Bundle Transfer Utility (v 5.2)

Introduction

Here we go again with this utility…still a hot mess and not well documented. When you download the Bundle Transfer Utility from the Broadcom Support site, the filename will be lcm-tool-prod.tar.gz. When you actually use the tool (I am using Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS), it will present the name OBTU, which I assume is Offline Bundle Transfer Utility. Can you just pick a freaking name and stick with it? Especially if this is the way forward?

Manifest Download Error

Ok, complaining aside, I am writing this short post as I ran into an issue almost immediately upon it’s use (Surprise, surprise!). I was happily following along on the Download an Install Bundle Using the Bundle Transfer Utility page (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/5.1/vcf-admin/GUID-CC982D17-12C5-4DEB-BD02-D17BCC0E8936.html) and when I tried to download the manifest file using,

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --manifestDownload --depotUser Username

I received an error.

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util: 165: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Well, yeah, that is unexpected…especially after following the syntax according to the document. I thought, “Well, maybe it’s because my username has a special character in it as that is the new format for the Broadcom site.” So I wrapped my username in a single quote and received the same error. Are you kidding me right now? Off to Google…

William Lam has a post creating an Offline VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Depot. In there, he mentions that if a particular error is received, to change the shebang to:

#!/usr/bin/bash

No, it can’t be that easy, can it? (And really?) This couldn’t be mentioned in the documentation?

Now, when running the script, there are no issues and it works the way I assume it was intended. Still frustrating, however.

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