Subscribe to Lumen Cloud Knowledge Base- Before proceeding, ensure your OVF meets the requirements that are listed here in our VM import preparation article.
- Connect to your account's Lumen Cloud FTP site. Instructions on retrieving the connection details can be found in our FTP users article.
- You can import VMs to any available data center in your account. The OVF file is simply stored in your home data center FTP account for initial processing.
- In the root directory of the FTP site, create a folder named “import” if it does not already exist.
- Within the “import” folder, create another directory with a name that matches the name of your OVF. It must contain only alphanumeric characters because special characters may result in failure (e.g., “import/sampleovfname”).
- Upload the OVF files (VMDK, VMX, etc) to the new directory.
- The transfer of the OVF may take several hours depending on file sizes and the speed of your connection.
- Any packet loss during the transfer may result in import failure.
- Note: OVFs will be automatically deleted from your FTP server after 5 days. As such, please complete imports shortly after initial upload.
- When the upload is complete, click "Import Server" under the infrastructure tab of the control portal navigation menu.
- When the list finishes loading, you will then see your collection of uploaded OVFs.
- Select the desired OVF to import, and proceed to complete the rest of the form including the data center and server group location of the VM.
- Select "import server" to initiate the import process.
Upon successful import, your VM will appear in your chosen data center and server group location within a few hours. However, the exact timing for the availability of the new VM in the control portal depends on several factors, so there is no standard availability time.
Note: If your OVA import fails with any of the errors listed below, please see VMware's article here for resolution: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2151537.
- Invalid Ovf manifest entry.
- The OVF package is invalid and cannot be deployed.
- The following manifest file entry (line 1) is invalid: SHA256 (xxxxxxx.ovf).