Unable to import the offline bundle into VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.1

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot import the offline bundle into VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.1
• Importing the offline bundle into Update Manager 4.1 fails
• In the Update Manager log, you see entries similar to:
  
  [2010-09-08 13:21:41:746 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 7108 WARN] [updateDownloaderImpl, 201] download file error, retrying: Error formatting DateTime
  [2010-09-08 13:21:41:746 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 7108 ERROR] [updateDownloaderImpl, 210] failed to download file: C:\Windows\TEMP\offlineBundleyrblsltb.tmp\metadata.zip
  [2010-09-08 13:21:41:746 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 7108 ERROR] [updateDownloaderImpl, 498] Failed to download metadata zip file: C:\Windows\TEMP\offlineBundleyrblsltb.tmp\metadata.zip
  [2010-09-08 13:21:41:746 'DownloadOfflinePatchTask.DownloadOfflinePatchTask{13}' 7108 ERROR] [downloadOfflinePatchTask, 164] Offline bundle import failure: Failed to download metadata zip file: C:\Windows\TEMP\offlineBundleyrblsltb.tmp\metadata.zip
  
  
• You see the error:
  
  Failed to import data. Cannot find patch metadata. You can try to re-download the patches, or ensure that the network connectivity and DNS between VMware vCenter Update Manager and the host are setup correctly.
  

Environment

VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.1.x

Resolution

This issue occurs if the release date field in the vmware.xml file of the metadata.zip file is not in the date/time format. When using VMware Update Manager 4.1, the release date field must be in the date/time format.

For example, the correct format of the release date field is <releaseDate>YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00-00:00</releaseDate>. You experience this issue if the release date field is in the <releaseDate>MM-DD-YYYY</releaseDate> format.

To resolve this issue:

• Check for a more recent update bundle from VMware or vendor.
  
• Manually edit the XML file and update the <releaseDate> field. To edit the file:
• 1. Extract the offline bundle and open the metadata.zip > vmware.xml metadata file.
  2. Open vmware.xml with Notepad and locate the xml tag - <releaseDate>
  3. Locate the old release date format MM-DD-YYYY.
  4. Edit the release date format to YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:ss. You can rearrange the date format and then append T00:00:00 for the time. For example:
     
     Incompatible format: 07-31-2009
     Updated format: 2009-07-31T00:00:00
     
     
  5. Save the file into metadata.zip and import the offline bundle