Update Manager Plug-in missing from vSphere Web Client (a Flex-based GUI) and vSphere Client (an HTML5-based GUI) post upgrading to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update releases

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Update Manager tab is missing for vCenter Inventory objects in vSphere-Client (Flash) after upgrading to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update releases
• Updates tab is missing for vCenter Inventory objects in vSphere-ui Client (H5 Client) after upgrading to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update releases
• Administration -> Solutions -> Client Plug-Ins does not list VMware Update Manager for both vSphere-Client and vSphere-ui Client
• Check for New Plug-ins does not fetch VMware Update Manager plug-in
• Update Manager service is in running state and Web Client shows Tasks initiated by Update Manager in Recent Tasks

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue,

1. fix any Trust Anchor mismatch in Service registrations to Lookupservice following the procedure documented in vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller certificate validation error messages for external solutions in environments with a External Platform Services Controller
2. Restart the vSphere Web Client and the vSphere Client services

service-control --restart vsphere-ui

service-control --restart vsphere-client

If the Update Manager Plug-in is missing after fixing Trust Anchor mismatch in both clients.

To manually place the Plug-in files to their expected location:

1. Take an SSH session to vCenter Server Appliance
2. Download Update Manager Plug-in files from these locations:

https://<vCenter Server FQDN>:9087/vci/downloads/vum-htmlclient.zip
https://<vCenter Server FQDN>:9087/vci/downloads/vumclient.zip

To below folders respectively:

/etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/.
/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/

For Example curl command to download the files:

 

curl https://<vCenterFQDN>:9087/vci/downloads/vum-htmlclient.zip --insecure >/etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vum-htmlclient.zip

 

curl https://<vCenterFQDN>:9087/vci/downloads/vumclient.zip --insecure >/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vumclient.zip

 

 

3. Check the version of Update Manager service registration in VMware Lookup Service. 

python /usr/lib/vmidentity/tools/scripts/lstool.py list --url http://localhost:7080/lookupservice/sdk --type client --product com.vmware.vum

 

Note down the version property in the output. For example: Version: 6.7.0.41703
 

4. Extract the Update Manager Plug-in zip files downloaded in Step 2:

Note: The target directories must contain the plug-in versions registered in VMware Update Manager

 

vum-htmlclient.zip to com.vmware.vum.client-<version> 

vumclient.zip to com.vmware.vcIntegrity.vcIntegrity-<version>
 

For example:

unzip /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vum-htmlclient.zip -d /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vum.client-6.7.0.41703
 

unzip /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vumclient.zip -d /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vcIntegrity.vcIntegrity-6.7.0.41703
 

5. Change the owners of the plug-in directories. 

vsphere-ui for /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vum.client-<version>
 

vsphere-client for /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vcIntegrity.vcIntegrity-<version>

For example:

chown -R vsphere-ui /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vum.client-6.7.0.41703
 

chown -R vsphere-client /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/com.vmware.vcIntegrity.vcIntegrity-6.7.0.41703

 

6. Remove the plug-in zip files from their locations from Step 2.

For example:

rm /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vum-htmlclient.zip
 

rm /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/cm-service-packages/com.vmware.cis.vsphereclient.plugin/vumclient.zip
 

7. Restart vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client:

service-control --restart vsphere-ui

service-control --restart vsphere-client
 

8. Log in to both the clients and validate Update Manager plug-in availability.