vmware_deploy_ovf creates VM but without the disk

[mboeker]

SUMMARY

I am using the vmware_deploy_ovf module to create a VM from an OVA on the network:

      community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        datastore: "{{ vcenter_datastore }}"
        folder: "{{ vcenter_folder }}"
        cluster: "{{ vcenter_cluster }}"
        name: "{{ template_name }}"
        url: "{{ ova_url }}"
        networks: "{u'VM Network':u'{{ vcenter_network }}'}"
        wait_for_ip_address: false

In this case ova_url is https://myserver.local/rhel.ova (when I use this URL in the GUI it deploys the image just fine, and boots correctly)
The task completes succesfully, the VM is created, however it has no disk. Disk Usage is about 100mb instead of 1g, and the console just sits at BIOS asking what to boot from.
At the very least the task should report some issue, because clearly it did not boot from that OVA.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

vmware_deploy_ovf

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible [core 2.20.3]
  config file = /home/ansiblessh/os-linux/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/ansiblessh/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/ansiblessh/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/ansiblessh/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/ansiblessh/.local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.12.12 (main, Jan 19 2026, 00:00:00) [GCC 11.5.0 20240719 (Red Hat 11.5.0-11)] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.6
  pyyaml version = 6.0.3 (with libyaml v0.2.5)

COLLECTION VERSION

# /home/ansiblessh/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection       Version
---------------- -------
community.vmware 6.2.0  

# /home/ansiblessh/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible_collections
Collection       Version
---------------- -------
community.vmware 6.2.0  

CONFIGURATION

Nothing relevant.

OS / ENVIRONMENT

vSphere Client version 8.0.3.00600
Vanilla RHEL 9, deploying vanilla RHEL 9

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

See description above.

See description

EXPECTED RESULTS

VM should boot from OVA the way it does when deploying via GUI, or at least report some kind of issue.

ACTUAL RESULTS

[mboeker]

I have a suspicion that it's failing because the controller has access to the vcenter server on port 443 but not the hypervisors in the target cluster. If this is the issue, then the module should be reporting that.