ESXi host fails to run profile update command

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

ESXi host fails profile update with image downloaded from hostupdate.vmware.com with generic error.

Environment

An ESXi host being updated using command similar to the one below will fail with error similar to this, could not parse vbs xml

esxcli software profile update --depot=<depot_location> --profile=<profile_name>

The /var/log/esxupdate.log file will not indicate any problems. It appears that the file download to a temporary location in /tmp without any issues. 

Looking at the /var/log/vmkernel.log you may see errors about a process that is requesting memory that is not available. There also may be errors in regards unpacking or installing vibs from ESXi update. 

If you check /tmp you may see large files or unnecessary files. In my case we ran ls -alh /tmp this showed up in the /tmp directory on the host.

There is a 1.5 M file, and some other file (simsOpLock.lock.LOCK) that I am not familiar with.

We rebooted the ESXi host, and it cleaned everything up in the /tmp directory. The ESXi host also had an uptime of about 145 days.

Cause

Files in the /tmp directory on the ESXi host prevent the update from completing. 

Resolution

If the ESXi host is rebooted it should clear out the /tmp directory and allow the update to complete.