"ESX live patch remediation failed" in ESX 9.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Some conditions cause ESX live patching to fail after remediation. One of the following errors will be seen in these cases.

• VMKernel Live Patch remediation failed due to failure to load the following patch modules: <...>
• VMKernel Live Patch remediation failed due to failure to activate the following patches: <...>
• VMKernel Live Patch failed due to an unexpected exception: <...>

Environment

ESX 9.x

Resolution

These issues must be resolved by rebooting the host, either manually or by using vLCM to start a reboot-based remediation.

Note: These issues occur after vLCM has already modified the host's installed image. After rebooting, the host will be compliant with the new (patch) image.

Additional Information

Live Patch product documentation: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/9-0/managing-host-and-cluster-lifecycle/configuring-vlcm-remediation-settings-1/how-to-apply-live-patches-to-the-hosts-in-a-cluster-managed-with-images.html