ESXi Host update fails with error "Error writing tar database: Should have base image when an addon exists" when using images generated by AutoDeploy

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When using images generated by AutoDeploy, the ESXi hosts will not be having base image, components and add-ons.

There are no files in /var/db/esximg/bulletins/, /var/db/esximg/baseimages/ and /var/db/esximg/addons/.

When running esxcli commands, the following error is seen:

[root@esxi:~] esxcli software baseimage get
[Exception]
Host does not have a Base Image installed.
Please refer to the log file for more details.
[root@esxi:~] esxcli software profile update -p HPE-Custom-AddOn_702.0.0.10.7.0-52 -d /scratch/VMware-ESXi-7.0.2-17867351-HPE-702.0.0.10.7.0.52-May2021-dHCI2.zip
[InstallationError]
Failed to finish bootbank stage: ('/tmp/stagebootbank/imgdb.tgz', 'Error writing tar database: Should have base image when an addon exists.')
cause = ('/tmp/stagebootbank/imgdb.tgz', 'Error writing tar database: Should have base image when an addon exists.')
Please refer to the log file for more details.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Resolution

The feature to support base image, components and addons by AutoDeploy is targeted for future release.

Workaround:
Currently there is no workaround for the issue.