Upgraded 3.0.1 host - Update Manager fails

[FredPeterson]

Heya,

Just starting to dig into this, so I may end up resolving this on my own but figured I'd post this out here for others, maybe someone else knows already.

Upgraded a 3.0.1 host to 3.5 using the CD and VirtualCenter upgrade blew away the database (my bad) but otherwise that went fine. Everything went peachy during upgrade and post upgrade (new vc agent). When I click the host and tell it to "Scan for Updates" the events log ends up shooting back "VMWare Update Manager had a failure" and "Metadata for patch missing."

Any ideas? I'd expect that if there were none (as is the case) but at least it wouldn't error out. Prior to the upgrade of the host it told me the method wasn't supported.

Oh, yah and this is a scan on a host.

[jasonboche]

Initiate your host scan again and then immediately after it fails, read the log file located on your VirtualCenter server at c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\application data\vmware\VMware Update Manager\Logs\. The answer is in the log file.

Look for lines that resemble the following:

[2007-12-14 21:01:36:275 'VciHostScanTask.VciHostScanTask{10}' 1128 ERROR]  [vciHostScanTask, 140] Failed to scan host, not supported: host-8

[2007-12-14 21:01:36:275 'VciHostScanTask.VciHostScanTask{10}' 1128 ERROR]  [vciHostScanTask, 81] Found one or more unsupported Hosts for Scan: 1

Jason Boche

VMware Communities User Moderator

[FredPeterson]

Well, according to the logs it looks like update manager is looking to the local host server for updates for some reason. I didn't configure this to do this, shouldn't it have come by default to look at whatever the VMWare site is?

I'm trying to paste the relevant lines from the log, but the pasted data gets all messed up and for some reason the buttons to change style of text still do not work for me.

[2007-12-14 21:20:56:282 'HostUpdateConfig' 680 INFO hostUpdateConfig, 229 Patch depot url: http://x.x.x.x:80/vci/hostupdates/hostupdate

2007-12-14 21:20:56:313 'SetFirewallConfig' 680 INFO hostUpdateBase, 376 Checking firewall configuration for host: esx_server

2007-12-14 21:20:56:313 'SetFirewallConfig' 680 INFO hostUpdateBase, 377 Ruleset name: updateManager

2007-12-14 21:20:59:266 'SetFirewallConfig' 680 INFO hostUpdateBase, 384 Firewall ruleset activated

2007-12-14 21:20:59:860 'ScanHost' 680 INFO hostUpdateBase, 279 Depot for update: Unknown corrupted. remove the package from DB.

2007-12-14 21:20:59:875 'ScanHost' 680 ERROR] [hostUpdateBase, 165 Patch Metadata Not Found: PatchID: Unknown

2007-12-14 21:20:59:891 'SingleHostScanTask.SingleHostScanTask' 680 ERROR vciTaskBase, 442 Task execution has failed: SingleHostScan : Patch Metadata Not Found: [PatchID: Unknown

[jasonboche]

Well, according to the logs it looks like update manager is looking to the local host server for updates for some reason. I didn't configure this to do this, shouldn't it have come by default to look at whatever the VMWare site is?

The patch depot is correct by pointing at your VirtualCenter server address.

The patch depot is not the VMware internet website where patches are downloaded from.

The patch depot is located wherever you told it to install when you installed VirtualCenter/Update Manager.

Update Manager downloads all the content (from what I know, none exists yet for 3.x hosts), and vaults it in a repository on your VirtualCenter server. By default it goes in a directory called \Program Files\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Data\hostupdate\ This is the depot your VirtualCenter Update Manager is going to point to when updating your hosts.

Jason Boche

VMware Communities User Moderator

[FredPeterson]

So, indirectly, you're telling me you don't get the metadata missing error message then when you try to scan for updates on a host?

[jasonboche]

So, indirectly, you're telling me you don't get the metadata missing error message then when you try to scan for updates on a host?

I can't answer that question for at least another week. I don't have any 3.5 hosts yet. Hosts are still on 3.0.1. Ping me later on this. Plus, as I understand it, there aren't any host updates available for download yet from VMware for us to test this with.

Jason Boche

VMware Communities User Moderator

[jasonboche]

I have upgraded one of my hosts to 3.5 now (built from scratch actually) and I'm getting the metadata for patch missing error

Jason Boche

VMware Communities User Moderator

[Baz]

Getting same error here too....

Agree that if it is down to no updates being available - the log entry should say so. Has anyone tested this on an older version of ESX? (that has updates available)

[jasonboche]

Getting same error here too....

Agree that if it is down to no updates being available - the log entry should say so. Has anyone tested this on an older version of ESX? (that has updates available)

I have, and it does fail, but with a different error message. Something about the ESX host not being the correct version. I was under the impression that one needed ESX 3.5 or better to use VMware Update Manager on hosts.

Jas

Jason Boche

VMware Communities User Moderator

[TMFHS]

was able to resolve this problem by rescheduling the update downloads:

on the vmware infrastructure client click on Plugins -> Update Manager -> Schedule Update Download

Select the updates you want to download then next

Set the start time about 2 minutes past current time and select the current day of the week.

This will download the metadata needed.