You can subscribe to local content libraries. When you subscribe to a library, you must specify the backing storage for the library content. If the library requires basic authentication, you must also provide the correct user name and password.

Note: If you subscribe to libraries created with basic authentication on a vCenter Server instance, make sure that you pass vcsp as an argument for the user name.

Prerequisites

Required privileges:
  • Content library.Create subscribed library on the vCenter Server instance where you want to create the library.
  • Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore.

Procedure

  1. Create a StorageBacking instance to define the location where the content of the subscribed library is stored.
  2. Create a SubscriptionInfo instance to define the subscription behavior of the library.
    1. Provide the mechanism to be used by the subscribed library to authenticate to the published library.
      You can select between no authentication and basic authentication depending on the settings of the published library you subscribe to. If the library is published with basic authentication, you must set the basic authentication in the SubscriptionInfo instance. To match the credentials of the published library, set the user name and the password of the SubscriptionInfo instance.
    2. Provide the URL to the endpoint where the metadata of the published library is stored.
    3. Define the synchronization mechanism of the subscribed library.
      You can select between two synchronization modes: automatic and on demand. If you enable automatic synchronization for a subscribed library, both the content and the metadata are synchronized with the published library. To save storage space, you can synchronize the subscribed library on demand and update only the metadata for the published library content.
    4. Set the thumbprint that is used for validating the certificate of the published library.
  3. Create a LibraryModel instance and set the library type to subscribed (LibraryModel.LibraryType.SUBSCRIBED).
  4. Access the SubscribedLibrary service and create the subscribed library instance.

Example

Java
This example is based on the code in the LibraryPublishSubscribe.java sample file.

This example uses the steps that are described in the Subscribe to a Content Library procedure.

Note: For a complete and up-to-date version of the Java sample code, see the vsphere-automation-sdk-java VMware repository at GitHub. 
...
 
// Create a StorageBacking instance to store 
// the contents of the subscribed library on the local file system.
       StorageBacking libraryBacking = new StorageBacking();
       libraryBacking.setType(StorageBacking.Type.OTHER);
       libraryBacking.setStorageUri(URI.create("/mnt/nfs/cls-root"));

// Create a new SubscriptionInfo object to define the subscription
// behavior of the library. 
       SubscriptionInfo subscriptionInfo = new SubscriptionInfo();
       subscriptionInfo.setAuthenticationMethod
         (com.vmware.content.library.SubscriptionInfo.AuthenticationMethod.BASIC);
       subscriptionInfo.setUserName("libraryUser");
       subscriptionInfo.setPassword("password".toCharArray());
       subscriptionInfo.setSubscriptionUrl(URI.create("https://www.acmecompary.com/library_inventory/lib.json"));

// Specify that the content of the subscribed library will be downloaded immediately.
       subscriptionInfo.setAutomaticSyncEnabled(true);

// Set an SHA-1 hash of the SSL certificate of the remote endpoint.
       subscriptionInfo.setSslThumbprint("9B:00:3F:C4:4E:B1:F3:F9:0D:70:47:48:E7:0B:D1:A7:0E:DE:60:A5");

// Create a new LibraryModel object for the subscribed library. 
       LibraryModel libraryModel = new LibraryModel();
       libraryModel.setType(LibraryModel.LibraryType.SUBSCRIBED);
       libraryModel.setName("SubscrLibrary");

// Attach the storage backing and the subscription info to the library model. 
       libraryModel.setStorageBackings(Collections.singletonList(libraryBacking));
       libraryModel.setSubscriptionInfo(subscriptionInfo);

// Create the new subscribed library.
       String clientToken = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
       SubscribedLibrary subscribedLibService = this.vapiAuthHelper.getStubFactory().createStub(SubscribedLibrary.class, sessionStubconfig);
       String subscribedLibId = subscribedLibService.create(clientToken, libraryModel);
Python
This example is based on the code in the library_publish_subscribe.py sample file.

This example uses the steps that are described in the Subscribe to a Content Library procedure.

Note: For a complete and up-to-date version of the sample code, see the vsphere-automation-sdk-python VMware repository at GitHub. 
...
 
# Create a StorageBacking instance on a local file system.
library_backing = library_client.StorageBacking()
library_backing.type = library_client.StorageBacking.Type.OTHER
library_backing.storage_uri = ’/mnt/nfs/cls-root’
 
# Create a new SubscriptionInfo object to describe the subscription behavior.
subscription_info = library_client.SubscriptionInfo()
subscription_info.authentication_method = library_client.SubscriptionInfo.AuthenticationMethod.BASIC
subscription_info.user_name = ’libraryUser’
subscription_info.password = ’password’
subscription_info.subscription_url = ’https://www.acmecompary.com/library_inventory/lib.json’
subscription_info.automatic_sync_enabled = True
subscription_info.ssl_thumbprint = ’9B:00:3F:C4:4E:B1:F3:F9:0D:70:47:48:E7:0B:D1:A7:0E:DE:60:A5’
 
# Create a new LibraryModel object for the subscribed library.
library_model = content_client.LibraryModel()
library_model.type = content_client.LibraryModel.LibraryType.SUBSCRIBED
library_model.name = ’subscrLibrary’
 
# Attach the storage backing and the subscription info to the library model.
library_model.storage_backings = [library_backing]
library_model.subscription_info = subscription_info
 
# Create the new library instance.
idem_token = str(uuid.uuid4())
local_library_stub = content_client.LocalLibrary(my_stub_config)
library_id = local_library_stub.create(create_spec=library_model,client_token=idem_token)