Introduction¶
COT (the Common OVF Tool) is a tool for editing Open Virtualization Format
(.ovf
, .ova
) virtual appliances, with a focus on virtualized network
appliances such as the Cisco CSR 1000V and Cisco IOS XRv platforms.
COT’s capabilities include:
- Add a disk or other file to an OVF/OVA
- Edit OVF hardware information (CPUs, RAM, NICs, configuration profiles, etc.)
- Edit product description information in an OVF/OVA
- Edit OVF environment properties
- Display a descriptive summary of the contents of an OVA or OVF package
- Embed a bootstrap configuration text file into an OVF/OVA.
- Remove files and disks from an OVF or OVA package
- Deploy an OVF/OVA to an ESXi (VMware vSphere or vCenter) server to provision a new virtual machine (VM).
Examples¶
Displaying a summary of OVA contents:
> cot info --brief iosxrv.5.1.1.ova
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
iosxrv.5.1.1.ova
COT detected platform type: Cisco IOS XRv
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Cisco IOS XRv
Vendor: Cisco Systems, Inc.
Version: 5.1.1
Files and Disks: File Size Capacity Device
--------- --------- --------------------
iosxrv.vmdk 271.59 MB 3.00 GB harddisk @ IDE 0:0
Hardware Variants:
System types: vmx-08 Cisco:Internal:VMCloud-01
Ethernet device types: E1000
Configuration Profiles: CPUs Memory NICs Serials Disks/Capacity
---- --------- ---- ------- --------------
1CPU-3GB-2NIC (default) 1 3.00 GB 2 2 1 / 3.00 GB
2CPU-4GB-8NIC 2 4.00 GB 8 2 1 / 3.00 GB
4CPU-6GB-10NIC 4 6.00 GB 10 2 1 / 3.00 GB
Adding a custom hardware configuration profile to an OVA:
> cot edit-hardware csr1000v.ova --output csr1000v_custom.ova \
--profile 1CPU-4GB --cpus 1 --memory 4GB
Customizing OVF environment properties:
> cot edit-properties csr1000v.ova --output csr1000v_custom.ova \
--properties mgmt-ipv4-addr=10.1.1.100/24 \
mgmt-ipv4-gateway=10.1.1.1