On April 23 2025, Broadcom deactivated the previous URLs to their public repositories from which the binaries for VCF, vCenter, ESX, and vSAN File Services can be downloaded. The new URLs now must contain customer-specific code. This particularly affects the automatic download of patches.

Broadcom announced two fundamental changes to the way VMware updates are available. First, they will now only be available at dl.broadcom.com, instead of depot.vmware.com, hostupdate.vmware.com, or vapp-updates.vmware.com as before.

Administrators must therefore ensure that the vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) or VMware Update Manager (VUM), for example, have access to the new address at broadcom.com and, if necessary, enable it in the firewall. Conversely, the previous URLs no longer have any function and can be blocked.

Second, each customer will receive a unique URL in the future – downloading from the public repositories via a general address will no longer be possible. Companies will receive the corresponding token from the Broadcom support portal.

The new URLs then follow this pattern: 

https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

How to obtain the new product token

In a nutshell, do the following:

  1. Login to the Broadcom Support Portal at https://support.broadcom.com
  2. Use the dropdown next to Username and select VMware Cloud Foundation
  3. Select My Dashboard pane on the top left side menu
  4. In the bottom right side of the screen select Generate Download Token under Quick Links. Or navigate directly to the page at https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/generate-download-token
  5. Pick the correct Site and click Generate

Scripted update of the components

You can update SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, and ESXi host Update using a procedure outlined here: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/389276

Note, this is the preferred method.

How to manually update SDDC Manager

1. Make a snapshot of the SDDC Manager VM.

    2. SSH into the SDDC VM and switch to root.

    3. In /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/conf/application-prod.properties, update the following properties under LCM DEPOT PROPERTIES

      ################### LCM DEPOT PROPERTIES ########################

lcm.depot.adapter.host=dl.broadcom.com
lcm.depot.adapter.remote.rootDir=/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD
lcm.depot.adapter.remote.repoDir=/COMP/SDDC_MANAGER_VCF
lcm.depot.adapter.remote.lcmManifestDir=/COMP/SDDC_MANAGER_VCF/lcm/manifest
lcm.depot.adapter.remote.lcmProductVersionCatalogDir=/COMP/SDDC_MANAGER_VCF/lcm/productVersionCatalog

      Note: Replace <Your_Download_Token> with the actual downloaded token id

      4. Restart the lcm service for the change to take effect.

      systemctl restart lcm

      If you’re not updating the download URLs accordingly, you’ll run into errors such as this one:

      Some depot connections have issues, which may disrupt software bundle downloads and compatibility data sync

Depot connection has issues. Depot Invalid User Credential

      How to manually update ESXi Host update

      1. On the vSphere Client Home page, Navigate to Lifecycle Manager

      2. Click Settings tab and go to Administration > Patch Setup

      3. Disable default vLCM URLs by clicking Disable button (must be done for each URL):

      4. Add the below URLs one by one by clicking NEW:

      https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/addon-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/iovp-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/vmtools-main/vmw-depot-index.xml

      5. Restart the update manager service from an SSH session to vCenter Server using the command: service-control --restart vmware-updatemgr

      login as: root
Pre-authentication banner message from server:
|
| VMware vCenter Server 8.0.3.00000
|
| Type: vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller
|
End of banner message from server
Keyboard-interactive authentication prompts from server:
| Password:
End of keyboard-interactive prompts from server
Last login: ... from 10.230.10.4
Connected to service

    * List APIs: "help api list"
    * List Plugins: "help pi list"
    * Launch BASH: "shell"

Command> shell
Shell access is granted to root
root@vc1 [ ~ ]# service-control --restart vmware-updatemgr
Successfully restarted service updatemgr
root@vc1 [ ~ ]#

      6. Download the content by going to vSphere Client Home page > Lifecycle Manager and selecting ACTIONS > Updates > Sync updates

      If you’re not updating the download URLs accordingly, you’ll run into errors such as this one:

      A general system error occurred: Cannot download VIB 'https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/....vib'. This might be because of network issues or the specified VIB does NOT exist or does NOT have a proper 'read' privilege set. Make sure the specified VIB exists and is accessible from vCenter Server.

      How to manually update vCenter Server 8.x

      1. Login to vCenter Server VAMI UI (e.g. https://vc1.sddc.lab:5480)

      2. Navigate to the Update tab

      3. Click on SETTINGS

      4. Use the Default URL to construct new URL with the Downloaded Token:

      https://dl.broadcom.com/<Your_Download_Token>/PROD/COMP/VCENTER/vmw/8d167796-34d5-4899-be0a-6daade4005a3/8.0.3.00400

      5. Update the New URL in Specified, and click Save (you don’t need to enter user name and password)

      IF you’re not updating the download URL accordingly, you’ll run into errors such as this one:

      The vCenter Server is not able to reach the specified URL. Ensure that the vCenter Server is connected to the internet, the specified URL is correct, and the latest version(s) is available on the VMware online repository. If the issue persists, please contact VMware Support