Working with Offline Depots

An offline depot is a ZIP file that contains the metadata and payloads of software updates and follows the same structure as the online depot. Use the vSphere Automation APIs to import the content of an offline depot to the vCenter Server database.

To add an offline depot to the depots managed by the Depot Manager, you must create an offline depot specification by using the Offline.CreateSpec data structure. When you define the offline depot parameters, use the POST https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>/api/esx/settings/depots/offline?vmw-task=true request and submit the Offline.CreateSpec JSON object. Depending on the location of the offline depot, when you create the offline depot specification, you must provide either the URI location or the file ID returned by the Jetty Web server embedded in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager. You set the type of the source from which the offline depot is downloaded by using the source_type property of the Offline.CreateSpec data structure.

Pull Depot Content from a URI

To indicate that the offline depot resides on a URI location, set the depot location as a value to the location property of the Offline.CreateSpec data structure. You can use one of the following URI schemes: http, https, or file. If you provide an HTTPS location to the offline depot, make sure you also provide a certificate trusted by the VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) or a custom certificate from the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS). For detailed information about how to manage certificates, see the vSphere Authentication documentation.

Push Depot Content to the Depot Manager

To push the content of an offline depot to the Depot Manager, you must first upload the ZIP file to the Jetty Web server at the https://<vcenter_FQDN>:9087/vum-fileupload URL. The server returns a file identifier that you canset as a value to the file_id property of the Offline.CreateSpec data structure.