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Open Virtualization Format
open-in-new
<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>In September 2007 <a href="/facts/VMware/lKHGULx3">VMware</a>, <a href="/facts/Dell/wLlYNTMM">Dell</a>, <a href="/facts/Hewlett-Packard/abuNSYNu">HP</a>, <a href="/facts/IBM/QszA7nwd">IBM</a>, <a href="/facts/Microsoft/nGIDDXdx">Microsoft</a> and <a href="/facts/XenSource/U5fq6ESl">XenSource</a> submitted to the <a href="/facts/Distributed_Management_Task_Force/rIh0qDbI">Distributed Management Task Force</a> (DMTF) a proposal for OVF, then named "Open Virtual Machine Format".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> </p><p>The DMTF subsequently released the OVF Specification V1.0.0 as a preliminary standard in September, 2008, and V1.1.0 in January, 2010.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> In January 2013, DMTF released the second version of the standard, OVF 2.0 which applies to emerging cloud use cases and provides important developments from OVF 1.0 including improved network configuration support and package encryption capabilities for safe delivery. </p><p><a href="/facts/ANSI/p3d1TQCb">ANSI</a> has ratified OVF 1.1.0 as ANSI standard INCITS 469-2010.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>OVF 1.1 was adopted in August 2011 by <a href="/facts/ISO%2fIEC_JTC_1%2fSC_38/dJdGs0yl">ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38</a> of the <a href="/facts/International_Organization_for_Standardization/IacYR7Yg">International Organization for Standardization</a> (ISO) and the <a href="/facts/International_Electrotechnical_Commission/hSK0kjwI">International Electrotechnical Commission</a> (IEC) as an International Standard ISO/IEC 17203.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>OVF 2.0 brings an enhanced set of capabilities to the packaging of virtual machines, making the standard applicable to a broader range of cloud use cases that are emerging as the industry enters the cloud era. The most significant improvements include support for network configuration along with the ability to encrypt the package to ensure safe delivery.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="design">Design</h2> <p>An OVF package consists of several files placed in one directory. An OVF package always contains exactly one OVF descriptor (a file with extension .ovf). The OVF descriptor is an XML file which describes the packaged virtual machine; it contains the <a href="/facts/Metadata/qt35z79C">metadata</a> for the OVF package, such as name, hardware requirements, references to the other files in the OVF package and human-readable descriptions. In addition to the OVF descriptor, the OVF package will typically contain one or more <a href="/facts/Disk_image/wbVUwIeh">disk images</a>, and optionally <a href="/facts/Public_key_certificate/J7aYI4Bx">certificate</a> files and other auxiliary files.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p>The entire directory can be distributed as an <a href="/facts/Virtual_appliance/CDgMshNf">Open Virtual Appliance</a> (OVA) package, which is a <a href="/facts/Tar_(computing)/DCJ37j3d">tar</a> archive file with the OVF directory inside. </p> <h2 id="industry-support">Industry support</h2> <p>OVF has generally been broadly accepted.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Several virtualization players in the industry have announced support for OVF.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Virtualization Platform</th><th>OVF Support Since</th><th>Release Date</th></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/VirtualBox/8wordR1n">VirtualBox</a></td><td>2.2.0<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a></td><td>April 2009</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Red_Hat/5rhmBLBa">Red Hat</a> Enterprise Virtualization</td><td>2.2<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a></td><td>March 2010</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/VMware/lKHGULx3">VMware</a></td><td>ESX 3.5, Workstation 6.5, Player 3.1,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> Fusion 4.0 <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a></td><td>Dec 2007</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Xen/U5fq6ESl">XenServer</a></td><td>5.6<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> or XenConvert before that</td><td>May 2010</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/IBM_Power_microprocessors/twCjzqAx">IBM Power</a> server AIX, Linux z/VM, IBM Systems Director (via VMControl Enterprise Edition plug-in, a cross-platform VM manager)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/IBM_SmartCloud/Kw8bDq6w">IBM SmartCloud</a></td><td>IBM SmartCloud Enterprise 1.4<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a></td><td>Oct 2011</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Oracle_VM/baDGmC6K">Oracle VM</a></td><td>3.0<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a></td><td>Aug 2011</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/RPath/tjLYW167">rPath</a></td><td>4.0<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a></td><td>c.2008</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/SUSE_Studio/jo9NIQ8H">SUSE Studio</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a></td><td></td><td>Oct 2010</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Microsoft/nGIDDXdx">Microsoft</a> <a href="/facts/System_Center_Virtual_Machine_Manager/T5ahnsns">System Center Virtual Machine Manager</a></td><td>2012<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25"><sup>25</sup></a></td><td>2012?</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud/2EMwnvlS">Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26"><sup>26</sup></a></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Proxmox_VE/Rb2WFVpd">Proxmox VE</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27"><sup>27</sup></a></td><td>5.0 <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28"><sup>28</sup></a></td><td>Sep 2017</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Google_Cloud_Platform/lPTNk7l6">Google Cloud Platform </a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29"><sup>29</sup></a></td><td></td><td>Jan 2020</td></tr></tbody></table> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/VHD_(file_format)/rTXwARrd">VHD (file format)</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/VMDK/NuyK5TYj">VMDK</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.dmtf.org/standards/ovf">Official website</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP2017_2.0.0.pdf">DMTF OVF Whitepaper</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ovf_whitepaper_specification.pdf">VMware OVF Whitepaper</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"DMTF Press Release on OVF submission 9/2007". Archived from the original on 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2008-09-28. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080916094658/http://www.dmtf.org/newsroom/pr/view?item_key=3b542cbc5e6fc9ede97b9336c29f4c342c02c4e9" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20080916094658/http://www.dmtf.org/newsroom/pr/view?item_key=3b542cbc5e6fc9ede97b9336c29f4c342c02c4e9</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"DMTF Published Documents page". Archived from the original on 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2008-09-28. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080703062530/http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20080703062530/http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"INCITS 469-2010 Information Technology - Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Specification". <a href="http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=INCITS+469-2010" target="_blank">http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=INCITS+469-2010</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"DMTF Gains International Recognition with Two ISO/IEC Standards". Retrieved 2013-02-04. <a href="http://dmtf.org/news/pr/2011/8/dmtf-gains-international-recognition-two-isoiec-standards" target="_blank">http://dmtf.org/news/pr/2011/8/dmtf-gains-international-recognition-two-isoiec-standards</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"OVF 2.0 FAQ". DMTF.org. <a href="https://www.dmtf.org/about/faq/ovf_faq" target="_blank">https://www.dmtf.org/about/faq/ovf_faq</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"Open Virtualization Format Specification, V1.10" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-16. <a href="http://dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP0243_1.1.0.pdf" target="_blank">http://dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP0243_1.1.0.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"techtarget.com article about OVF, 9/2008". Archived from the original on 2008-09-19. 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