You can add a new download source for vSphere Lifecycle Manager by providing a URL to the online depot or the UMDS repository that you want to use. Additionally, you can edit or delete a download source. You can also temporarily stop vSphere Lifecycle Manager from downloading updates from a particular download source.

Add a New Download Source

If you use the Internet as a download source for updates, you can add URL addresses to third-party online depots. vSphere Lifecycle Manager downloads software updates from all the online depots that you configured it to use. Update metadata are downloaded from the online depots to the local vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot.

The default download source for vSphere Lifecycle Manager is the official VMware depot.

Starting with vSphere 7.0, the official VMware online depot also hosts vendor add-ons and VMware-certified device drivers. Unlike previous releases, all software that you need to install, update, or customize the ESXi version of your hosts is available in the official VMware online depot.

Downloading updates takes place at configurable regular intervals. To initiate the downloading of updates regardless of the download schedule, see Synchronize the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Depot.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager.Configure

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. On the Settings tab, select Administration > Patch Setup.
  3. In the Patches downloaded from the Internet pane, click New.
    The New Download Source dialog box opens.
  4. Enter a URL address to a new download source.
    vSphere Lifecycle Manager supports both HTTP and HTTPS URL addresses. Use HTTPS URL addresses to download data securely. The URL addresses that you add must be complete and contain an index.xml file, which lists the vendor and the vendor index.
    Note: The proxy settings that vSphere Lifecycle Manager uses are also applicable to third-party URL addresses.
  5. (Optional) Enter a short description for the download source.
  6. Click Save.

Results

The new location is added to the list of download sources and downloading from it is enabled by default.

Modify a Download Source

You can edit or delete a download source from the list of vSphere Lifecycle Manager download sources. You can also allow or disallow vSphere Lifecycle Manager to download updates from a particular download source.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager.Configure

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. On the Settings tab, select Administration > Patch Setup.
  3. In the Patches downloaded from the Internet pane, select a URL address from the list of download sources and select your task.
    • Click Edit to edit the source URL or the description for the selected download source.
    • Click Enable or Disable to allow or disallow downloading from the selected download source.
    • Click Delete to delete the selected download source.
    Note: You cannot edit or delete the default VMware download source for ESXi updates. You can only allow or disallow vSphere Lifecycle Manager to use it for downloading update metadata from it.