vSphere Replication vib installation errors on ESXi hosts "/usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 7"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading vCenter to version 8.0U2 and Live Site Recovery to 9.0.2, there are errors in vCenter about '/usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 7' and SSLException, trying to connect to a Host in another cluster that is not part of the replication cluster.

Communication for this cluster cannot be opened to vSphere Replication.

Environment

vSphere Replication (All versions)

Cause

The vSphere Replication appliances will attempt to install a vib on all ESXi hosts in the vCenter inventory by design.

Resolution

Ideally, network communication should be open between all ESXi hosts in the vCenter inventory and the vSphere Replication appliance. If this is not possible for one or multiple clusters, the error can be safely ignored. However, if replication traffic encryption is not being used, you can disable the automatic install to prevent the appliance from attempting to push the VIB to the hosts.

Resolution:

1. SSH to the vSphere Replication appliance:

Go to location: /opt/vmware/hms/conf/

Option A: Manual Edit

1. Edit hms-configuration.xml using vi and update the hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib entry from true to false:
   

   From : Original value True

   <! -- Whether to install hbragent vib automatically when reconnecting to the hosts -->
   <hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>true</hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>

   To : Updated Value False

   <! -- Whether to install hbragent vib automatically when reconnecting to the hosts -->
<hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>false</hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>

2. Restart HMS by running the command: systemctl restart hms

Option B: Command Line Update  : Alternatively, run the following command to update the hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib status to false:

# /opt/vmware/hms/bin/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib=false

NOTE: When vSphere Replication is upgraded, the VIB will need to be manually installed on the hosts used for replication, or this value must be set back to true while the VIBs are installed.

 

Additional Information

Reference KB Articles :

Host install tasks for HBR agent VIB fails, error displays "An error occurred during host configuration", causing remediation to hung through update manager.

Exclude hosts from registration in vSphere Replication

Note : Using KB Exclude hosts from registration in vSphere Replication com.vmware.vr.disallowedHost tag cannot fix vSphere Replication VIB installation errors on ESXi hosts (e.g., "/usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 7".

The com.vmware.vr.disallowedHost tag is only valid for incoming replications on the target site. Since tagged hosts are still used for outgoing replications and virtual machines on disallowed hosts can be replicated, this feature will not stop the vmware-hbr-agent.vib installation. Therefore, the only workaround to stop these installation errors is to update the hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib status to false in vSphere Replication appliance.