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.
Using the Bundle Transfer Utility to upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.x involves the following steps:
  • Download the latest version of the Bundle Transfer Utility.
  • On a computer with access to the internet, use the Bundle Transfer Utility to download the bundles and other required files.
  • Copy the bundles and other required files to the SDDC Manager appliance.
  • On the SDDC Manager appliance, use the Bundle Transfer Utility to upload the bundles and other required files to the internal LCM repository.
If the computer with internet access can only access the internet using a proxy server, use the following options when downloading:
Option Description
--proxyServer, --ps Provide the proxy server FQDN and port.

For example: --proxyServer proxy.example.com:3128.
--proxyHttps Add this option if the proxy server uses HTTPs.
To use this option, the proxy certificate must be added to Bundle Transfer Utility JRE default trust store. For example: 
./btuJre/lin64/bin/keytool -importcert -file proxy.crt -keystore ./btuJre/lin64/lib/security/cacerts
--proxyUser For a proxy server that requires authentication, enter the user name.
--proxyPasswordFile For a proxy server that requires authentication, enter the path to a file where the password for proxy authentication is stored. The file content is used as the proxy password.

For example, --proxyPasswordFile ../../password.txt.
Example that combines the options: 
./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --manifestDownload --depotUser Username --proxyServer proxy.example.com:3128 --proxyUser vmwuser --proxyPasswordFile ../../password.txt --proxyHttps

Prerequisites

  • A Windows or Linux computer with internet connectivity (either directly or through a proxy) for downloading the bundles and other required files.
  • 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 the Broadcom Support Portal and browse to My Downloads > VMware Cloud Foundation.
    2. Click the version of VMware Cloud Foundation to which you are upgrading.
    3. Click Drivers & Tools.
    4. Click the download icon for the Bundle Transfer Utility.
    5. Extract lcm-tools-prod.tar.gz.
    6. Navigate to the lcm-tools-prod/bin/ and confirm that you have execute permission on all folders.
  2. Download bundles and other artifacts to the computer with internet access.
    1. 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
      For --depotUser, enter your Broadcom Support Portal user name.
      Note the location to which the Bundle Transfer Utility downloads the manifest. You will use this as the --sourceManifestDirectory when you upload the manifest. For example:
      Image showing the manifest download location.
    2. 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.
    3. Download the vSAN HCL file. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --vsanHclDownload
    4. Download the upgrade bundles. 
      ./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 Broadcom Support Portal. 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, 4.5.2.0.
      target-vcf-version Target version of VMware Cloud Foundation. For example, 5.2.1.0.
      dell_depot_email Dell depot email address.
    5. 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.
  3. Copy the following files/directories to the SDDC Manager appliance.
    • Bundle Transfer Utility
    • Manifest file
    • Compatibility data files (VmwareCompatibilityData.json and VxrailCompatibilityData.json)
    • vSAN HCL
    • Entire bundle output directory
    You can select any location on the SDDC Manager appliance that has enough free space available. For example, /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/.
    Note: Make sure to copy the entire output directory, including any VxRail bundles and JSON files.
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. From the SDDC Manager appliance, use the Bundle Transfer Utility to upload the bundles and artifacts.
    1. Upload the manifest file. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --update --sourceManifestDirectory Manifest-Directory --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
      Use your vSphere SSO credentials for the --sddcMgrUser parameter.
    2. Upload the compatibility files. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --update --compatibilityMatrix --inputDirectory compatibility-file-directory --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
    3. Upload the HCL file. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --vsanHclUpload --inputDirectory hcl-file-path --sddcMgrFqdn sddc-manager-fqdn --sddcMgrUser user
    4. Upload the bundle directory. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --upload "uploadPartnerBundle" --bundleDirectory absolute-path-bundle-dir