The solution will ensure that all VMware ESXi hosts within a site have access to the local VMFS datastore containing the shared VMware Tools repository.
This decision ensures that each site has local access to the VMware Tools repository, which minimizes traffic across the low-bandwidth, high-latency inter-site link. By keeping the repository within each site, the local ESXi hosts can access the repository without needing to traverse the inter-site link frequently.
The solution will set the UserVars.ProductLockerLocation advanced system setting on each VMware ESXi host to point to the local site shared repository.
This ensures that each ESXi host points to the local site repository for VMware Tools. This approach minimizes inter-site traffic by ensuring that all updates and patches are performed using local resources, avoiding the need to transfer VMware Tools files over the low-bandwidth, high-latency connection.
The solution will create a shared repository on a VMFS datastore within each site that contains all approved versions of VMware Tools.
This decision ensures that both sites have a local copy of the approved VMware Tools versions, in line with REQ001, which mandates that only IT Security Team-approved versions of VMware Tools should be installed. Additionally, it minimizes inter-site traffic, as both sites will use their local repositories.