Instead of waiting for the predefined download task to run as scheduled, you can update your local vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot immediately.

At regular configurable intervals, vSphere Lifecycle Manager downloads updates from the configured download sources. The download sources can be online depots or a UMDS-created shared repository.

Regardless of the download schedule, you can initiate synchronization between the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot and the configured download sources. Similar to scheduled synchronization, when you initiate synchronization manually, vSphere Lifecycle Manager downloads software from all online depots that you configured it to use. For more information about configuring the vSphere Lifecycle Manager download sources, see Configuring the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Download Sources.

During synchronization, vSphere Lifecycle Manager downloads only the update metadata, the actual payloads are downloaded during staging or remediation.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.
    1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Lifecycle Manager.
    2. Select a vCenter Server system from the Lifecycle Manager drop-down menu.
      The drop-down menu is available only when multiple vCenter Server systems are connected by a common vCenter Single Sign-On domain. By selecting a vCenter Server system, you specify which vSphere Lifecycle Manager instance you want to administer.
  2. Select Actions > Sync Updates at the top of the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.
    The Sync updates task appears in the Recent Tasks pane.

Results

You downloaded updates to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot. vSphere Lifecycle Manager automatically generates new image recommendations for the clusters that already have generated recommended images. However, if the updates are related to downloading solution components only, vSphere Lifecycle Manager does not generate new recommendations automatically.

You can view the downloaded patches and extension on the Updates tab in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.

You can view the downloaded ESXi images, vendor add-ons, and components on the Image Depot tab in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.