Support for Content Library OVF templates

[thheinen]

Describe the Enhancement

Templates have benn able to be stored in Content Libraries since vSphere 6.0, but the kitchen-vcenter driver does not yet support this fully.

Describe the Need

Content Libraries offer the ability to replicate templates across sites or vCenter installations instead of the old Template concept.

Current Alternative

• use normal VMs/Templates (pre vSphere 6.0 method)
• use VMTX templates (post vSphere 6.7u1)

Before 6.7u1, templates were always OVF and only available via the newer vsphere-automation APIs. Since 6.7u1, normal templates can be placed into Content Libraries as well and are visible to the vsphere-automation APIs as well as the legacy VMomi API.

As 6.7u1 seems to provide most APIs which where previously only on Vmomi, this might be a future road to get rid of the old dependencies.

Can We Help You Implement This?

Hire me ;) Just kidding - looking into it right now. Mainly concerned with the need to 1:1 duplicate functionality

[cookiecurse]

@tecracer-theinen hey Thomas did you need any help with this? I am finding this to be a need as well!

[thheinen]

I currently do not have plans to do this, especially as 6.7u1 can have templates in the Content Library but still usable with the existing code.

Just figured it'd be nice to have the issue and a workaround documented :)

[JoelMiller74]

I would love to see this implemented. I still have this need and it is 2.5 years later. OVFs in Content Libraries is how templates should be stored so having this functionality seems critical.