VCSA Appliance Unable to Update

[sessionx]

Hello

I'm trying to resolve this issue, has anyone seen this before?  Both the update screen and the main summary screen shows blank information for the appliance details, type, version etc...

Performing a check against the repository shows the No JSON object could be decoded message.

Running vpxd -v hangs and doesn't respond when I run the command.

The build I'm running is 6.5 16613358

[daphnissov]

I can tell from your screenshots that you have not properly deployed this vCSA, so rather than try and troubleshoot this exact issue, you need to delete and redeploy the appliance.

[sessionx]

vCenter is working perfectly fine, I just noticed all these areas are 'blank' when I went to check for updates.  Is there anyone else out there who may have a suggestion on how to resolve this other than 'start over'?

[sessionx]

I grabbed the latest ISO for vCenter 6.5, VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.5.0.33100-16764584-patch-FP.iso

I'm unable to patch from the web interface by changing from repository to CDROM or from the console and this is what I see.  I'm hoping someone may have a solution without having to rebuild this from scratch?

[Vijay2027]

Attach contents of the following file to this thread:

/etc/applmgmt/appliance/update.conf

[sessionx]

Hi Vijay

I checked and that file is empty.  Should there be something in it?  Do I need to replace that file?

See attached screenshot.

This vCenter appliance has been running for over a year and I updated it using the Web Gui a few months ago without issue.

Thanks for your help!

[Vijay2027]

Yeah, this file needs to be replaced. I've attached one from my test lab with vc version: VMware VirtualCenter 6.5.0 build-14020092

Can you deploy a test vCSA of the same build and copy the file over or if you have a file level backup you can copy the update.conf file.

[sessionx]

Hi Vijay

Thanks for your help.  It seems the last time I patched the appliance back in August that file got changed to be empty.  I used the port 5480 management UI to update the appliance and at the time didn't have any obvious issues.

I'll review the file you sent and I can always spin up a temporary instance and check the file and see if I can replace it.  I'll post an update maybe next week when I get a chance to try a few things.

Have a good weekend!

[sessionx]

Okay so here is how I fixed it, thanks to Vijay!

This worked for me, it may not work for others, but I wanted to share the results as I was able to update the appliance okay :smileyhappy:  I took a VM snapshot before I did anything in case it broke, thankfully it worked out okay.

Step 1 - cp /etc/applmgmt/appliance/update.conf /etc/applmgmt/appliance/update.conf2

Step 2 - rm /etc/applmgmt/appliance/update.conf

Step 3 - service-control --stop --all

Step 4 - service-control --start --all

     Note:  the update.conf is re-created on it's own but it still fails to work

Step 5 - visit https://vcsa_ipaddress:5480 and login, attempt to update, it will fail

Step 6 - vi /etc/applmgmt/appliance/update.conf and paste in the spare file Vijay included as an attachment here

Step 7 - service-control --stop vpxd

Step 8 - service-control --start vpxd

Step 9 - visit https://vcsa_ipaddress:5480 and login and attempt to update, all the screens showed up and populated okay and it pulled down the latest update from online

[gsxr1]

Many thanks for posting this information. Worked perfectly and saved me from having to re deploy. 

[lailing]

Vijay,

 

the update.conf does not reflect the correct build of vcenter. Can u please advise how the correct update.conf file can be obtained? My vcenter version is 6.5 build 17720264. Thanks  

 

lai