We have a public catalog which is shared to all ORGs within vCloud. This also contains some ISO media files for users to mount to cdrom of virtual machines.
However in order for a user to make use of a media file from a public catalog, that media file firstly needs to be copy to the local catalog of that ORG.
Within this ORG we have multiple vDCs. This is where things get interesting.
Scenario:
When a vAPP is deployed from catalog you assign this vAPP to a specific vDC.
When you then try to mount an ISO from the local catalog media files, you are unable to do so since this media file is associate to a different vDC…mmm
Troubleshooting:
I believe the problem lies with how the Catalogs are done in 5.5. When creating or copying files into a Catalog, there is no method to accurately control where the item will be stored. This is more critical when there are multiple Org vDCs, and a file could be placed in an Org vDC to which the file is not intended for.
This is a departure from vCloud Director 5.1, where importing media allowed you to select a specific Organization vDC. Even when you could select a vDC, you still needed to have the ISO image in the vDC where the VM resides to be allowed to insert it.
I had a lot remote sessions and discussions with support on this issue since we could not find a way to assign a media file to specific VDC.
Workarounds:
Option 1 – Temporarily disable storage profiles before doing an ISO import. This would eliminate certain vDCs as an option, and force the selection process to go to the remaining vDC. this would be my recommendation.
Option 2 – Set the catalog to use a specific Storage Profile, from the desired Organization vDC and import the media again. This should send the imported files to the correct ORG vDC. You will need to import Media files multiple times to accomplish this. This only possible if you have multiple storage profiles which I currently do not have.
Option 3 – Have a catalog specific to an individual ORG vDC, name the catalog relative to the ORG vDC, and select the Storage Class/Profile from the same ORG vDC. This means that any ISOs will be sent up to the correct vDC when you import to a given catalog. On this option here are the steps to setup more catalog for more than one vDC:
1. Create a “master” catalog in the ORG on the Storage Profile vDC A
2. Publish the Catalog created in Step 1 externally
3. Create a “slave” catalog in the ORG on the Storage Profile vDC B, and have this catalog sync from the catalog created in step 1.
4. Repeat this to have Catalog C on Storage Profile C, and sync to Catalog A.
5. Whenever you add a new ISO image to the Master Catalog, it will automatically update the others in 24 hours or when a sync is requested.
JohannStander 