Description

When deploying a vSRX2 OVA on ESXi, you may run into an unknown error on deployment and see the deployment type listed as undefined.

Solution

The workaround is to install the VMWare OVF Tools . As of Dec 2019, the latest version is 4.2.0.

After installing this, use command prompt or terminal to run the CLI deployment.

Windows:

  1. Open the command prompt in "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool"

  2. Then run the following command:

    ovftool -dm=thick -ds=datastore1 -n=vsrx2-18.4R2-01 --net:"VM Network"="VM Network" "C:\Junos\junos-media-vsrx-x86-64-vmdisk-18.4R2.7.ide.ova" vi://[email protected]

OSX:

"/Applications/VMware OVF Tool/ovftool" -dm=thick -ds=datastore1 -n=vsrx2-18.4R2-01 --net:"VM Network"="VM Network" /Users/me/Downloads/junos-media-vsrx-x86-64-vmdisk-18.4R2.7.ide.ova vi://[email protected]

-dm should be set to thick
-ds Is the datastore. "datastore1" is the default.
-n Is what you will name the VM
--net Is the network to attach to the NICs. "VM Network" is the default.
Then the path to the locally downloaded OVA.
vi:// <user> @ <IP or domain name for the ESXi server>

After running this, a prompt will appear for the password to ESXi. Scroll through and accept the EULA.

Enter login information for target vi://10.85.135.42/
Username: root
Password: ************
Opening VI target: vi://[email protected]:443/
Info:   

             VSRX LICENSE
<< <snip> >>

Accept end-user license agreement?
Write 'yes' or 'no' (write 'read' to reread the EULA):
yes
Deploying to VI: vi://[email protected]:443/

You will then see a "Transfer" percentage progress until Completed.

Completed successfully

After this, the VM will be visible within the ESXi GUI.