Types of Software Depots

The Depot Manager works with the software updates provided by three different types of software depots: online, offline, and UMDS.

Regardless of the different way in which you access each type of software depot, all depots have the same structure. The same depot structure allows content from different vendors to be uploaded to one depot. By default, you can access the content of the VMware online depot at https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/.... Furthermore, partners and third-party customers can use the ESXi Packaging Kit to build and distribute software updates in the form of offline or online depots. You can access their content by adding the online vendor depot to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager or by downloading the content of the offline depot to the vCenter Server instance.

Figure 1. Types of Software Depots
You can choose between the online, offline, and UMDS depots to download the desires software updates.

Online Depot

VMware and partners upload software updates to the VMware online depot at https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/... or to a custom online depot. Software updates can be patches of the ESXi base image, different versions of the partner add-ons, the IOVP drivers certified by VMware, and the VMware Tools™ updates. Online depots are accessible through a URL. By default, you can see the base images, add-ons, and components provided within the VMware online depot at the following locations:
  • https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/addon-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
  • https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
  • https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/iovp-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
  • https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/vmtools-main/vmw-depot-index.xml

When you deploy the vCenter Server, the vSphere Lifecycle Manager is configured to access the VMware online depot, by default. You can use the vSphere Automation APIs to add a custom online depot to be managed by the Depot Manager. The metadata of the newly added online depot is not synchronized immediately. To synchronize the metadata, you can run a synchronization operation or wait for the scheduled synchronization to take place.

The Depot Manager stores in the vCenter Server database only the metadata of the software updates and the location of the added online depots. You can create a schedule to synchronize the software updates metadata stored in the vCenter Server with the metadata available in the accessible depots. The payloads of the software updates are downloaded only during the cluster remediation process.

To add, remove, list, and retrieve information about the online depots, you can use the Online interface. See Working with Online Depots.

Offline Depot

The offline depot is also called an offline bundle and is distributed as a downloadable ZIP file. Offline depots contain both the metadata and the payloads of the software update. Partners and third-party customers can use the ESXi Packaging Kit to build and distribute offline bundles. You can download offline bundles delivered by VMware from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. When you add an offline depot to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager, the software updates are downloaded to the vCenter Server database.

To manage offline depots, you can use the com.vmware.esx.settings.depots.Offline interface. See Working with Offline Depots.

UMDS Depot

In case the vCenter Server instance is in an air-gapped environment and has no access to any wire or wireless network, you can use a UMDS depot. The VMware vSphere® Update Manager™ Download Service

(UMDS) is available as a VMware-UMDS-7.0.0.-build_number.tar.gz file within the ISO image of the vCenter Server 7.0 installer. Install the UMDS on a machine that has Internet access and is different from the machine on which the vSphere Lifecycle Manager is running. For further information about how to install and configure the UMDS module, see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

You can set up a synchronization schedule for downloading specific software updates from online vendor depots to the UMDS depot. Then use these updates to create desired software state for the clusters in your environment.

To manage UMDS depots through the vSphere Automation APIs, you can use the com.vmware.esx.settings.depots.Umds interface.