Manage the Media Library
Before you can manage media files, an administrator must create media folders.
The media library can contain:
- Global folders, which can be seen by all Service Portal users
- Organization-specific folders, which can be seen only by members of the assigned organization
Costs in the media library are displayed in your preferred currency.
Media Manager and your Service Portal session
The Media Manager dialog allows you to upload and delete media files. The Media Manager dialog must stay open during file uploads, but you don't need to stay signed in to the Service Portal while the upload is in progress.
The following actions require an active (logged-in) Service Portal session:
- Browse media folder contents
- Upload a media file
- Delete a media file
- Cancel a file upload
The following actions don't require an active Service Portal session:
- Pause, resume or retry upload for files in the upload queue
- Clear completed or failed files from the upload queue
Quota and media management
When quota is configured for your organization, your administrator may have specified that media files in your organization's media folders will count towards your organization's resource or cost quota. When media files are included in quota calculations, if an upload would exceed your organization's quota, you can't upload the file.
Global media folders are never included in quota calculations. Member quotas aren't affected by media files.
Upload a file to the Media Library
You can upload both .iso and .flp files.
- Go to the Media Management page.
If you can't see Media Management in the side menu, make sure you're signed in to an organization where your role includes the permission to manage media files.
- On the Media Management page, select a media folder and click Manage.
If you don't see media folders, contact your administrator. An administrator must create media folders before you can upload files.
The Media Manager opens in a separate window. Files previously uploaded to the folder displayed in the Current field are displayed in the top portion of the window, and files that have recently been uploaded, or are queued, are displayed in the Upload Queue portion of the window.
- In the Media Manager, click Upload File.
- In the File Upload dialog, navigate to the folder containing the .iso or .flp file you want to upload.
- Select a file and click Open.
File upload begins, and progress is displayed in the Upload Queue section of the Media Manager.
Important: You must leave the Media Manager window open while the file upload is in progress.
- While a file is being uploaded, you can:
- Click Cancel if you made a mistake and don't want to upload this file.
- Click Pause to pause all uploads (before the status in the Upload column is Complete).
- Upload another file.
When the Transfer column displays Complete, Service Portal users with access to the target media folder will be able to connect the media file to a VM's virtual hardware.
Monitor media file uploads
Upload occurs in two phases: upload from the browser to a temporary location on the Commanderserver, and transfer from the Commander server to the target datastore. The progress of both phases is displayed in the Upload Queue, which appears at the bottom of the Media Manager window in the Service Portal.
When the Upload phase is complete, the Upload column in the Media Manager displays Complete. Next, the Transfer column displays Pending, and when the transfer begins, the percentage complete is displayed.
When the Transfer column displays Complete, users with access to the target media folder will be able to connect the media file to a VM's virtual hardware.
Clicking Clear in the Media Manager's Upload Queue removes a completed entry from the list.
A task also appears in the Tasks page to monitor the progress of the Transfer phase.
Cancel media file uploads
You can cancel your own queued and in-progress uploads in either the Upload or the Transfer phase by clicking Cancel in the Upload Queue portion of the Media Manager window.
When a media file upload is canceled, the incomplete upload and the quota reservation are cleared immediately.
Delete files from the Media Library
- Go to Media Management page.
- On the Media Management page, select a media folder and click Manage.
The top portion of the Media Manager window displays a list of files in the current folder.
- Select a file in the list and click Delete File.
You can't delete a file that's currently connected to a running VM.
Troubleshooting
Quota is reserved for the full size of a media file when you start an upload.
If an upload is interrupted (for example, the user closes the Media Manager when uploads are in progress) and quota is configured, the quota isn't released until the regular maintenance task clears the file.
Pause, resume, and retry media file uploads
You can pause all in-progress and queued uploads by clicking Pause at the bottom of the Media Manager window. Note that any uploads that are in the second phase of upload (to the datastore) can't be paused, but they can be canceled (see Cancel media file uploads above).
When you're ready to resume upload, click Resume.
If a blue Retry link is displayed in the Upload Queue, clicking Retry will resume from where it left off.
If an error is displayed because upload was interrupted, such as an interrupted network connection, closing the Media Manager window or a power interruption, you must upload the file again.
Media folder issues
If a media folder has an alert status, this is indicated with a warning icon in the Issues column.
Conditions that can cause an alert status include:
- The folder doesn't exist on the datastore.
- The datastore is inaccessible, has been removed, or is in maintenance mode.
- The cloud account has been removed or disconnected.
It's not possible to upload media files to folders that have an alert status.