Deploying the NSX-T manager on a KVM host fails with: libguestfs: error: appliance closed the connection unexpectedly, see earlier error messages

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

You run the command to write the guestinfo file according the the documentation guidelines "Install NSX Manager on KVM".

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/2.3/com.vmware.nsxt.install.doc/GUID-5229A83D-1B97-4203-BA30-F52716F68F7F.html
 

root@kvm-02:~# guestfish --rw -i -a nsx-unified-appliance-2.3.0.0.0.10085405.qcow2 upload guestinfo /config/guestinfo

The command fails with error similar to that:
libguestfs: error: appliance closed the connection unexpectedly, see earlier error messages
libguestfs: child_cleanup: 0x879180: child process died
libguestfs: sending SIGTERM to process 15959
libguestfs: error: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 killed by signal 6 (Aborted), see debug messages above
libguestfs: error: guestfs_launch failed, see earlier error messages
libguestfs-test-tool: failed to launch appliance
libguestfs: closing guestfs handle 0x879180 (state 0)
libguestfs: command: run: rm
libguestfs: command: run: \ -rf /tmp/libguestfs9TBvGU

root@kvm-02:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Release:        16.04
Codename:       xenial
root@kvm-02:~# uname -r
4.4.0-138-generic

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center 2.x
VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

This is not a VMware issue. This is a libguestfs library issue with the underlying qemu or kernel packages, or the host environment.

libguestfs is a set of tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine (VM) disk images. 

Resolution

Verify your linux distribution by running libguestfs-test-tool on a KVM prepared host.

libguestfs-test-tool is a test program shipped with libguestfs to allow you to check basic libguestfs functionality is working. This is needed because libguestfs occasionally breaks for reasons beyond our control: usually because of changes in the underlying qemu or kernel packages, or the host environment.

Read more about the tool at: http://libguestfs.org/libguestfs-test-tool.1.html


Workaround:
Find an alternative distribution or build for NSX Manager Install as both Red Hat and Ubuntu based OS distributions are supported.