Patching an ESXi host fails with error "esxupdate returned with exit status: 15"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Patching an ESXi host via vCenter with vSphere Update Manager fails with the error:

/usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 15

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

ESXi is unable to query the offline file system stats. 

Log file /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/vmware-vum-server.log may show:

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[25670] [Originator@6876 sub=VciRemediateTask.RemediateTask{7}] [vciTaskBase 1372] SerializeToVimFault fault:
--> (integrity.fault.VcIntegrityFault) {
-->    faultMessage = <unset>
-->    msg = "Install error on host: <host_fqdn>, error details: Platform Configuration Error: /usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 15"
--> Converted fault:
--> (vim.fault.ExtendedFault) {
--> }

Log file /var/run/log/esxupdate.log file on the ESXi host will report the offline LUN:

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] esxupdate: 2101793: esxupdate: ERROR: An esxupdate error exception was caught:
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] esxupdate: 2101793: esxupdate: ERROR: esxutils.EsxcliError: Errors:
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] esxupdate: 2101793: esxupdate: ERROR: Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/<datastore>': Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>, skipping.
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] esxupdate: 2101793: esxupdate: ERROR: esximage.Errors.InstallationError: Failed to query file system stats: Errors:
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] esxupdate: 2101793: esxupdate: ERROR: Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/<datastore>': Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>, skipping.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, reconnect the LUN or remove it from the ESXi host

 

Attach Storage Devices

1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the ESXi host
2. Click the Configure tab
3. Under Storage, click Storage Devices
4. Select the detached storage device and click the Attach icon. 

The device becomes accessible. 

Detach Storage Devices

Before you begin, ensure that:

• The device does not contain any datastores
• No virtual machines use the device as an RDM disk
• The device does not contain a diagnostic partition or a scratch partition 

To detach the device:

1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the ESXi host
2. Click the Configure tab
3. Under Storage, click Storage Devices
4. Select the device to detach and click the Detach icon 

The device becomes inaccessible. The operational state of the device changes to Unmounted. 

The ESXi host may require a reboot to remove any residual references to the affected devices.