With VMWare 6.7U1 now released I decided to upgrade a small cluster of servers to the new release. As I run VMWare vCenter (the appliance version) I also wanted to upgrade that.
The first issue I can into is the appliance showed no updates available. From the “Update” tab on the left I then clicked settings at the top right. Under “Repository Settings” select “Use custom repository” and enter this URL:
https://vapp-updates.vmware.com/vai-catalog/valm/vmw/8d167796-34d5-4899-be0a-6daade4005a3/6.7.0.20000.latest/
I then checked for updates again at the top right and the new version was available for download/install. I first staged the update which after a while failed. Subsequent attempts were also failing due to an error with the RPM database. I then restarted the appliance and the vCenter web UI was not working at all – when accessing the vCenter page I would get the error “Update failed. Fix and reset banner.”.
The fix for the issue was SSH’ing to the appliance and running the update manually from the command line with the command software-packages install --url --acceptEulas:
login as: root
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.0.14000
Type: vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller
Update failed. Fix and reset banner.
Password:
[ERROR]: Failed to connect to service.
Use service-control command to manage applmgmt service
* List APIs: "help api list"
* List Plugins: "help pi list"
* Launch BASH: "shell"
Command> software-packages install --url --acceptEulas
[2018-10-22T11:50:23.295] : Evaluating packages to stage...
[2018-10-22T11:50:23.295] : Verifying staging area
[2018-10-22T11:50:26.295] : Validating software update payload
[2018-10-22T11:50:26.295] : Validation successful
[2018-10-22 11:50:26,033] : Copying software packages 124/124
[2018-10-22 12:51:20,057] : Running test transaction ....
[2018-10-22 12:51:22,083] : Running pre-install script.....
[2018-10-22 12:53:36,267] : Upgrading software packages ....
[2018-10-22T12:55:31.295] : Setting appliance version to 6.7.0.20000 build 10244745
[2018-10-22 12:55:31,483] : Running pre-patch script.....
[2018-10-22 12:55:32,488] : Running post-patch script.....
[2018-10-22T12:55:41.295] : Packages upgraded successfully, Reboot is required to complete the installation.
Command> shell
Shell access is granted to root
root@vcenter [ ~ ]# rebootAfter the reboot everything was then working as expected. In the appliance manager UI I then edited the update settings and changed them back to “Use default repository”.