You can download a vApp template as an OVF package. After you find the template by browsing a catalog, you can request that the template be enabled for download.

When you enable a vApp template for download, the server performs several operations to create an OVF package and make it available to the transfer service.

1

The server reconstructs the OVF descriptor using information in the vApp template. The server excludes any deployment-specific information that the template contains, and populates the descriptor's References element with links to files, such as .vmdk files, that are part of the package.

2

The server copies the reconstructed OVF descriptor to transfer service storage, along with all files that the OVF descriptor references.

3

The server updates the vAppTemplate with a link that contains a URL from which you can retrieve the OVF descriptor.

After the template is enabled for download, you can retrieve it to see the download:default URL for the descriptor, then parse the descriptor to find the URLs from which you can retrieve the referenced files.

Procedure
1
Enable the vApp Template for Download

Before you can download a vApp template, an administrator or privileged user must explicitly enable it for download.

2
Download the OVF Descriptor

To download the OVF descriptor, you make a GET request to the download:default URL in the download-enabled VappTemplate.

3
Download a Referenced File

After you download the OVF descriptor of a vApp template, you can examine the contents of the descriptor to discover download URLs for files that the template references.