Finally, there is a common machine format. Only took a few years.

OVF supports a number of features that will enhance customers’ experience with virtualization, including portability, platform independence, verification, signing, versioning, and licensing terms. OVF enables:

* A simple, robust, and user-friendly experience
* Increased customer flexibility through virtualization platform independence
* Simple creation of complex pre-configured multi-tiered services
* Portability of virtual machines and efficient delivery of enterprise software
* Platform specific enhancements and adoption of advances in virtualization through extensibility

Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, VMware, and XenSource have submitted the Open Virtual Machine Format Specification (OVF) to the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) for further development into an industry standard. The OVF specification describes an open, secure, portable, efficient and extensible format for the packaging and distribution of (collections of) virtual machines. Its goal is to facilitate the automated, secure management not only of virtual machines, but the appliance as a functional unit.

The proposed OVF uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines together with a standards-based XML wrapper, giving the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters for the virtual machines. This allows any virtualization platform that implements the standard to correctly install and run the virtual machines.

This is a great step in the right direction. I really like the idea of someday being able to download 1 compressed file, containing a collection of virtual machines, already configured to deploy a complete server platform. Just imagine, having the database, e-mail, web, file, and firewall server each packaged individually, and then grouped together. 1 complete open-source virtualization server room, in a single file.

VMware has gone a step further, and opened up their disk format to open source as well. “VMware is offering our virtual machine disk format openly and freely to the virtualization industry,” said Brian Byun, vice president of products and alliances at VMware. “We are doing so because we believe open and freely- useable specifications should increase the availability of complementary products, provide customers unfettered choice and increased interoperability in their virtualized IT environments and further expand the virtualization market which is good for VMware.”

VirtualIron said “We’ve always supported open standards, whether it’s the current Microsoft VHD or the future OVF.”

“The format is based on a TAR file, includes disk images (eg VMware VMDK or Microsoft VHD), but also includes a description of the rest of the virtualized hardware. Moreover, unlike prior formats (as far as I know), OVF can describe collections of VMs, so as to describe multi-tier services.”

Sources:
Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : DMTF accepts new open virtual machine format
Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) -Virtual Machines - Virtualization - VMware
VMware Introduces Open Virtual Machine Disk Format Specification
Open Virtual Machine Format Specification (OVF) Submitted to DMTF.
DMTF Accepts New Format for Portable Virtual Machines from Virtualization Leaders
VMware Intros Open Virtual Machine Disk Format Specification
Open Virtual Machine Format (Virtualization Blog)
Dugie’s Pensieve » Blog Archive » VMware, Microsoft and XEN agree