You can set up UMDS to download upgrades for virtual appliances, or patches and notifications for ESXi hosts. You can also set up UMDS to download ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0, and ESXi 6.5 patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications from third-party portals.
For UMDS that runs on Windows, only Administrator or users that are part of the Administrators group can download patches. Administrator access is not a requirement for downloading patches with UMDS that runs on Linux.
After you download the upgrades, patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications, you can export the data to a Web server or a portable media drive and set up Update Manager to use a folder on the Web server or the media drive (mounted as a local disk) as a shared repository.
You can also set up UMDS to download ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0, and ESXi 6.5 patches and notifications from third-party portals.
To use UMDS, the machine on which you install it must have Internet access. After you download the data you want, you can copy it to a local Web server or a portable storage device, such as a CD or USB flash drive.
The best practice is to create a script to download the patches manually and set it up as a Windows Scheduled Task that downloads the upgrades and patches automatically.
