If you do not have direct internet connectivity to your SDDC Manager instance, you can use the Bundle Transfer Utility to manually download install bundles from the VMware depot to your local computer and then upload them to SDDC Manager.

This procedure describes the process for downloading install bundles using the Bundle Tranfer Utility. For information about downloading update/upgrade bundles, see the VMware Cloud Foundation Lifecycle Management Guide.
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 or IP address and port.

For example: --proxyServer proxy.example.com:3128.
--proxyHttps Add this option if the proxy server uses HTTPs.
--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.
  • 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 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.
  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. Download install bundles from the computer with internet access.
    1. From the /lcm-tools/bin folder where you downloaded the utility download install bundles by entering the following command.
    Windows: 
    lcm-bundle-transfer-util.bat -download --outputDirectory absolute-path-output-dir -depotUser depotUser -p vcfVersion --imageType 
INSTALL
    Linux: 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util -download --outputDirectory absolute-path-output-dir -depotUser depotUser -p vcfVersion --imageType 
INSTALL
    For example: 
    ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util -download --outputDirectory /root/downloadedBundles -depotUser [email protected] -p 4.4.0.0 --imageType INSTALL

    where

    absolute-path-output-dir

    Path to the directory where the bundle files are to 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

    Broadcom Support Portal user name. You are prompted to enter the password. If there are any special characters in the password, specify the password within single quotes.

    -p

    Filter the bundles for a specific version of VMware Cloud Foundation. The value is based on x.x.x.x format.
    After you enter you Broadcom Support Portal password, the utility asks Do you want to download vRealize bundles?. Enter Y or N. The utility displays a list of the available install bundles for the specified version of VMware Cloud Foundation.
  9. Specify the bundles to download.
    Enter one of the following options:
    • all
    • A specific bundle name or a comma-separated list of bundle names to download specific bundles. For example: bundle-52610, bundle-52990.
  10. 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 SDDC Manager appliance 
    scp -pr /root/downloadedBundles vcf@SDDC_MANAGER_IP:/nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/
    The scp command in the example above copies the output directory ( downloadedBundles) to the /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/ directory on the SDDC Manager appliance.
  11. 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 -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/downloadedBundles.
    The utility uploads the bundles and displays upload status for each bundle. When the uploads complete, the bundles are available in the SDDC Manager UI. Navigate to Lifecycle Management > Bundle Management > Download History to see the downloaded bundles.