ovfdep
ovfdep helps to prepare GNU/Linux installations before converting them to a template and configure deployed templates by the OVF environment mechanism. This tool is developed for Debian based systems.
It is simular to virt-sysprep, although it had some other design goals.
prepare templates (dehydration)
The ovfdep clean command prepares the system just before converting it
into a template:
- reset root password
- truncate log files
- clean up of:
- SSH host keys
- ntp.drift
- .bash_history files
- dhcp leases files
- mail spool
- udev persistent rules
- urandom seed file
- XDG .cache directories
- /var/backups directory
deploy templates (hydration)
After deploying a template ovfdep prepares the system by:
- requiring to set a root password
- regenerate SSH host keys
- configure network by OVF environment data (optional; VMware specific)