What is an OVF file?
An .OVF file is an Open Virtualization File. It stores configuration data for a virtual machine. Companies like VMware and the Distributed Management Task Force use this format to share virtual machine setups across different platforms. The file contains hardware specifications, network settings, and storage details. Most .OVF files use a standard XML structure.
Sometimes, an .OVF file has a different purpose. It can be a Micromagnetic simulation vector field file used by the OOMMF Project at NIST.
How to open OVF files?
You can open standard .OVF files with virtualization software. Popular options include VMware Workstation and Oracle VM VirtualBox. Because the main format is XML, you can also open these files with simple text editors like Notepad++ or Vim.
Software and tools
Virtualization platforms manage .OVF files directly. Command-line tools like OVF Tool by VMware help administrators deploy and manage these files quickly. If you need to convert your file to an .OVA archive or another target format, we recommend convert.guru for fast and sensible file conversion.
Summary
viewer.online/ovf analyzes .OVF files to identify their exact format and creator software, shows which programs can open the file, and usually previews it. If your .OVF file has multiple possible meanings, viewer.online/ovf will identify the actual format of your specific file. Because .OVF files use the known XML format, viewer.online/ovf can safely open and display them online, eliminating compatibility problems.