Create and Delete a Subscription for a Local Library

To share the contents of a local library with users from other vCenter Server instances, enable publishing for the library. This way, other users can subscribe to the published library and use its contents.

As an administrator, you can also create subscriptions for the library to gain control over the distribution of content.

Note: You cannot create subscriptions to a local library that does not have publishing enabled. You also cannot deactivate publishing for a library that already has subscriptions. To deactivate publishing for a local library, you must first delete all of its subscriptions.

To avoid name collisions and failures when you publish content from the publisher library, the publisher and subscriber libraries must have unique folders dedicated to them.

Local Libraries

You use a local library to store and manage items in a single vCenter Server instance. When you enable publishing for the library, users from other vCenter Server instances can subscribe to it and gain access to the library items. In this case, only the subscriber initiates and controls the synchronization of content between the published library and the subscribed library.

If publishing is enabled, you can also create subscriptions to the local library. Creating a subscription creates a new subscribed library or links the publisher library to an existing subscriber. Unlike regular subscribed libraries, subscriptions give the administrator of the local library control over the distribution of content library items.

A publisher library is a local library with subscriptions.

Using Subscriptions

When you create a subscription for a local library, the result is a subscribed library. A publisher library is aware of its subscriptions. Subscriptions enable the administrator of the publisher library to control the content distribution. With subscriptions, content is distributed either when the subscriber initiates synchronization, or when the administrator of the local library publishes the library items to one or more of the existing subscriptions.

When you use subscriptions, you have the flexibility to decide how much of the library content you want to share with the subscribers. For example, you can publish some or all library items. You can also publish content to selected subscribers or to all subscribers.

The use of subscriptions allows content distribution between a publisher and a subscriber in the following scenarios.

The publisher and subscriber are in the same vCenter Server instance.
The publisher and subscriber are in vCenter Server instances that are in Enhanced Linked Mode.
The publisher and subscriber are in vCenter Server instances that are in Hybrid Linked Mode. For more information about Hybrid Linked Mode, see the VMware Cloud on AWS documentation.
Note: Publishing content is possible only from an on-premises publisher to a cloud subscriber, and not in the reverse scenario.

Limitations in Content Distribution

Content is distributed when a publisher library publishes content to its subscribers or when a subscriber synchronizes the content in the respective subscribed library with the published library. You can publish and synchronize a single content library item or an entire library. The following limitations exist in the distribution of content between a published and a subscribed library.

You can publish only VM templates. If you publish an entire library that contains both VM templates and OVF templates, only the VM templates are replicated to the subscriber. To synchronize OVF templates and other types of files, the subscriber must initiate the synchronization.
You can synchronize only OVF templates. If a subscriber initiates synchronization with a published library that contains both VM templates and OVF templates, only the OVF templates are synchronized in the subscribed library. VM templates are synchronized when a publisher library publishes them to its subscribers.

Create a Subscription for a Local Library

Subscriptions enable you to publish library items to a subscriber whenever you want. Create a subscription for a publisher library to control the distribution of templates to the subscriber.

When you create a subscription, you can link the publisher library to an existing subscribed library or create a new subscribed library. Creating a subscription to a new subscribed library triggers automatic synchronization. Creating a subscription to an existing library does not trigger automatic synchronization. If you create a subscription to an existing library, the synchronization happens when you publish an item or the entire library.

When you create a subscription to a new subscribed library and you select the option to download library content only when needed, only the metadata for the publisher library contents is downloaded to the associated storage. When the subscriber needs to use a library item, you either publish the item to the subscriber or the subscriber synchronizes the item to download its content to their local storage. For more information about synchronizing an entire library or a library item, see Synchronize the Contents of a Subscribed Library.

Prerequisites

Verify that publishing is enabled for the library.
Required privilege: Content library.Create a subscription for a published library on the content library for which you create a subscription.

Procedure

Select Menu > Content Libraries.
Right-click a local library and select New Subscription.
The Create Subscription wizard starts.

Select your task.

Task	Steps
Create a new subscription to a new subscribed library	On the Select subscription type page, select the Create a new subscription to a new Subscriber library radio button and click Next. On the Configure subscription page, configure the subscription and click Next. Select a vCenter Server instance to create the subscribed library in. Enter a name and description for the new subscribed library. Select the download method for the new subscribed library. On the Select folder page, select a location for the library contents and click Next. On the Select compute resource page, select the compute resource for the subscribed library and click Next. On the Select storage page, select a storage location for the subscribed library items and click Next. On the Select network page, select a network for the synchronization of the subscribed library items and click Next. On the Review page, review the configuration and click Finish.
Create a new subscription to an existing subscribed library	On the Select subscription type page, select the Create a new subscription to an existing Subscriber library radio button and click Next. On the Configure subscription page, configure the subscription and click Next. From the vCenter Server drop-down menu, select the vCenter Server instance to create the subscription in. A list of all libraries that are subscribed to the publisher and that are in the selected vCenter Server instance appears. Select an existing subscribed library from the list. On the Select folder page, select a location for the subscription and click Next. On the Select compute resource page, select the compute resource for the subscriber library. On the Select storage page, select where to store the contents of the subscriber and click Next. On the Select network page, select a network for the synchronization of the subscribed library items use and click Next. On the Review page, review the configuration and click Finish.

Task

Steps

Create a new subscription to a new subscribed library

On the Select subscription type page, select the Create a new subscription to a new Subscriber library radio button and click Next.
On the Configure subscription page, configure the subscription and click Next.
- Select a vCenter Server instance to create the subscribed library in.
- Enter a name and description for the new subscribed library.
- Select the download method for the new subscribed library.
On the Select folder page, select a location for the library contents and click Next.
On the Select compute resource page, select the compute resource for the subscribed library and click Next.
On the Select storage page, select a storage location for the subscribed library items and click Next.
On the Select network page, select a network for the synchronization of the subscribed library items and click Next.
On the Review page, review the configuration and click Finish.

Create a new subscription to an existing subscribed library

On the Select subscription type page, select the Create a new subscription to an existing Subscriber library radio button and click Next.
On the Configure subscription page, configure the subscription and click Next.
1. From the vCenter Server drop-down menu, select the vCenter Server instance to create the subscription in.
  A list of all libraries that are subscribed to the publisher and that are in the selected vCenter Server instance appears.
2. Select an existing subscribed library from the list.
On the Select folder page, select a location for the subscription and click Next.
On the Select compute resource page, select the compute resource for the subscriber library.
On the Select storage page, select where to store the contents of the subscriber and click Next.
On the Select network page, select a network for the synchronization of the subscribed library items use and click Next.
On the Review page, review the configuration and click Finish.

Results

A new subscription is created. When you go to the Subscriptions tab of the local library, you can view a list of all existing subscriptions for the library.

Delete a Subscription from a Local Library

Delete a subscription if you no longer want to share the contents of a publisher library with a subscriber. You might also need to delete a subscription if the corresponding subscribed library has been deleted.

If you do not delete a subscription to a deleted subscribed library and you publish content to that subscriber, the task triggers an error. To avoid errors, always delete subscriptions that link to deleted subscribed libraries.

Deleting is a useful option when you need to change a subscription. Because editing is currently not supported, your only choice is to delete the subscription that you want to modify and create a new one.

When you delete a subscription, the respective subscribed library and its contents are not deleted. Deleting a subscription means that you can no longer publish templates to the subscriber. The subscriber can still initiate the synchronization of OVF templates, if any. The subscriber can also continue using the previously synchronized content.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library.Delete subscription of a published library on the library.

Procedure

Navigate to the Content Libraries list.
Open a local library by clicking its name.
On the Subscriptions tab, select one or multiple subscriber libraries from the list.
Click the Delete subscription button to delete the selected subscriber libraries.

Results

The subscription is deleted and you cannot use the publish function to synchronize the content in the respective subscribed library .