Major shared catalog/media bug?

[cfor]

I am having a major issue with sharing catalog content to other organizations.

I have a master organization that has a single shared catalog.  This catalog is set to share to all other organizations.  In this catalog many vApp’s exist and 100’s of media items (ISO’s).

From other organizations when I deploy content I can create vApps from the vApp templates that exist in the shared catalog, that works fine.  However I cannot insert media from the global shared media collection.  It is not even listed at all to other organizations.

Am I missing setting?  Bug in 1.0.1?  Fixed in 1.5?

Thank you for information you may have on this major issue.

[admin]

I don't recall if it was considered a bug or not, but IIRC you need to copy the media from the global catalog to a local catalog and then you'll be able to insert it.

[pic · Accepted solution]

This is the case exactly.  The notion of 'shared' should really be considered shared "access to copy" from another catolog, not use directly from the shared catalog.

I had this same educational experience myself.  If you think about it, it does make sense since there could be multiple-org dependenceies on a single catalog.  Then what would happen if -- all of a sudden -- the shared item gets deleted from the master catalog?

While on the one hand, it potentially means having duplicate templates/ISOs in the grand Cloud scheme (copies of the same catalog item in every org).  On the other hand, only one person in one Org needs to actually build the catalog item (everyone else just copies it).

Ideally, (and of course there are always exceptions) only generic objects should be in shared catalogs.  Each Org can then copy & customize the generic object as needed and save the custom version to its own private catalog.

[cfor]

Ok, however how can a orginization admin "Copy" the content from the media location of a shared catalog?  They can not see the content from thier org console as vCloud is hiding it.

I must be missing something - anyone have the steps?

Thanks

[cfor]

I found it - wow what bad interface design.

It is not something you can get from the catalog, you have to use the sidebar "Public Catalogs" option and find the media that way.  Then copy it.

The copy is a little worrisome for us, but looks like the only option.