Attempts to merge VIBs with dissimilar stateless-ready attributes might fail

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

When you attempt to install patches of ESXi 5.0 released after ESXi 5.0 Update 3, patches of ESXi 5.1 released after ESXi 5.1 Update 2 or patches of ESXi 5.5 released after ESXi 5.5 Update 2, the patch update process might fail with a ValueError message.

An error message similar to this is displayed on the ESXi host:

[ValueError]

Cannot merge VIBs VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-atiixp_0.4.6-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-atiixp_0.4.6-3vmw.500.0.0.469512 with unequal statelessready attributes

This issue occurs because the update process detects two VIBs with same VIB ID and version, and attempts to merge from different sources, which can be either an online software depot, offline ZIP file or a VIB installed on the ESXi host with different values for stateless-ready attributes.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in:

ESXi 5.0 Patch Release ESXi500-201412001, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch Release ESXi500-201412001 (2088715).

ESXi 5.1 Patch Release ESXi510-201410001, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201410001 (2084619).

ESXi 5.5 Patch Release ESXi550-201501001, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201501001 (2099265).

Note: Ensure you install esx-base VIB from the patch bundle, reboot the ESXi host, and install all other VIBs in the patch.

To work around the issue:

• If the affected VIB is installed on the system with stateless-ready attribute as False access the XML files of all the installed VIBs by running the command # cd/var/db/esximg/vibs/, change the stateless-ready attribute of the affected VIB to True, and then apply the patch.
  
  Note: If you are unable to modify the XML file, copy the file to a different location, edit it and overwrite the file in /var/db/esximage/vibs.
  
  
• If the affected VIB is not installed on the system, delete the VIB with stateless-ready attribute False from the software depot.
  

For example, if you experience the ValueError and are unable to merge VIBs VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-atiixp_0.4.6-3vmw.500.0.0.469512 and VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-atiixp_0.4.6-3vmw.500.0.0.469512 with unequal stateless-ready attributes, access the XML file from /var/db/esximg/vibs/ata-pata-atiixp--*.xml, copy the XML file to /tmp, modify the XML file unde /tmp, and copy the XML file back to /var/db/esximg/vibs.

The detailed steps you need to perform are as follows:

1. Change the directory using the command cd /tmp.
2. Copy the XML file using the command cp /var/db/esximg/vibs/ata-pata-atiixp--*.xml.
3. Enable the write permission of the XML file using the command chmod +w ata-pata-atiixp--*.xml.
4. Change "<stateless-ready>false</stateless-ready>" to "<stateless-ready>true</stateless-ready>" inside file ata-pata-atiixp--*.xml.
5. Copy the XML file to the location var/db/esximg/vibs using the command cp ata-pata-atiixp--*.xml /var/db/esximg/vibs.

Additional Information

For translated versions of this article, see:

• 日本語: [stateless-ready] 属性の値が異なる VIB のマージが失敗することがある (2090532)