In older versions of VCF (4.x & 5.x), before you deploy any of the Aria suite components, you have to download the binaries online or download the binaries manually and upload them into VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, followed by binary mapping. Then, you can leverage these binaries to install, upgrade, or patch products from the Aria suite.

In VCF 9, this functionality has been moved to the unified VCF Operations component. All VCF fleet-related configurations/tasks are now performed through the VCF Operations. Using VCF operations, you can configure an online depot (token-based) or an offline depot for binary management. A depot serves as a source for downloading installation, upgrade, and patch binaries. You must set up a depot before downloading and installing components like VCF Operations for Logs and VCF Operations for Networks.

Only one depot connection can be ACTIVE at a time. If a depot is already ACTIVE, you must disconnect it before switching the depot to Online or Offline. In this post, I will demonstrate how to configure an online depot.

Step 1: Login to the VCF Operations appliance and navigate to Fleet Management > Lifecycle > VCF Management > Depot Configuration and click Configure for online depot.

Step 2: Select Download Token

For the online depot, you must have generated the download token from the Broadcom support portal. The download token is tied to the entitlements, and you can only download the binaries of the products you are entitled to. If you have not generated a token yet or are unsure how to do it, see Broadcom KB-390098

Once you have the token handy, click on the “+” button on the Download Token field to add the token and specify the following:

• Password Alias: A user-friendly alias to identify the token.
• Password: Enter the token generated from the Broadcom Support Portal
• Password Description: Enter a description for the token.
• User Name: This is not required and can be left blank.

Click on the Add button to save the token.

Step 3:Select the newly created token and click OK.

The depot connection is now active.

Step 4: Download the product binaries by navigating to the Binary Management > Install Binaries tab.

Depending on your internet speed, the download can take a while. Once a binary download is completed, the download status changes to Downloaded.

You are now ready to install these products.

And that’s it for this post. In the next post of this series, I will discuss the deployment of VCF Operations for Logs through VCF Operations. Stay tuned!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Feel free to share this on social media if it is worth sharing.