The Content Onboarding Assistant automates the transfer of .vmtx templates, ISO images, scripts, and other files to your cloud SDDC.

You have two options for how the Content Onboarding Assistant transfers .vmtx templates to your SDDC
  • Convert these templates to OVF templates in the SDDC Content Library. This option takes less time.
  • Transfer these templates as .vmtx templates in the vCenter Server inventory. In this case, the templates undergo an intermediate conversion to OVF and then back to .vmtx templates.
Note: The Content Onboarding Assistant adds scripts and ISO images to a Content Library that is published from your on-premises data center and subscribed from your SDDC. It does not add existing OVF or OVA templates to the Content Library. For other ways of transferring OVF or OVA templates to your SDDC, see Getting Templates, ISOs, and Other Content into Your SDDC in the VMware Cloud on AWS Operations Guide.

You can use the Content Onboarding Assistant on any MacOS, Linux, or Windows machine that has network access to your on-premises data center and your SDDC.

If you use the Content Onboarding Assistant to transfer content to your SDDC, and then find that there are additional items you want to transfer, you can run the Content Onboarding Assistant again. The Content Onboarding Assistant recognizes which .vmtx templates have already been transferred and does not allow you to select those to be transferred again. It also recognizes ISO images and script files that have been transferred, and will only transfer new ISO images and scripts.

Prerequisites

Before you run Content Onboarding Assistant, do the following:
  • Make sure that your on-premises data center is running vCenter Server 6.0 or later.
  • Install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8 or later. You can download the Java Runtime installer from the Oracle website at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html.
  • Set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable to the location where you installed the JRE.
  • Set up a VPN connection between your on-premises data center and your SDDC. See "Configuring VPNs and Gateways" in Getting Started With VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

  1. Prepare scripts and ISO images for addition to the Content Library by moving them into a single folder in your on-premises data center.
    .vmtx templates need no special preparation.
  2. Download the Content Onboarding Assistant from the download location.
    1. Click Tools in left-hand column of the VMware Cloud Console.
    2. On the Content Onboarding Assistant card, click DOWNLOAD to download Content-Onboarding-Assistant-version.jar, where version is 1.5 or a newer version of the file.
  3. In the terminal or command line, switch to the directory where you placed the Content-Onboarding-Assistant.jar file and enter the command java -jar jar_file_name --cfg full_path_to_config_file.

    In the configuration file, specify each parameter on its own line, and follow it with a space and the value. For example 

    onpremServer vcenter.onprem.example.com
onpremInfraServer psc.onprem.example.com

    You can also specify many parameters on the command line by specifying them as --parameter parameter_value. Type java --jar jar_file_name --help to see a full list of parameters, or consult the table below.

    Parameter Description
    onpremServer server The host name of the vCenter Server for your on-premises data center.
    onpremInfraServer psc-server The host name of the on-premises Platform Services Controller. This is optional for embedded configurations.
    onpremUsername username The user name used to log in to the on-premises vCenter Server.
    location foldername The location of files such as scripts or ISO images on the on-premises datastore. Use the format datastore-name:folder/.
    cloudServer server The host name of the cloud SDDC vCenter Server.
    cloudInfraServer infra-server The host name of the cloud SDDC vCenter Server. This is optional.
    cloudFolderName foldername The name of the vCenter Server folder on the cloud SDDC where .vmtx templates will be stored.
    cloudRpName resource-pool-name The resource pool on the cloud SDDC for the .vmtx templates.
    cloudNetworkName network-name The distributed virtual port group on the cloud SDDC for the .vmtx templates.
    sessionUpdate value The time in milliseconds between session update calls. The default value is 60000 ms (10 minutes). If you experience issues with sessions timing out while the Content Onboarding Assistant is running, decrease this value.
  4. Enter the passwords for the on-premises data center and the cloud SDDC when you are prompted.
    Content Onboarding Assistant tests the connections to the on-premises data center and SDDC, and then displays a table showing all the .vmtx templates it has discovered.
  5. Enter the numbers for the templates you want to transfer.
    You can enter single numbers separated by commas, or a range separated by a dash.
  6. Confirm that the folder for ISO images and scripts is correct.
  7. Select how to transfer your .vmtx templates.
    • Select option 1 to transfer the templates as OVF templates in the SDDC Content Library.
    • Select option 2 to transfer the templates as .vmtx templates in the vCenter Server inventory.

Results

The Content Onboarding Assistant does the following:
  • Copies .vmtx templates from your on-premises data center to your SDDC, using the options you specified.
  • Creates a Content Library in your on-premises data center, adds the ISO images and scripts to that Content Library, and publishes it.
  • Creates a subscribed Content Library in your SDDC and synchronizes the ISO images and scripts to the SDDC.

What to do next

You can now use the .vmtx templates and ISO images to create virtual machines in your SDDC.