SDDC Manager upgrade precheck error : vSAN HCL DB on SDDC Manager is out of date

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• The pre-check test fails with the error: 

  vSAN HCL DB on SDDC Manager is out of date. This is a critical error if vSAN HCL DB has not been updated within the last 90.0 day(s) and a warning if vSAN HCL DB has not been updated within the last 60.0 day(s).

• On verifying the vsan hcl db update version in vcenter at vcenter-->configure-->vsan-->Update its already at the latest version

• Skyline health checks for vsan "Hardware compatibility" shows green for vSAN HCL up-to-date
• Updating vsan HCL DB via OBTU fails with
• Bundle Transfer Utility Tool failed with error :

  Api call to /v1/vsan-hcl/content failed.
  Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: URI path begins with multiple slashes

 

Environment

VMware Cloud foundation 5.x

Resolution

1. Take snapshot of SDDC Manager VM
2. SSH to sddc manager using vcf and su to root
3. Export the information from LCM DB using the below command

   psql -h localhost -U postgres -d lcm  -c "select * from vsan_hcl_attributes;" > /tmp/hclattributes.txt

   If SDDC Manager is 5.1.1 then use the below command

   /usr/pgsql/13/bin/psql -U postgres -h localhost -d lcm-c "select * from vsan_hcl_attributes;" > /tmp/hclattributes.txt

4. Review the output of the file you exported /tmp/hclattributes.txt
   

   less /tmp/hclattributes.txt

   note down the local_data_timestamp value which records the latest HCL publish date for vsan_hcl_attributes. To convert the local_data_timestamp like 1704067200 to human readable format - run date -d@1704067200. This makes it easier to see when the HCL was last updated.

   Note: if the value is outdated and/or not the latest then you get an error/warning as per the threshold value
5. Open the below link in your HTML browser:
   1. https://partnerweb.vmware.com/service/vsan/all.json (Right click, Save as)
   2. Save the file as all.json on your local machine. If you are unable to save the file, you must copy the entire content and create a new file with extension".json"
6. Copy the latest all.json file from your local machine to /home/vcf folder onto your SDDC Manager via tools like WinSCP
7. Use the below command to grab the access token

   curl --location 'http://<sddcmanager_fqdn>/v1/tokens' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{"username":"<SSO_USERNAME>","password":"<SSO_PASSWORD>"}'

8. cd to /home/vcf (where the latest local copy of all.json is placed)
9. Upload the HCL file using the HCL upload API using the below command

   curl -X PUT --location 'http://<sddcmanager_fqdn>/v1/vsan-hcl/content' --header 'Authorization: Bearer <put the token grabbed from step 7>' --header 'Content-Type: text/plain' [e-mail]

10. Post successful execution of the API the contents of local_data_timestamp in vsan_hcl_attributes at LCM DB will get updated to a new value, please verify the same as stated in step 3
11. Retry the pre-check to verify that SDDC no longer complain that vSAN HCL DB on SDDC Manager is out of date

Additional Information

• If the VSAN HCL DB is not at the latest version then please refer to Download/Upload HCL data
• For Updating the vSAN HCL database manually - refer Updating the vSAN HCL database manually