In Nutanix cluster, Life Cycle Manager (LCM) is used to track current software and firmware versions of all entities in a Nutanix cluster and is also used to perform certain software and firmware updates on this cluster. It consists of a framework and a set of modules for inventory and update. In order to fetch these modules, LCM connects to Nutanix Portal (download.nutanix.com) URL by default.
However, in scenarios where the Prism Element (PE) cluster has no direct access to the internet, default Nutanix Portal URL option cannot be used for LCM since it depends on internet connectivity. In this case, prior to LCM 2.4.1.1 version, the only available option was to set up a local dark-site web server so that LCM can pull software/firmware bundles from this dark-site web server.
However starting with LCM 2.4.1.1 version & above, LCM allows direct ingestion of certain software/firmware bundles using the 'Direct Upload' option in LCM. So, if you are at a dark site where the cluster doesn't have internet connectivity, you can use this feature to fetch an update bundle and upload it directly to LCM dashboard in Prism, without having to set up a local web server for LCM. Currently LCM only supports direct upload for Prism Element clusters. For Prism Central, you will still need to use a local LCM web server.
Refer to the 'Preparing Your Cluster With Direct Upload' section in LCM Dark Site guide for more details about how to use this feature in Prism.