VMware Appliance OVF Properties update through CLI

This article is to update VMware appliance ovf properties through command line. Sometimes we cannot access VC and only can access VMs through ESX UI.

Check over properties exists in VM

1. login to VM as root and execute ovfenv command

root@vcf91-installer [ ~ ]# ovfenv
[vm.vmname]=VCF-SDDC-Manager-Appliance-9.1.0.0300.25536191
[ROOT_PASSWORD]=
[LOCAL_USER_PASSWORD]=
[vami.hostname]=vcf91-installer.mylab.com
[guestinfo.ntp]=172.30.20.3
[vami.ip_address_version.SDDC-Manager]=IPv4
[vami.ip0.SDDC-Manager]=172.30.20.12
[vami.netmask0.SDDC-Manager]=255.255.255.0
[vami.gateway.SDDC-Manager]=172.30.20.1
[vami.ipv6.SDDC-Manager]=null
[vami.ipv6_prefix.SDDC-Manager]=null
[vami.ipv6_gateway.SDDC-Manager]=null
[vami.domain.SDDC-Manager]=mylab.com
[vami.searchpath.SDDC-Manager]=mylab.com
[vami.DNS.SDDC-Manager]=172.30.20.2,172.30.20.3

1. Change the directory to the VM scripts folder where all the firstboot and subsequent boot scripts are stored.

cd /opt/vmware/vcf/commonsvcs/scripts/

1. Example to change NTP server details

cd /opt/vmware/vcf/commonsvcs/scripts/ntp/

root@vcf91-installer [ /opt/vmware/vcf/commonsvcs/scripts/ntp ]# ls -ltr
total 12
-r-xr-x--- 1 root vcf 853 Jun 27 02:53 update-ntp_server.sh
-r-xr-x--- 1 root vcf 231 Jun 27 02:53 setup-ntp.sh
-r-xr-x--- 1 root vcf  45 Jun 27 02:53 refresh-ntp.sh


./update-ntp_server.sh 172.30.20.250

reboot the VM