If the SDDC Manager appliance does not have access to the VMware Depot and the Dell Depot, you can use the Bundle Transfer Utility to download the bundles to a different computer and then upload them to the SDDC Manager appliance.
When you download bundles, the Bundle Transfer Utility verifies that the file size and checksum of the downloaded bundles match the expected values. Additionally, in VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 and higher, upgrades are made available based on the compatibility data, which tracks the compatible intra-product upgrades and inter-product compatibility across versions. This data is updated before any upgrade operation is planned.

Prerequisites

  • A Windows or Linux computer with internet connectivity for downloading the bundles.
  • You need a system with internet access to download the manifest file and VMware Compatibility Data.
  • The computer must have Java 8 or later.
  • A Windows or Linux computer with access to the SDDC Manager appliance for uploading the bundles.
  • To upload the manifest file from a Windows computer, you must have OpenSSL installed and configured.
  • Configure TCP keepalive in your SSH client to prevent socket connection timeouts when using the Bundle Transfer Utility for long-running operations.
Note: The Bundle Transfer Utility is the only supported method for downloading bundles. Do not use third-party tools or other methods to download bundles.

Procedure

  1. Download the most recent version of the Bundle Transfer Utility on a computer with internet access.
    1. Log in to VMware Customer Connect and browse to the Download VMware Cloud Foundation page.
    2. In the Select Version field, select the version to which you are upgrading.
    3. Click Drivers & Tools.
    4. Expand VMware Cloud Foundation Supplemental Tools.
    5. Click DOWNLOAD NOW for the Bundle Transfer Utility.
  2. Extract lcm-tools-prod.tar.gz.
  3. Navigate to the lcm-tools-prod/bin/ and confirm that you have execute permission on all folders.
  4. Copy the bundle transfer utility to a computer with access to the SDDC Manager appliance and then copy the bundle transfer utility to the SDDC Manager appliance.
    1. SSH in to the SDDC Manager appliance using the vcf user account.
    2. Enter su to switch to the root user.
    3. Create the lcm-tools directory. 
      mkdir /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools
      Note: If the /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools directory already exists with an older version of the Bundle Transfer Utility, you need to delete contents of the existing directory before proceeding.
    4. Copy the Bundle Transfer Utility file (lcm-tools-prod.tar.gz) that you downloaded in step 1 to the /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools directory.
    5. Extract the contents of lcm-tools-prod.tar.gz. 
      tar -xvf lcm-tools-prod.tar.gz
    6. Set the permissions for the lcm-tools directory. 
      cd /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/
      chown vcf_lcm:vcf -R lcm-tools
      chmod 750 -R lcm-tools
  5. On the computer with internet access, download the manifest file. This is a structured metadata file that contains information about the VMware product versions included in the release Bill of Materials. 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --manifestDownload --depotUser Username
  6. Copy the manifest file and lcm-tools-prod directory to a computer with access to the SDDC Manager appliance.
  7. Upload the manifest file to the SDDC Manager appliance. 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --update --sourceManifestDirectory Manifest-Downloaded-Directory --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
    Use your vSphere SSO credentials for the --sddcMgrUser parameter.
  8. On the computer with internet access, download the compatibility data. 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --compatibilityMatrix --depotUser Username --pdu dell_depot_email
    To specify a download location, use --outputDirectory followed by the path to the directory.
  9. Copy the compatibility data files (VmwareCompatibilityData.json and VxrailCompatibilityData.json) to the computer with access to the SDDC Manager appliance.
  10. Upload the compatibility files to the SDDC Manager appliance. 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --update --compatibilityMatrix --inputDirectory compatibility-file-directory --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
  11. On the computer with internet access, run the following command. 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download "downloadPartnerBundle" --download "withCompatibilitySets" --outputDirectory absolute-path-output-dir --depotUser customer_connect_email --sv current-vcf-version --p target-vcf-version --pdu dell_depot_email
    where
    absolute-path-output-dir Path to the directory where the bundle files should be downloaded. This directory folder must have 777 permissions.

    If you do not specify the download directory, bundles are downloaded to the default directory with 777 permissions.

    depotUser User name for the VMware Depot (VMware Customer Connect). You will be prompted to enter the depot user password. If there are any special characters in the password, specify the password within single quotes.
    current-vcf-version Current version of VMware Cloud Foundation. For example, 4.3.1.1.
    target-vcf-version Target version of VMware Cloud Foundation. For example, 4.4.0.0.
    dell_depot_email Dell depot email address.
    After you enter you VMware Customer Connect and Dell Depot passwords, the utility asks Do you want to download vRealize bundles?. Enter Y or N.
    The utility displays a list of the available bundles based on the current and target versions of VMware Cloud Foundation.
  12. Specify the bundles to download.
    Enter one of the following options:
    • all
    • install
    • patch
    You can also enter a comma-separated list of bundle names to download specific bundles. For example: bundle-38371, bundle-38378.
    Download progress for each bundle is displayed. Wait until all bundles are downloaded successfully.
  13. If you downloaded VxRail bundles:
    1. Copy the partner bundle to the /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/depot/local/bundles directory on the SDDC Manager appliance.
    2. Copy partnerBundleMetadata.json to the /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/depot/local directory on the SDDC Manager appliance.
    3. Copy softwareCompatibilitySets.json to the /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/depot/local directory on the SDDC Manager appliance.
    4. Run following commands on the SDDC Manager appliance: 
      chown -R vcf_lcm:vcf /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/depot/local
      chmod -R 755 /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/depot/local
  14. Copy the entire output directory to a computer with access to the SDDC Manager appliance, and then copy it to the SDDC Manager appliance.
    You can select any location on the SDDC Manager appliance that has enough free space available. For example, /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/.
    Example command to copy the output directory to the SDDC Manager appliance: 
    scp -pr /root/upgrade-bundles vcf@SDDC_MANAGER_IP:/nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/
    The scp command in the example above copies the output directory ( upgrade-bundles) to the /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/ directory on the SDDC Manager appliance.
  15. Upload the directory to the SDDC Manager appliance internal LCM repository.
    1. SSH in to the SDDC Manager appliance using the vcf user account.
    2. Navigate to /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools/bin.
    3. Run the following command: 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --upload "uploadPartnerBundle" --bundleDirectory absolute-path-bundle-dir
      • Replace absolute-path-bundle-dir with the path to the location where you copied the output directory. For example: /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/upgrade-bundles.
    The utility uploads the bundles and displays upload status for each bundle. Wait for all bundles to be uploaded before proceeding with an upgrade.