VMware – Failed to deploy ovf package invalid configuration for device ‘6’

So you’re trying to deploy an OVA/OVF in VMware and every time you hit finish to start deploying, you receive an error that says “Failed to deploy ovf package invalid configuration for device ‘6’.”  This message is as clear as mud and might as well say “I don’t know, go ask Google.”

Having run into this numerous times, the fix is to remove the CD ROM drive from the OVF.  If you have an OVA, don’t panic, you can unpack it with any major unzip software like WinZip, WinRAR or 7Zip.

Once your unzip process has finished, edit the OVF file in notepad and remove the section that looks like this:

<Item ovf:required=”false”>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>false</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
<rasd:ElementName>CD/DVD drive 1</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>10</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>3</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>vmware.cdrom.remotepassthrough</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>15</rasd:ResourceType>
<vmw:Config ovf:required=”false” vmw:key=”backing.exclusive” vmw:value=”false” />
</Item>

Next save the OVF.

Before you try to deploy the OVF again, it is important that you delete or move the .MF file or your deployment will fail the integrity check.  Once this file is gone, you can deploy your OVF completely error free!