You can download a vApp or vApp template object as an OVF package or OVA file. A vApp must powered off and undeployed before you can enable it for download.
An OVF package includes a descriptor and one or more virtual disk (VMDK) files. An OVA file is an archive that includes the descriptor and all other components. Downloads in either format are made available in two forms:
When you enable a VApp or VAppTemplate object for download, the server adds download links in the following form to the XML representation of the object.
<Link type="text/xml" rel="download:default" href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../descriptor.ovf"/> <Link type="text/xml" rel="download:identity" href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../descriptor-with-id.ovf"/> <Link type="text/xml" rel="download:ovaDefault" href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../descriptor.ova"/> <Link type="text/xml" rel="download:ovaIdentity" href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../descriptor-with-id.ova"/>
The rel value of the link indicates the format of the download. When you make a download request to one of these links, the server constructs a download in the requested format and places it on the transfer server storage.
1 | Before you can download a vApp or vApp template, an administrator or privileged user must enable the object for download. |
2 | To download the OVF descriptor or OVA file, make a GET request to the appropriate download link in the download-enabled VApp or VAppTemplate element. |
3 | After you download the OVF descriptor of a vApp or vApp template, you can examine the contents of the descriptor to discover download URLs for .vmdk and other files in the package. |