Working with Catalogs

View Catalogs

You can access catalogs shared with you within your organization. You can access public catalogs if an organization administrator has made them accessible within your organization.

Catalog access is controlled by catalog sharing, not by the rights in your role. You can access only those catalogs or catalog items that are shared with you. For more information, see Share a Catalog.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. (Optional) Configure the grid view to contain elements you want to see.

a .From the grid view, click the grid editor icon () displayed below the list of catalogs.

b . Select the elements you want to include in the grid view, such as version, description,status, and so on.

c Click OK.

The grid displays the elements you selected for each catalog.

3. (Optional) From the grid view, use the list bar ( ) to display the actions you can take for each catalog.

For example, you can share or delete a catalog.

Create a Catalog

You can create new catalogs and associate them with a storage policy.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Catalog Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click New to create a new catalog.

3. Enter the name and, optionally, a description of the catalog.

4. (Optional) Select whether you want to assign a storage policy to the catalog, and select a storage policy.

5. Click OK.

Results

The new catalog appears in the grid view on the Catalogs tab.

Share a Catalog

You can share a catalog with all members of your organization, or with specific members.

Prerequisites

• This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Catalog Author role or an equivalent set of rights.
• You must be the owner of the catalog.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.
   
   
2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of the catalog you want to share, and select Share.The list of users who can access the catalog appears in the grid view of the Share Catalog window.
   
   
3. Click Add to share the catalog with other users.
   
   

   Option	Description
   Share with everyone in this organization	Grant access to all users and groups in the organization.
   Share with specific users and groups	Select the users or groups to whom you want to grant catalog access, and click Add.

4. Select the access level.
   
   

   Option	Description
   Read Only	Users with access to this catalog have read access to the vApp templates and ISO files of the catalog.
   Read/Write	Users with access to this catalog have read access to the vApp templates and ISO files of the catalog and can add vApp templates and ISO files to the catalog.
   Full Control	Users with access to this catalog have full control of the contents and settings of the catalog.

 

5. Click OK.

The users or groups that now have access to the catalog appear in the grid view of the Share Catalog dialog box.

6. (Optional) Select to share read-only access to the administrators of all other organizations

7. Click Save.

Results

On the Catalogs tab, the Shared status for this catalog in the grid view changes.

Delete a Catalog

You can delete a catalog from your organization.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Catalog Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Note The catalog must not contain any vApp templates or media files. You can move these items to a different catalog or delete them.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of the catalog you want to delete, and select Delete.

     3. Confirm the deletion.

The deleted catalog item is removed from the grid view.

Change the Owner of a Catalog

An organization administrator can change the owner of a catalog.

Before you can delete a user who owns a catalog, you must change the owner or delete the catalog.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined organization administrator role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of a catalog, and select Change owner.

The list of users who can access the catalog appears in the grid view of the Change Owner window

3. Select the user that you want to make the new owner of the catalog and click OK.

Results

On the Catalogs tab, the name of the owner of the catalog in the grid view changes.

Manage Metadata for a Catalog

As an organization administrator or a catalog owner, you can create or update the metadata for the catalogs that you own.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of a catalog, and select Metadata.
   
   The metadata for the selected catalog is displayed in a grid view.

3. (Optional) To add metadata, click Add.
   
   a.  Enter the metadata name.

The name must be unique within the metadata names attached to this object.

b Select the metadata type, such as Text, Number, Date and Time, or Yes or No.

c Enter the metadata value.

d Click Save.

4. (Optional) Update existing metadata.

You cannot update the metadata name.

a Update the metadata type.

b Enter the new metadata value.

c Click Save.

5. (Optional) Delete existing metadata. a Click the delete icon.

b Click Save.

Publish a Catalog

If the system administrator has granted you catalog access, you can publish a catalog externally to make its vApp templates and media files available for subscription by organizations outside the Cyfuture Cloud Console installation.

Prerequisites

Verify that the system administrator enabled external catalog publishing for the organization and granted you catalog access.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of the catalog you want to publish, and select Publish Settings.

3. Select Enable Publishing and, optionally, enter a password for catalog access. Only ASCII characters are supported.

4. Click Save.

Subscribe to an External Catalog

You can subscribe to an external catalog and thus create a read-only copy of an externally published catalog. You cannot modify a subscribed catalog.

Prerequisites

• This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Organization Administrator role or an equivalent set of rights.
• The system administrator must grant your organization permission to subscribe to external catalogs.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs.
   
   The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click New to create a new catalog.

     3. Enter the name and, optionally, a description of the catalog.

      4. Select to subscribe to an external catalog and provide the subscription URL.

      5. Enter the optional password to access the catalog.

      6. Select whether you want to automatically download the content from the external catalo

       7. Click OK.

Update the Location URL and the Password for a Subscribed Catalog

After you create a subscribed catalog, you can update the location URL and the password for the subscribed catalog.

Prerequisites

• This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Organization Administrator role or an equivalent set of rights.
• You must have created a subscribed catalog.
• The system administrator must grant your organization permission to subscribe to external catalogs.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs.
   
   The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of a subscribed catalog, and select Subscribe settings. If the catalog is not a subscribed one, the option is dimmed.

3. Update the location URL and the password for this subscribed catalog.

     4. Select whether you want to download the content from the external catalog automatically.

     5. Click Save.

Synchronize a Subscribed Catalog

After you create a subscribed catalog, you can synchronize it with the original catalog to see if there are any changes. For example, if the metadata of the original catalog is changes, when you perform the synchronization, the metadata of the subscribed catalog is updated.

Prerequisites

• This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Organization Administrator role or an equivalent set of rights.
• You must have created a subscribed catalog.
• The system administrator must grant your organization permission to subscribe to external catalogs.
  

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select Catalogs. The list of catalogs appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of a subscribed catalog, and select Sync. If the catalog is not a subscribed one, the option is dimmed.

The subscribed catalog is synchronized with the original one.