VMware Cloud Foundation 

Offline Lifecycle Management

Welcome to this demonstration on Offline Lifecycle Management in VMware Cloud Foundation.  This demo will show how to perform Lifecycle Management for Cloud Foundation environments not connected to the internet using the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility.

The major steps in this process are:

·       Create the Manifest file

·       Transfer the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility and Manfiest file to an internet connected workstation

·       Run the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility to download the available updates

·       Transfer the files back to SDDC Manager

·       Complete the process by running the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility  on SDDC Manager

Let’s join Rainpole as they begin this process on their Cloud Foundation Private Cloud  

We begin at the SDDC Manager dashboard. 

• Click [Bundles]

Here we see that there are no updates on this system

• Click [Download History]
  

Here we see that no updates have been downloaded on this system either.

• Click [Repository Settings]
  

Here we see that this system is not connected to a My VMware account.

• Click Minimize on the browser
  

Now we need to launch an SSH session to the SDDC Manager

• Click to launch Putty
• Click [SDDC Manager]
  

An SSH Session to the management IP address of SDDC Manager under the 'vcf' username has been established for us.

• Click to begin
  

The process of changing the directory and then generating a Manifest file (also known as a "marker file") is being shown.  This file will be used by the workstation connected to the internet to provide details about what version of the software components are currently running in this Cloud Foundation instance.  Now this file needs to be transferred to our workstation to be able to connect to the repository and query available updates.

• Click to [X] to close the SSH Session
  

Now we must launch a tool to transfer the files from SDDC Manager to our workstation.  In this example we will use WinSCP

• Click to [WinSCP] 
• Click to [SDDC Manager]
  

A SFTP session with SDDC Manager has been established with the 'vcf' user, connecting to the Management IP address. Now we will need to transfer the markerFile and the markerFile.md5 from the /home/vcf directory to the c:\temp directory on our workstation.

• Click to [Selected Files] transfer
  

With the marker files downloaded we must proceed to download the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility to this workstation.  This tool is located in the following directory on SDDC Manager /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools

• Click [Folder Icon] change directory to /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools 

Here we see the ‘bin’, ‘conf’, and ‘lib’ folders that need to be transferred to the c:\Temp directory on this workstation

• Click [Selected Folders] to copy
  

Now that all files have been downloaded successfully to the workstation we must close the WinSCP utility. 

• Click [X] to close
  

Prior to beginning Java 8 was installed on our workstation so that we can execute the utility.  Let’s launch a Command Prompt to begin using the utility.

• Click [Start]
• Click [Command Prompt]

Now we need to change the directory to the C:\temp\bin directory as this is where the Offline Bundle Transfer Utility was downloaded to using the WinSCP application.

• Click in the [Command Prompt]

Here we see the entire command entered in, before executing, the important pieces of this command is the -outputDirectory, -depotUser, -markerFile and -markerMd5File locations.  It is recommended to create a directory within c:\temp to download the bundles to, however we will be showing what are the necessary files to move in the event that a subdirectory is not used.

• Click [Command] to execute

We are asked for the My VMware Account Password

• Click [Command Prompt] to enter the password

After successful authentication we can see that this system needs 6 updates including Multiple SDDC Manager, ESX, NSX, PSC/vCenter updates

• Click [Command Prompt] to enter 'y' to continue. 

We see that the download process begins.  The download process will vary based upon the amount of patches to download as well as bandwidth available at the location.  After the download completes we will close the Command Prompt and transfer the files to SDDC Manager

• Click [X] to close the command prompt 
• Click [WinSCP] again
  

Here we see the listing in the c:\temp directory on the workstation.  Only the following files are necessary to transfer

·            Bundles directory

·            Manifests directory

·            Tmp directory

·            deltaFileDownload

·            deltaFileDownload.md5

·            index.v3

We can see that these files have been selected for us, and the directory that they will be transferred to on the SDDC Manager is located at: /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/offlinebundle where ‘offlinebundle’ can be any name created for this session.

• Click [Selected Files] to transfer
  

Now that the files have been transferred, we will close WinSCP and SSH into SDDC Manager

• Click [X] to close WinSCP
• Click [Putty] to open
  

Here we see that Putty is open again and authenticated to SDDC Manager as the 'vcf' user, we will need to perform a few operations:

–       Change user to root

–       Modify the permissions of /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/offline-bundle to 0777

–       Change directories to /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools/bin

• Click in Putty to execute these actions
  
  

Here we see a command that has been entered

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util -upload -bundleDirectory /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/offlinebundle

This command will process all the bundles in the upload directory ‘offlinebundle’(or a different folder as created earlier for this session), and they will be viewable from the SDDC Manager Download History

• Click [Command] to execute
  
  

Now that all the bundles have been uploaded, we can close Putty and Return to the SDDC Manager

• Click to [X] close the SSH session
• Click [Chome] to open the browser session to SDDC Manager

Now that we are in the SDDC Manager we will want to see the Download History of patches

• Click [Download History]

Here we can see the list of available patches for our VMware Cloud Foundation instance that is not connected to the internet, we can also scroll through the list of updates.

• Click the scroll bar

Rainpole is now ready to apply updates to their VMware Cloud Foundation instance while keeping their SDDC Manager from reaching the internet.  Follow Rainpole through the process of applying the updates to each of the components that were downloaded in the next demonstration.  For more information on VMware Cloud Foundation, visit our website at vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation