Introduction

The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification is a standard being developed within the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) association in support of promoting an open, secure, portable, efficient and extensible format for the packaging and distribution of software to be run in virtual machines.

DMTF is a not-for-profit association of industry members dedicated to promoting enterprise and systems management and interoperability. Members and non-members may reproduce DMTF specifications and documents for uses consistent with this purpose, provided that correct attribution is given.

IBM sees much potential in the development of the OVF standard, in support of creating an open environment that defines the standard means to represent and distribute virtual machine / virtual appliance content. To further promote the adoption of OVF based packages, we have developed tooling to assist those interested in representing virtual machine / virtual appliances in OVF distributable format.