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Deploying Virtual Appliances (OVA)

Many commercial and open-source products ship as OVA (Open Virtual Appliance) files — a single archive that bundles one or more virtual disks with an OVF descriptor. This guide shows how to import an OVA into OpenShift Virtualization so you can run virtual appliances alongside containers on OpenShift.

How It Works

An .ova file is a TAR archive containing:

File Purpose
*.ovf XML descriptor with VM hardware settings (CPU, memory, NICs, disks)
*.vmdk / *.vhd Virtual disk image(s)
*.mf Optional manifest with checksums

OpenShift Virtualization uses KubeVirt and the Containerized Data Importer (CDI). CDI can import raw and qcow2 images directly, so the workflow is:

  1. Extract the OVA and locate the virtual disk
  2. Convert the disk to qcow2 (if it is VMDK or another format)
  3. Upload the converted image into a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC)
  4. Create a VirtualMachine that references the PVC

Prerequisites

  • OpenShift Virtualization installed and healthy
  • A default virtualization StorageClass with RWX support
  • oc and virtctl installed locally
  • qemu-img installed locally (provided by the qemu-img package on RHEL/Fedora)
  • The OVA file downloaded to your workstation

Verify qemu-img is available:

qemu-img --version

Create a Project

oc new-project ova-appliance

Extract the OVA

An OVA is a standard TAR archive. Extract it into a working directory:

mkdir appliance && cd appliance
tar xf /path/to/appliance.ova

List the extracted files to identify the disk image and the OVF descriptor:

ls -lh *.ovf *.vmdk *.vhd 2>/dev/null

Tip

Review the .ovf file for the recommended CPU count, memory, and network adapter type. You will use these values when creating the VirtualMachine.

Convert the Disk Image

CDI requires a raw or qcow2 image. Convert the VMDK (or VHD) to qcow2:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 appliance-disk.vmdk appliance-disk.qcow2

Verify the output image:

qemu-img info appliance-disk.qcow2

Note

If the OVA already contains a .qcow2 or .img (raw) file, you can skip the conversion step and upload it directly.

Upload the Disk Image

Use virtctl image-upload to push the qcow2 file into a new PVC managed by CDI:

virtctl image-upload dv appliance-rootdisk \
  --size=60Gi \
  --image-path=appliance-disk.qcow2 \
  --storage-class=<your-storage-class> \
  --access-mode=ReadWriteMany \
  --volume-mode=Block \
  --namespace=ova-appliance \
  --insecure

Warning

Adjust --size to be at least as large as the virtual size reported by qemu-img info. The --insecure flag skips TLS verification for the CDI upload proxy — omit it if your cluster has a trusted certificate.

Monitor the upload and import:

oc get dv appliance-rootdisk -n ova-appliance -w

Wait until the DataVolume phase shows Succeeded.

Create the VirtualMachine

Build a VirtualMachine manifest that references the uploaded PVC. Tailor the CPU, memory, and firmware settings to match the appliance's requirements from the OVF.

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: appliance
  namespace: ova-appliance
spec:
  runStrategy: Always
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        cpu:
          cores: 2
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: 4Gi
        devices:
          disks:
            - name: rootdisk
              disk:
                bus: virtio
          interfaces:
            - name: default
              masquerade: {}
        firmware:
          bootloader:
            bios: {}
      networks:
        - name: default
          pod: {}
      volumes:
        - name: rootdisk
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: appliance-rootdisk

oc apply -f appliance-vm.yaml

UEFI appliances

Some appliances require UEFI boot. Replace the firmware section with:

firmware:
  bootloader:
    efi:
      secureBoot: false

Non-virtio disk bus

Appliances that lack virtio drivers (e.g. Windows-based or older Linux images) may need bus: sata or bus: scsi instead of bus: virtio.

Wait for the VM to reach Running:

oc get vmi appliance -n ova-appliance -w

Verify the Appliance

Console Access

virtctl console appliance -n ova-appliance

Many appliances present a setup wizard or login prompt on the serial console. If the appliance uses a graphical interface, use VNC instead:

virtctl vnc appliance -n ova-appliance

Guest Agent and IP Address

If the appliance has the QEMU guest agent installed, you can retrieve its IP:

oc get vmi appliance -n ova-appliance -o jsonpath='{.status.interfaces}' | jq

Web Console

Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines → select the ova-appliance project → click appliance to see the VM overview, console, and metrics.

Expose the Appliance Network

Expose a Single Port via Service and Route

If the appliance serves HTTP/HTTPS (e.g. a management UI on port 443):

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: appliance-ui
  namespace: ova-appliance
spec:
  selector:
    vm.kubevirt.io/name: appliance
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 443
      targetPort: 443

oc apply -f appliance-svc.yaml
oc create route passthrough appliance-ui --service=appliance-ui -n ova-appliance

ROUTE=$(oc get route appliance-ui -n ova-appliance -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')
echo "https://$ROUTE"

Attach to an External Network (NodePort or CUDN)

For appliances that need Layer-2 connectivity or a routable IP, attach the VM to a secondary network using a Cluster User Defined Network (CUDN) or a Linux bridge. See Networking for details.

Importing with the Web Console

You can also upload the converted qcow2 image through the OpenShift web console:

  1. Go to Storage → PersistentVolumeClaims → Create PersistentVolumeClaim → With Data upload form
  2. Select the qcow2 file, set the size, and choose your StorageClass
  3. Wait for the upload to complete
  4. Go to Virtualization → VirtualMachines → Create → From YAML and paste the VirtualMachine manifest above (updating claimName to match the PVC you created)

Cleanup

oc delete vm appliance -n ova-appliance
oc delete pvc appliance-rootdisk -n ova-appliance
oc delete project ova-appliance

Next Steps