VMware Smart Assurance: NCM 10.1.x installation fails with error 'perl is required for this installation and must be in the system PATH'

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Logged into Linux VM as root user and executed NCM prerequisites check with steps at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Smart-Assurance/10.1.4/ncm-installation-guide-1014/GUID-8E78AAC0-E1EB-4A35-8272-C4171F16390C.html, which is successful with no errors.

After which NCM installer execution fails after step 2 at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Smart-Assurance/10.1.4/ncm-installation-guide-1014/GUID-FF4601A1-89D7-4C0D-B34B-29B2A98C6023.html

Below is the error noticed:

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - NCM

Cause

1) Enabled debug on installer with steps from KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/85840
2) From the debug output noticed that installer creates a executable file in /tmp and the file execution from /tmp directory was failing.
Error in debug output -
Command.run(): Cannot run program "/tmp/656396.tmp/executeScriptTmp": error=13, Permission denied

/tmp directory has 777 permissions with root user as owner, which indicates /tmp directory has full permissions.

3) After the above error message, installer probes below:
Error
-----
Prerequisite check failed
ERROR: perl is required for this installation and must be in the system PATH.

PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING (OK):

Before pressing enter, take another SSH session to the VM where NCM installer is executed. Check the content of the file at the path in error.

In this case, content of the file /tmp/656396.tmp/executeScriptTmp is below:
#!/bin/bash
perl -v

Navigate to /tmp/656396.tmp/ and type ./executeScriptTmp
This would fail, which indicates that the /tmp filesystem doesn't have execute access.

4) Check /etc/fstab file, /tmp would have below highlighted entry noexec, which means /tmp filesystem is mounted to not have file execute permissions.

Resolution

Edit the /etc/fstab file and remove noexec for /tmp entry, save and close the file. Below is the snippet after editing the file:

Restart the VM after the change. After VM restart, execute NCM Installer.