In an Oracle VM context, the term "template" is often used loosely and can refer to either a virtual appliance or a virtual machine template. The primary distinction between a virtual appliance and a virtual machine template is the file format. A virtual appliance contains a package created as a single .ova (Open Virtualization Format Archive) file or a set of .ovf (Open Virtualization Format) and virtual disk image files. A template is packaged as .tgz file which contains a virtual machine configuration (vm.cfg) files and one or more virtual disks.

You can use virtual appliances and templates to create multiple, pre-configured virtual machines. However, you can deploy virtual machine templates in .tgz format only in an Oracle VM environment. You can create, import, and export virtual appliances in .ovf or .ova format between an Oracle VM environment and another virtualization platform.

Oracle VM Virtual Appliances (or Oracle VM Templates) of many key Oracle products are available for download, including Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Database, Fusion Middleware, and many more; see the complete list below.