First, I need to create a VM to export. I uploaded the Ubuntu Server 20.04.01 iso to a folder on my datastore and proceeded to create a virtual machine.

Creating Ubuntu Server Virtual Machine

Updating Ubuntu Server

After booting the virtual machine and doing the first time setup, I did the following commands to update it.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
sudo service ssh restart
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
sudo apt-get install net-tools
sudo apt-get install perl

Exporting

I shut down the virtual machine and exported the VM.

Utilizing Template

When creating a new VM I selected my .ovf file and .vmdk file and proceeded as normal.