Once SDDC Manager is upgraded to 5.2 or later, a new option for patching VMware Cloud Foundation components is available in the SDDC Manager UI. This procedure describes using the Bundle Transfer Utility to download async patches when SDDC Manager is not connected to an online depot.

Offline download of async patches involves the following steps:
  • On a computer with access to the internet, use the Bundle Transfer Utility to download the async patch bundle and other required files.
  • Copy the bundle and other required files to the SDDC Manager appliance.
  • On the SDDC Manager appliance, use the Bundle Transfer Utility to upload the bundle 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.
--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.
  • The computer with internet connectivity and the SDDC Manager appliance must have the latest version of the Bundle Transfer Utility installed and configured. See Offline Download of VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.x Upgrade Bundles for more information.

Procedure

  1. 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.
    2. Download the compatibility data. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --compatibilityMatrix --depotUser Username
      To specify a download location, use --outputDirectory followed by the path to the directory.
    3. Download the product version catalog. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --depotUser Username --download productVersionCatalog  --outputDirectory directory-path
    4. List the available async patches. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --listAsyncPatchBundles --depotUser Username
    5. Download an async patch. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --bundle bundle-number --depotUser Username
      For example: 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --bundle bundle-12345 --depotUser [email protected]
  2. Copy the following files/directories to the SDDC Manager appliance.
    • Manifest file
    • Compatibility data file (VmwareCompatibilityData.json)
    • 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/.
  3. 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 file. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --update --compatibilityMatrix --inputDirectory compatibility-file-directory --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
    3. Upload the product version catalog. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --upload productVersionCatalog --inputDirectory directory-path --sddcMgrFqdn FQDN --sddcMgrUser Username
    4. Upload the bundle directory. 
      ./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --upload --bundle bundle-number --bundleDirectory absolute-path-bundle-dir
      • Replace number with the bundle number you are uploading. For example: 12345 for bundle-12345.
      • 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.

What to do next

After the upload completes successfully, you can use the SDDC Manager UI to apply the async patch. See Patching the Management and Workload Domains.