restricting low-level file access from the primary production network environment. If malicious processes cannot connect to or lack permission to access the backups, such a setup can protect these backups from being encrypted.

Advanced VMware Backup Strategies

• VM Replication for near-instant disaster recovery.

• Cloud-based VMware backup for hybrid environments.

• Backup encryption to meet compliance and security standards.

• Deduplication and compression to optimize storage usage.

Next blog will demo how to back up VMware step by step practices