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angelvm
Contributor
Contributor

vsan release catalog up-to-date

Good afternoon, we need to update vsan release catalog up-to-date can someone help me? As it can be done to update automatically, the vcenter has a proxy configured and running to patch the hosts

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EricRS96
Contributor
Contributor

I need to update my vsan catalog too, its over 90 days old!

I downloaded the catalog from VMware Knowledge Base , but when I upload the file nothing happened!

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sk84
Expert
Expert

We've had the same problem since yesterday.

This vSAN health check has a warning threshold of 90 days and an error threshold of 180 days.

And as far as I know, the release catalog will only be updated when there are new patches and releases. And it seems that there have been no new patches or releases in the last 90 days.

Therefore the release catalog was not updated during this time and now the vSAN health check complains that the release catalog is too old. :smileygrin:

--- Regards, Sebastian VCP6.5-DCV // VCP7-CMA // vSAN 2017 Specialist Please mark this answer as 'helpful' or 'correct' if you think your question has been answered correctly.
TheBobkin
Champion
Champion

Hello,

sk84

"And it seems that there have been no new patches or releases in the last 90 days."

Sure there have been patches in that time - last ESXi patch was released 36 days ago:

VMware Knowledge Base

angelvm , EricRS96

There are numerous different reasons why this won't/can't update - start by checking the date of the one in use, if it is old then get a current one, if it remains using an old one when you are manually applying a current downloaded then it isn't updating. Some common causes here:

VMware Knowledge Base

VMware Knowledge Base

If you have internet access from the vCenter then try updating from the vCenter in the HTML5 Client if 6.7 U1 or Health alert in the later 6.5 versions *IIRC*, if it is not pulling the current one and you have proxy configured then you may need to ACL more than just the myvmware login address, if you don't allow *.vmware.com then check that these are accessible:

depot.vmware.com

my.vmware.com

vcsa.vmware.com

download2.vmware.com

If 6.7 U1 and vCenter is internet-connected and the above is not working after sorting any proxy issues try changing the defaultmetadataurl:

VMware Knowledge Base

Bob

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sk84
Expert
Expert

Hi TheBobkin

In my case VCSA has internet connection and can reach all the mentioned URLs and I've also added the metadataurl parameter to the health check config file.

But I have a copy from the release catalog file from 2 months ago and it's exactly the same as of today:

https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph/api/v1/results?deploymentId=2d02e861-7e93-4954-9a73-b08692a330d1&collecto...

And if you check the arrival and processed date in the release catalog json file from above URL, you will see it's from 12/11/2018.

--- Regards, Sebastian VCP6.5-DCV // VCP7-CMA // vSAN 2017 Specialist Please mark this answer as 'helpful' or 'correct' if you think your question has been answered correctly.
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TheBobkin
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Hello sk84​,

Interestingly this

https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph/api/v1/results?deploymentId=tba4919b-2dce-f4585-9556-a780bb9ac060&collect...

has a higher processedDate - I wonder is the other address now an 'old' one.

Bob

sk84
Expert
Expert

TheBobkin​, where did you find this URL?

In the two KB articles you mentioned (which I also found) an outdated release catalog file is linked:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/58891

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60393

--- Regards, Sebastian VCP6.5-DCV // VCP7-CMA // vSAN 2017 Specialist Please mark this answer as 'helpful' or 'correct' if you think your question has been answered correctly.
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TheBobkin
Champion
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Hello Sebastian

I found it here:

vSAN Build Recommendation Engine Health

Currently no 6.5 U2/6.7 U1 labs at home here (don't even ask but complete wipe-down was needed :smileymischief: ) so I can't check now - did you check if applying the one with 'deploymentId=tba4919b-2dce-f4585-9556-a780bb9ac060' as the defaultmetadataurl resolves this by pulling current one?

Bob

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EricRS96
Contributor
Contributor

The file worked for me, my catalog is up to date (2019-01-29)!  Smiley Happy

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TheBobkin
Champion
Champion

Hello EricRS96​,

Great to hear - should work as downloading that if offline or setting it as defaultmetadataurl if online so.

Now to figure out is that one latest and is it being updated or will that be 'old' and trigger alarm come the end of April, either way I will get the kb(s) changed to that one for now when back in the office.

Bob

Neilly
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Both of the metadata urls contain the same json data. For ease of refereence :

URL#1 : https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph/api/v1/results?deploymentId=tba4919b-2dce-f4585-9556-a780bb9ac060&collect...

This is the original url that was in the vcsa config.conf file released with v6.7.0. As docuemented in the thread that theBobkin refers to this url contained a broken reference for v6.7.0 U1. Vmware did two things to fix this. First they provided a new json file at a new url, which is URL#2 below. Secondly they removed the broken references in the json file at URL #1.

URL#2 : https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph/api/v1/results?deploymentId=2d02e861-7e93-4954-9a73-b08692a330d1&collecto...

This is the URL that replaces URL#1 and is referred to in the kb's previously referred to (58891 and 60393).

Now both URLs contain the same json file. That is nice - thus folks that didn't get the memo that the original url was filled with bad data and that there is a new url no longer have to update their config.conf file with the new url.

However that json file was put up on the web over 90 days ago. Thus the alert that is happing now. It is true that new patches have been released in the last three months but the release catalog db is not used for VUM patch downloads. Those are handled via a separate method - my system checks for patches every night and gets them. Thus even though my release catalog db file is now over three months old I have received automatically the patch ESXi670-201901001 with build ID 11675023​ released in Jan 2019.

So, bottom line is both url contain the same catalog data, it is over 90 days since it was last updated, and it is [probably] okay if you are getting patches downloaded automatically on a daily basis.

Cheers,

Ron

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TheBobkin
Champion
Champion

Hello All,

It would seem a colleague of mine had the lead on this issue prior to me looking at this here on Communities - the defaultmetadaturl JSON referenced in the kb articles now is current date (e.g. today Saturday, March 9, 2019 - epoch 1552098659000). So using the defaultmetadataurl as per the kb articles should be fine.

Bob