The VMware Cloud Director API supports downloading media images from a catalog.

Prerequisites

Verify that the following conditions are met:

  • You are logged in as a user who has permission to download media images.
  • You know the URL of the catalog item that references the media image.

Procedure

  1. Retrieve the XML representation of the catalog and examine the catalog items that it contains.
  2. Retrieve the catalog item that represents the media image.
  3. Use the URL in the Entity element of the CatalogItem to retrieve the Media object.
    The Media element includes a Link element of the following form, where id is the id of the media image: 
    <Link
   rel="enable"
   href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/id/action/enableDownload"/>
  4. Enable the media image for download.
    Make a POST request to the action/enableDownload URL shown in Step 2. The response is a Task element.
  5. When the task completes, retrieve the media item again.
    The Media object now includes a download URL for the media file.
  6. Make a GET request to the download:default URL.
    The media file is downloaded to the current working directory.

Example: Download a Media Image

When you download a media file, you first enable the file for download.

Request: 
POST https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/254/action/enableDownload
Response: 
202 Accepted
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.task+xml
...
<Task 
   ... 
   operation="Enabling download of Media database.iso (254)" ... >
   ...
</Task>
The Task in the response tracks the creation of the downloadable image. When the task completes, retrieve the Media element again. 
GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/media/254

The Media object now includes a download URL for the media file. 

<Media ... >
   ...
   <Files>
      <File
         name="database.iso"
         bytesTransferred="0">
         <Link
            rel="download:default"
            href="https://vcloud.example.com/transfer/.../database.iso" />
      </File>
   </Files>
   ...
</Media>

The download URL remains valid while a transfer session is in progress, and for a maximum of 60 minutes of transfer session idle time. A system administrator can change this default value. See Retrieve or Update System Settings.