Upgrade or patching of 7.0 ESXi host fails with vmware.esximage.Errors.DatabaseIOError

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When upgrading ot patching an ESXi 7.0 host, the following error is received:

vmware.esximage.Errors.DatabaseIOError: ('vmfs/volumes/hhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhh-hhhh-hhhhhhhhhhhh/packages/var/db/locker' , Database directory /vmfs/volumes/hhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhh-hhhh-hhhhhhhhhhhh/packages/var/db/locker' does not exist.')

*h denotes a hexadecimal number

Environment

ESXi 7.0

ESXI 8.0

Cause

there is a missing symlink from packages to locker/packages

Resolution

open a SSH session to the ESXI host and issue the following commands:

cd /vmfs/volumes/hhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhh-hhhh-hhhhhhhhhhhh

ln -sf locker/packages packages

reattempt the update or upgrade