Remediate fails with the error: The host returns esxupdate error codes: -1

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Remediate task fails with the error:

The host returns esxupdate error codes: -1. Check the Lifecycle Manager log files and esxupdate log files for more details.

/var/log/esxupdate.log or /var/run/log/esxupdate.* reports the below error:

2024-10-25T00:13:22Z esxupdate: 1056520: esxupdate: ERROR:   File "/tmp/esx-update-1056520/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/ImageProfile.py", line 2246, in _getHighestVerComp
2024-10-25T00:13:22Z esxupdate: 1056520: esxupdate: ERROR:   File "/tmp/esx-update-1056520/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Bulletin.py", line 1025, in __eq__
2024-10-25T00:13:22Z esxupdate: 1056520: esxupdate: ERROR: AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'id'

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

Duplicate vibs cause the remediate tasks to fail. Check for duplicate vibs using the below command:

esxcli software component list

There have been instances of duplicate VMware-VM-Tools vibs.

$> esxcli software component list | grep -i tools
VMware-VM-Tools   VMware Tools Async Release   12.4.5.23787635-23919197   12.4.5   VMware   06-27-2024   VMwareCertified
VMware-VM-Tools   ESXi VM Tools                12.1.5.20735119-21422485   12.1.5   VMware   03-30-2023   VMwareCertified

Duplicate vibs are not expected to exist on an ESXi host. This can occur due to incomplete upgrades, manual changes, etc.

Resolution

Remove the older vib from the list of duplicate vibs. Use the below command to remove vibs.

esxcli software component remove -n <Name of vib>

For eg. to remove a duplicate VMware-VM-Tools vib:

esxcli software component remove -n VMware-VM-Tools:12.1.5.20735119-21422485