Setting Up and Using UMDS

You can set up UMDS to download patches for ESXi hosts. You can also set up UMDS to download ESXi 6.5, ESXi 6.7, and ESXi 7.0 patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications from third-party portals.

Administrator access is not a requirement for downloading patches if UMDS runs on Linux.

After you download the upgrades, patch binaries, patch metadata, you can export the data to a Web server or a portable media drive and set up vSphere Lifecycle 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 6.5, ESXi 6.7, and ESXi 7.0 patches 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 use a job scheduler, for example cron job, to create a job that periodically triggers UMDS to download the upgrades, patches, and notifications.