vSphere Lifecycle Manager Overview
vSphere Lifecycle Manager
OverviewThe
vSphere Lifecycle Manager
feature provides means for managing the life cycle of hosts on a cluster level. The
functionality of this feature is achieved through several major services that are running on
both vCenter
Server
and ESXi
.After you install vSphere 8.0 Update 1, you
can access the feature through several major services available on
vCenter
Server
and on each ESXi
host. vSphere Lifecycle Manager System
Architecture
Depot Manager
For each upgrade and patch release,
VMware, OEMs, and other third-party companies make the software updates of their
products available to the customers. Software updates are distributed to different
locations and in different formats depending on the way they are accessed,
downloaded, and used. Depot Manager allows these different software resources to be
presented to the vSphere customers in a unified format and as a result, makes them
easier to use.
Depending on your environment and
specific use case, Depot Manager gives you access to the software updates within
three different types of depots: online, offline, and UMDS. See Software Depots.
Depot Manager that runs on the
vCenter
Server
instance achieves the
following goals: - Represents the contents of all depots in a unified way.
- Caches the payloads and their metadata locally prior to their use.
- Enables depot overrides on a cluster or host level for Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) environments, or Edge computing environments.
Depot Manager that runs on the hosts
serves as a proxy to the
vCenter
Server
Depot Manager. If ROBO cluster or ROBO host, or Edge computing environments are
enabled, Depot Manager that runs on the ESXi
hosts serves as a proxy to the nearby vSphere Lifecycle Manager
compatible
depot. Image Manager
Image Manager allows you to create a
desired state that you can apply on a cluster or a standalone host. The
specification describes all components, add-ons, and the base image that you can use
to update or upgrade the hosts in your environment. Image Manager supports
validation of the desired state and the detecting drifts from the desired state.
Coordinator and ESXi Updater Managers
ESXi
Updater ManagersCoordinator Manager runs on the
vCenter
Server
instance and makes
sure that the desired state is applied to all hosts in the cluster. This module also
runs pre-checks to evaluate how each host in the cluster is affected by the
remediation and whether you must take some additional steps to ensure the success of
the procedure. Coordinator Manager also allows you to query the status of the
remediation operation for the cluster and for each host part of the cluster. The
ESXi
Updater Manager takes care of the actual remediation
happening on each host.