More and more data is generated every day, and the same is true for “virtual” content, such as VM templates, vApps, ISO images, and scripts. The industry is paying more attention to how to streamline maintenance procedures, distribute the content, and deal with emergencies.
Now, imagine that you work at the head office in San Francisco. Your company recently opened three new branches in Denver, Atlanta, and Minneapolis and asked you to provide them with all required software. And of course, you have a VM that has all they need. So, what do you do next?
Content Library is a new feature in vSphere 6.0 that will help you to solve this and many other problems. Let me demonstrate how.
Step 1: Open vSphere Web Client and navigate to Content Libraries:
Step 2: Create a local library in your vCenter Server and call it SF_Library (for example):
Step 3: Clone the VM as a template into SF_Library:
Check that the template is in the library:
Step 4: Since you want to distribute this content (the VM template) to remote locations, go back to your library, make it public, and copy the URL:
Step 5: In vCenter Server in Denver (Atlanta or Minneapolis), create a new library, but this time it will be a subscribed content library, since you want to get the content from the San Francisco office:
Step 6: Wait for the synchronization between SF_Library (published) and Denver_Library (subscribed) to be completed:
Step 7: Use the template from the newly synced Denver_Library to deploy the VM locally:
Apply exactly the same actions you did for Denver to Atlanta and Minneapolis location, and now you have your VM running in all three of them.
To conclude, I would like to mention a few immediate benefits you get from using Content Library:
You managed to deploy identical VMs in three different geographies from your single local template.
You can also add ISO images or script files and sync them across all locations.
You can easily keep all the locations up-to-date with recent security patches or other software updates.
