vSphere post-processor is very slow to import into , is this normal?

[Steven Stratis]

Since Packer uses ovftool to handle the importing of the vmx into vSphere, it can take a very long time for the export to complete (well over an hour normally). Is this the expected behavior from the post-processor? 

Is there a recommended approach for speeding it up, such as compressing drives or something a long those lines. I'm new to building VMware images and working with vSphere so I'm not sure if compression is an option in this case since it's importing a vmx into vSphere. 

Below is an example of my packer script. 

```{

"builders": [

{

"type": "vmware-iso",

"boot_command": [

"<esc><wait>",

"<esc><wait>",

"<enter><wait>",

"/install/vmlinuz<wait>",

" auto<wait>",

" console-setup/ask_detect=false<wait>",

" console-setup/layoutcode=us<wait>",

" console-setup/modelcode=pc105<wait>",

" debconf/frontend=noninteractive<wait>",

" debian-installer=en_US.UTF-8<wait>",

" fb=false<wait>",

" initrd=/install/initrd.gz<wait>",

" kbd-chooser/method=us<wait>",

" keyboard-configuration/layout=USA<wait>",

" keyboard-configuration/variant=USA<wait>",

" locale=en_US.UTF-8<wait>",

" netcfg/get_domain=vm<wait>",

" netcfg/get_hostname=ubuntubase<wait>",

" grub-installer/bootdev=/dev/sda<wait>",

" noapic<wait>",

" preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/{{user `preseed_path`}}<wait>",

" -- <wait>",

"<enter><wait>"

],

"boot_wait": "10s",

"disk_size": "{{user `disk_size`}}",

"guest_os_type": "ubuntu-64",

"headless": "{{ user `headless` }}",

"http_directory": "http",

"iso_checksum": "{{user `iso_checksum`}}",

"iso_checksum_type": "{{user `iso_checksum_type`}}",

"iso_url": "{{user `mirror`}}/{{user `mirror_directory`}}/{{user `iso_name`}}",

"output_directory": "../vmware/builds/{{user `template`}}",

"shutdown_command": "echo 'dev' | sudo -S shutdown -P now",

"ssh_password": "dev",

"ssh_port": 22,

"ssh_username": "dev",

"ssh_wait_timeout": "10000s",

"tools_upload_flavor": "linux",

"vm_name": "{{ user `template` }}",

"vmx_data": {

"cpuid.coresPerSocket": "1",

"ethernet0.pciSlotNumber": "32",

"memsize": "{{ user `memory` }}",

"numvcpus": "{{ user `cpus` }}"

}

}

],

"post-processors": [

{

"type": "vsphere",

"cluster": "{{user `vsphere_cluster`}}",

"datacenter": "{{user `vsphere_datacenter`}}",

"datastore": "{{user `vsphere_datastore`}}",

"host": "{{user `vsphere_domain`}}",

"password": "{{user `vsphere_pass`}}",

"username": "{{user `vsphere_user`}}",

"vm_name": "{{user `template`}}",

"esxi_host": "{{user `vsphere_esxi`}}",

"insecure": "{{user `vsphere_insecure`}}",

"vm_folder": "{{user `vsphere_vmfolder`}}",

"vm_network": "{{user `vsphere_network`}}",

"options": ["--machineOutput"]

}

],

```