VMware vSphere – Deploy .ovf Error:vim.fault.FileNotFound

I recently upgraded my vSphere host from vSphere 5.5 to 7.0. When I tried to deploy one of my .ovf backups I experienced the following error:

Error:vim.fault.FileNotFound

This error means that the .ovf still has an .iso image connected to it. To fix this issue we will need to delete the associated .mf file and edit the .ovf file.

Note: the .mf file is a manifest file that contains a hash for the .vmdk and .ovf files. vSphere checks these hashes when deploying .ovf files. Since editing the .ovf will break the hash we need to delete the .mf file to import the edited .ovf into vSphere.

To disconnect the .iso from the .ovf follow these steps:

delete the associated .mf file
open the .ovf file using notepad and delete the following section

      <Item ovf:required="false">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:ElementName>CD-ROM 1</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>8</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.cdrom.iso</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>15</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>