A while ago I made a somewhat critical post on my blog about how the vSphere 6 Content Library was looking really interesting but was missing a few key features in order to make it truly awesome. It seems VMware is definitely interested in working on and implementing features that their users feel are important while also streamlining customer workflow. In that, the Content Library Development Manager, Pratima Rao, presented some new functionality at VMworld Europe 2015 which was very well received.

One of the best parts of this new feature is that your ISO files will no longer have to be within a disparate folder on a datastore but rather as part of the Content Library. This will result in not only a much cleaner storage setup but also provides the ability to quickly and concisely identify what ISOs are available within any given vSphere environment. Because navigating datastores in search of ISOs can be tedious (especially if you have many client environments and are not the only administrator), I have been utilizing the Remote Console through the vSphere Web Client but it requires the plug-in be installed:

The Remote Console will let you mount an ISO but it will be mounted from the local machine through the browser to the guest which can be slow if on a WAN connection. Additionally, in some environments, I have created an NFS export from a NAS that is also shared out with CIFS so that I can dump ISO’s there from my workstation but also access them as a datastore within the vSphere environment and mount them to VMs through conventional means. Still, the Content Library will make this so much easier and cleaner!

I’m excited to see more updates with the vSphere 6 Content Library feature – the progress so far looks very promising!

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