Troubleshooting when VMware Update Manager cannot upgrade an ESXi/ESX host

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting issues where Update Manager cannot upgrade an ESXi/ESX host. The article helps you eliminate the common causes for your problem by verifying certain configurations and issues.

Symptoms:

Upgrading an ESXi/ESX host using Update Manager fails
In vCenter Update Manager, you see the error:

Failed to import upgrade. Error was: failed upload

The vmware-vum-server-log4cpp.log (located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\Update Manager or C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Logs) contains errors similar to:

[YYYY-02-02 20:40:36:379 'HostUpgradeMetadata' 3456 ERROR] [metadata, 796] Can not read MD5 checksums, error: ios_base::failbit set
[2010-02-02 20:40:36:379 'HostUpgradeMetadata' 3456 ERROR] [metadata, 834] Cannot process MD5 checksums in cosless upgrade package, error: integrity.fault.HostUpgradeChecksumFailure[2010-02-02 20:40:36:379 'HostUpgradeMetadata' 3456 ERROR] [metadata, 894] Integrity verification of upgrade package failed.

You cannot connect to the ESXi/ESX host and you see the error:

Unable to connect to the remote server

Update Manager displays this error when performing a remediation with Cisco Nexus 1000v Module:

Host cannot be upgraded because the upgrade package to version 4.1.0 contains bulletins conflicting with existing packages on the host.

Requested VIB rpm_vmware-esx-vmkernel64_4.1.0-0.0.260247@i386 conflicts
with the host VIb rpm_vmware-esx-vmkernel64_4.1.0-0.0.260247@i386 breaks
host API
vmknexuslkvapi-1-13 used by host packages cisco vem-v1000-esx
4.0.4.1.1.32-1.13.7@x86_64

The connection to the Update Manager server times out.
The connection to vCenter Server times out.

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vCenter Update Manager 1.0.x
VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.5.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.1.x

Resolution

Please validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step provides instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.

Ensure the upgrade path you are using is supported. For more information, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrix</u>
Verify that you are applying the correct patch bundle and baseline to the ESXi/ESX host. Using an incorrect baseline will cause the above errors. For more information, see vSphere Update Manager Documentation.
Ensure that name resolution is working correctly between all ESXi/ESX hosts and your vCenter/Update Manager server. For more information, see Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server (1003735).
Verify that network connectivity exists between the Update Manager server and the ESXi/ESX host you are trying to stage. For more information, see Cannot connect to the remote server when downloading the vCenter Update Manager or Converter plugins (1004887)
If are using Update Manager to upgrade the Cisco Nexus 1000v module, confirm that a version conflict does not exist with the 4.x ESXi/ESX host. For more information, see Unable to upgrade the Cisco Nexus 1000v module on an ESX/ESXi host (1028920)
Ensure that you have a local VMFS datastore with a minimum diskspace of 8.4 GB for ESX 4.x Service Console. For the minimum requirements, see Upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices (1009039). For more information, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide.
A virtual machine that reads as inaccessible either from vCenter Server or connected directly to the ESXi/ESX host using the vSphere Client will cause Update Manager to fail because it is unable to verify the power status of a virtual machine, therefore it cannot put the host into Maintenance Mode. For more information, see Assessing commonalities of an outage affecting multiple virtual machines (1019000)
Verify that your ESX host has the required disk space to perform operations on the host. For more information, see Investigating disk space on an ESX or ESXi host (1003564).
Sometimes network capacity can be an issue when communicating with Update Manager to an ESXi/ESX host, especially if the host or Update Manager is across a long distance WAN. For more information, see vCenter Update Manager host tasks might fail in slow networks (1021050).
Verify that a compatible existing partition scheme exists on the ESXi/ESX host. For more information and for minimum requirements, see the VMware documentation</u> for your version.

If the issue still exists after you perform the steps in this article, see:

Gather the VMware Support Script Data. For more information, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware products (1008524).
File a support request with VMware Support and note this KB Article ID in the problem description. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.

Additional Information

Investigating disk space on an ESX or ESXi host
Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server
Cannot connect to the remote server when downloading the vCenter Update Manager or Converter plugins
Upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices
Assessing commonalities of an outage affecting multiple virtual machines
vCenter Update Manager host tasks might fail in slow networks
Unable to upgrade the Cisco Nexus 1000v module on an ESX/ESXi host