Error: "Cannot run upgrade script on host | UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 273: ordinal not in range(128)" while scanning host fails with error using VUM

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Scanning host fails with error using VMware Update Manager. You get the following error on the UI "UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 273: ordinal not in range(128)".
  
  
• Following entries are observed in the log file -
  /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/hostUpgrade/vmware-vum-server-logcpp.log:
  
  

[YYYY-MM-DD T HH:MM:SS 'VciScanTask.ScanTask{406}' 140312896878336 INFO]  [vciTaskBase, 1349] SerializeToVimFault fault: (integrity.fault.HostUpgradeRunScriptFailure)
 {    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,     faultMessage = <unset>,     reason = ""    msg = "" } Converted fault: (vim.fault.ExtendedFault) {    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,     faultMessage = <unset>,     faultTypeId = "com.vmware.vcIntegrity.HostUpgradeRunScriptFailure",     data = (vim.KeyValue) [       (vim.KeyValue) {          key = "faultCause",           value = ""       },        (vim.KeyValue) {          key = "faultMessage",           value = ""       },        (vim.KeyValue) {          key = "reason",           value = ""       }    ]    msg = "" }
[YYYY-MM-DD T HH:MM:SS 'VciScanTask.ScanTask{406}' 140312896878336 INFO]  [vciTaskBase, 1621] Description updated
[YYYY-MM-DD T HH:MM:SS 'VirtApplianceManager' 140313547577088 INFO]  [virtApplianceMgr, 1805] VADiscoveryTimerHandler: scheduled timer triggered
[YYYY-MM-DD T HH:MM:SS 'VciScanTask.ScanTask{406}' 140312896878336 INFO]  [vciTaskBase, 1362] VciTask { id: ScanTask{406}, type: com.vmware.vcIntegrity.ScanTask }: Setting VC task state to: error

VUA logs : This will be available under ESXi or under VUM logs : /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/hostUpgrade

In this Example: The logs are under /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/hostUpgrade

zcat vua-hostname.log.gz | less

YYYY-MM-DD T HH:MM:SS info vua[A9DDB70] [Originator@6876 sub=VUA] Command '/tmp/vuaScript-QGBDig/precheck.py' finished with exit status 1
--> stderr: --------
--> INFO:root:Running esxcfg-info
--> INFO:root:Running lspci
--> INFO:root:Running vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/acdddb72-50b75987-ba60-30eaa5d4feb6
--> INFO:root:Reading /etc/shadow
--> INFO:root:Reading /etc/passwd
--> Traceback (most recent call last):
-->   File "/tmp/vuaScript-QGBDig/precheck.py", line 2353, in <module>
-->     sys.exit(main(sys.argv))
-->   File "/tmp/vuaScript-QGBDig/precheck.py", line 2311, in main
-->     init(product, version)
-->   File "/tmp/vuaScript-QGBDig/precheck.py", line 2088, in init
-->     systemProbe = SystemProbeESXi(version)
-->   File "/tmp/vuaScript-QGBDig/precheck.py", line 573, in __init__
-->     self.passwd = open('/etc/passwd').read()
-->   File "/build/mts/release/bora-13635690/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib64/python3.5/encodings/ascii.py", line 26, in decode
--> UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 273: ordinal not in range(128)

Environment

VMware Update Manager 6.5

Cause

As per the above example, the script tries to read /etc/passwd file and fails with "UnicodeDecodeError error".

Resolution

Open an SSH session to the ESXi host and check the passwd file under /etc/passwd

Example:

[root@hostname:~] cat /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:Administrator:/:/bin/sh
daemon:x:2:2:System daemons:/:/sbin/nologin
nfsnobody:x:65534:65534:Anonymous NFS User:/:/sbin/nologin
dcui:x:100:100:DCUI User:/:/sbin/nologin
vpxuser:x:500:100:VMware VirtualCenter administration account:/:/bin/sh
UserID:x:1000:1000:##ó# #í##:/:/bin/sh
UserID:x:1001:1001:Example User1:/:/bin/sh
UserID:x:1002:1002:Example User2:/:/bin/sh
UserID:x:1003:1003:Example User3:/:/bin/sh

In the above output, there are some invalid characters after the line "vpxuser:x:500:100:VMware VirtualCenter administration account:/:/bin/sh".

To resolve this issue:

1. Edit the /etc/passwd file and take out the lines which have the invalid characters or Edit the file to have the default configurations like the below.

         Note: Make sure you backup the file before editing.

Edit the file with the command : vi /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:Administrator:/:/bin/sh
daemon:x:2:2:System daemons:/:/sbin/nologin
nfsnobody:x:65534:65534:Anonymous NFS User:/:/sbin/nologin
dcui:x:100:100:DCUI User:/:/sbin/nologin
vpxuser:x:500:100:VMware VirtualCenter administration account:/:/bin/sh

      2. Once the changes are made, re-run the scan and it should be successful.