/var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/hostUpgrade
VMware Update Manager 6.5
As per the above example, the script tries to read /etc/passwd file and fails with "UnicodeDecodeError error
".
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
DSX8029:x:1000:1000:IbÃÂón DÃÂÃÂaz:/:/bin/sh
DSX7689:x:1001:1001:Alfonso Pancorbo:/:/bin/sh
DSX7642:x:1002:1002:Ricardo Diaz-Meco:/:/bin/sh
DNX3761:x:1003:1003:Cesar Romero:/:/bin/sh
In the above output, we can see there are some invalid characters after the line "vpxuser:x:500:100:VMware VirtualCenter administration account:/:/bin/sh".
To resolve this issue, we need to edit /etc/passwd file and take out the lines which has the invalid characters or we can edit the file to have the default configurations like below. Make sure that we backup of 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
Once the changes are made, re-run the scan and it should be successful .