SHD offline updates hang in between while updating the patch files.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

During the offline upgrade of the VMware Skyline Health Diagnostics appliance, customers copy the VMware-shd-patch-offline-4.0.10-<build>.tar.gz patch bundle.

After extracting the bundle and running ./stageupdate, the SHD Appliance reboots and begins installing the patches sequentially one after the other.

Customers can notice the update process may hang—showing an intermediate SHD version post-reboot while the Upgrade History Summary still indicates “Stage Update” in progress. This stall occurs only after the prescribed steps above and `./stageupdate` commands have been run exactly as documented.

Environment

SHD version 4.0.X upgrade scenario

Cause

During the offline upgrade process, the system creates backup files before applying each patch to ensure recovery capability. The backup creation process uses high CPU resources due to file compression operations, which can overwhelm appliances with limited processing power. This causes the entire upgrade process to hang while the system struggles to complete the backup task, preventing the upgrade from progressing to the next patch level.

Resolution

1. Delete any below lock file.

   rm /opt/vmware-shd/vmware-shd/updates/upgrade.lock

2. Rerun the stage update command again:

            ./stageupdate

3. Repeat above 2 steps as needed to progress through all patch levels to reach the target version.

Additional Information

- Take the backup before you attempt the upgrade.

- The lock file prevents concurrent or repeated stage updates. Removing it forces the process to restart at the next pending patch.

- Always verify appliance health and service status after each successful patch.