So I am now using a Content Library in my lab - they are seriously improved in 6.5 and so the next thing to do is connected an external CL to mine. If you want an intro check out my past article on Content Libraries.
I am going to use William Lam’s externally hosted Content Library as it has nested ESXi appliances in it that are quite useful for me. How, you ask? I am using them to help me test out the new Constant Data Protection (CDP) feature in Veeam v10 that requires IO Filters (VMware vSphere API for IO filtering). If an IO Filter blows up I only need to deploy a new nested host rather then install a new physical one. This has not happened mind you, but good to be careful.
You can find the address, and more info, on Williams CL in his article about how it has been updated.
We start on our Home page.
We select Content Libraries.
We use the Create a new content library button.
We fill in as appropriate and use Next.
I have used the Subscribed content library option, and I am using the Download all content immediately option. There is not much bits to download but this is an important option. If you are not sure the last option is most useful. As well, if you are using this article to help with someone else’s CL you may need to enable authentication. I got the subscription URL from the article I mentioned above.
When you hit Next you will get a prompt about certification.
And after that - I hit Yes of course in this case.
We can now choose where to host our Content Library. I normally select a datastore, but you can also use an SMB or NFS mount point too.
Once we hit finish there are a number of things that happen, and you can see the status in Recent Tasks.
The sync you see is likely the operation of copying the bits from William’s externally hosted CL. Not sure of his storage, but mine is slow so that may contribute to the length of this operation.
We can see that metadata is already here in the CL.
But we can see the Size as showing 0 so that means still doing the sync. But before you realize it it is done.
So we now have an external hosted CL connected to our world. Next time I deploy from Content Library I have a nice choice.
Not the templates from my own CL are seen as well as the ones I have from William!
Think about the possibilities? Maybe a head office does a super cool template, and it ends up in all the different branch offices thanks to linked Content Libraries. Another possibility is like William is doing - providing software that has his great customization with it. And it makes it very easy for me to use.
Cool stuff!
Michael
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