VAMI (vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface) is unable to retrieve update metadata when using the new token-based update URL.

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

VAMI displays a blank update screen after attempting to load available updates.
No specific error message appears on the VAMI UI.
The applmgmt logs show that the service attempts to fetch updates three times; each attempt results in the connection being reset before reaching 60% completion.

(try: 3)  https://dl.broadcom.com/#############################/PROD/COMP/VCENTER/vmw/8d167796-34d5-4899-be0a-
6daade4005a3/8.0.3.00500/package-pool/patch-metadata-scripts.zip\nConnecting to xyzproxy.xyzg.xyzd.com|IP|:8080... connected.\nProxy request sent, awaiting response... \n  HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n
  Date: WD, DD MM YYYY mm:ss:ms GMT\n  Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n  Content-Length: 6904558\n  Connection: keep-alive\n  CF-Ray: 92ebb661fe7569de-DFW\n  CF-Cache-Status: HIT\n  Accept-Ranges:
 bytes\n  Age: 45452\n  Cache-Control: no-store\n  Content-Disposition: filename=patch-metadata-scripts.zip\n  ETag: "########################"\n  Last-Modified: Fri, WD, DD MM YYYY mm:ss:ms GMT\n  Str
ict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains\n  Vary: Accept-Encoding\n  Server: cloudflare\nLength: 6904558 (6.6M) [application/octet-stream]\nSaving to: ‘/storage/core/software-update/tmp/8
.0.3.00500/patch-metadata-scripts.zip’\n\n     0K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  0% 3.51M 2s\n    50K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  1%  116K 30s\n   100K .
......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  2% 1.47M 21s\n   150K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  2% 2.93M 16s\n   200K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......
...  3% 11.6M 13s\n   250K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  4% 4.69M 11s\n   300K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  5% 3.24M 10s\n   350K .......... .......... .
......... .......... ..........  5% 12.2M 8s\n   400K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  6% 40.9M 7s\n   450K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  7% 13.7M 7s\n   500
K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  8% 19.0M 6s\n   550K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  8% 17.0M 6s\n   600K .......... .......... .......... .......... ......
....  9% 18.3M 5s\n   650K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 10% 32.2M 5s\n   700K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 11% 1.55M 5s\n   750K .......... .......... ...
....... .......... .......... 11% 11.9M 4s\n   800K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 12% 19.5M 4s\n   850K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 13% 41.1M 4s\n   900K
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 14% 3.89M 4s\n   950K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 14% 1.48M 4s\n  1000K .......... .......... .......... .......... ........
.. 15% 1.49M 4s\n  1050K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 16%  474K 4s\n  1100K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 17% 21.9M 4s\n  1150K .......... .......... .....
..... .......... .......... 17% 16.9M 4s\n  1200K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 18% 27.5M 3s\n  1250K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 19% 17.6M 3s\n  1300K ..
........ .......... .......... .......... .......... 20% 25.6M 3s\n  1350K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 20% 16.3M 3s\n  1400K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 21% 1.12M 3s\n  1450K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 22% 1.06M 3s\n  1500K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 22% 16.9M 3s\n  1550K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 23% 14.6M 3s\n  1600K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 24% 39.3M 3s\n  1650K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 25% 26.6M 3s\n  1700K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 25% 14.0M 3s\n  1750K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 26% 15.8M 2s\n  1800K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 27% 58.2M 2s\n  1850K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 28% 10.2M 2s\n  1900K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 28% 57.5M 2s\n  1950K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 29% 15.9M 2s\n  2000K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 30% 16.3M 2s\n  2050K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 31% 19.7M 2s\n  2100K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 31% 75.3M 2s\n  2150K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 32% 16.2M 2s\n  2200K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 33% 14.2M 2s\n  2250K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 34% 16.4M 2s\n  2300K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 34% 43.0M 2s\n  2350K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 35% 24.8M 2s\n  2400K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 36% 16.0M 2s\n  2450K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 37% 15.9M 2s\n  2500K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 37% 17.3M 2s\n  2550K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 38% 16.5M 1s\n  2600K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 39% 78.5M 1s\n  2650K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 40% 16.0M 1s\n  2700K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 40% 16.2M 1s\n  2750K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 41% 17.9M 1s\n  2800K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 42%  114M 1s\n  2850K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 43% 13.4M 1s\n  2900K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 43% 16.4M 1s\n  2950K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 44% 15.7M 1s\n  3000K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 45%  895M 1s\n  3050K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 45% 15.9M 1s\n  3100K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 46% 16.7M 1s\n  3150K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 47% 15.7M 1s\n  3200K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 48% 18.6M 1s\n  3250K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 48% 11.8M 1s\n  3300K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 49%  117M 1s\n  3350K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 50% 16.3M 1s\n  3400K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 51% 16.3M 1s\n  3450K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 51% 28.5M 1s\n  3500K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 52% 33.2M 1s\n  3550K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 53% 13.9M 1s\n  3600K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 54% 10.8M 1s\n  3650K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 54% 35.3M 1s\n  3700K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 55% 18.4M 1s\n  3750K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 56% 6.85M 1s\n  3800K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 57% 9.89M 1s\n  3850K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 57% 15.1M 1s\n  3900K .......... .......... .......... ........              58%  424M=1.0s\n\n2025-04-11 10:03:10 (3.84 MB/s) - Read error at byte 4033015/6904558 (Connection reset by peer). Giving up.\n\n'
YYYY-MM-DDTmm:ss:ms AM TZ [8457]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_b2b:URL updates processed successfully
YYYY-MM-DDTmm:ss:ms AM TZ [8457]INFO:vmware.appliance.update.update_pending:No updates found

Name resolution and connectivity tests to dl.broadcom.com via ping and nslookup are successful.
Enabling or disabling the proxy settings does not affect the behavior.
Running a manual wget to the update URL results in repeated retries, with the connection consistently being reset before completing the download.

Packet captures do not provide conclusive information due to content filtering by the network firewall.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

The issue is caused by network-level traffic filtering or monitoring performed by a firewall within the customer environment.
In the specific scenario, a batch/script configuration within the firewall was blocking traffic from vCenter to the update source URL, preventing the update metadata from being downloaded successfully.

Resolution

This issue is not caused by vCenter or VAMI itself.
The problem originates from the customer’s firewall or network security device filtering or interrupting the update traffic.
To resolve the issue:

Engage the network or firewall team to review and whitelist traffic to dl.broadcom.com and any associated update URLs.
Ensure that no content inspection, TLS decryption, or application-layer filtering is interrupting the connection to the update server.

Additional Information

This behavior can also be influenced by deep packet inspection (DPI) or SSL inspection features on certain firewall platforms.
Bypassing these inspections or allowing direct access to the update servers may be required.