Working with Offline Depots

An offline depot is a ZIP file that contains the metadata and payloads of software updates and follows the same structure as the online depot. Use the vSphere Automation APIs to import the content of an offline depot to the vCenter Server database.

To add an offline depot to the depots managed by the Depot Manager, you must first create an offline depot specification by using the com.vmware.esx.settings.depots.OfflineTypes.CreateSpec class. When defined the offline depot parameters, call the create_Task(create_spec) method of the com.vmware.esx.settings.depots.Offline interface. Depending on the location of the offline depot, when you create the offline depot specification, you must provide either the URI location or the file ID returned by the Jetty Web server embedded in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager. You set the type of the source from which the offline depot is downloaded by using the setSourceType(sourceType) method of the OfflineTypes.CreateSpec class.

Pull Depot Content from a URI

To indicate that the offline depot resides on a URI location, call the setLocation(java.net.URI location) method of the OfflineTypes.CreateSpec class. You can pass as an argument the depot location in one of the following URI schemes: http, https, or file. If you provide an HTTPS location to the offline depot, make sure you also provide a certificate trusted by the VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) or a custom certificate from the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS). See vSphere Authentication.

Push Depot Content to the Depot Manager

To push the content of an offline depot to the Depot Manager, you must first upload the ZIP file to the Jetty Web server at the https://<vcenter_FQDN>:9087/vum-fileupload URL. The server returns a file identifier that you can pass as an argument to the setFileId(fileId) method of the OfflineTypes.CreateSpec class.