VUM Service Intermittently Fails with “Connection Reset by Peer”

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

The VMware Update Manager (VUM) service intermittently stops functioning, causing failures in the user interface (UI) and logging “Connection reset by peer” errors.

 2025-10-01T07:43:58.404Z info vmware-vum-server[1459651] [Originator@6876 sub=ServiceProvider] [EmbeddedPyServiceProvider 783] GetDepotBaseImages start^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.404Z info vmware-vum-server[1458799] [Originator@6876 sub=com.vmware.vcIntegrity.lifecycle.SetSolutionTask] [Task 627] Set com.vmware.vcIntegrity.lifecycle.SetSolutionTask (Thread-id) progress to 50^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.405Z warning vmware-vum-server[1459653] [Originator@6876 sub=IO.Connection] Failed to connect; <io_obj p:0x00007fe988540100, h:25, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 48462'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 80'>>, e: 111(Connection refused), duration: 0msec^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.405Z warning vmware-vum-server[1459653] [Originator@6876 sub=HttpConnectionPool-000000] Failed to get pooled connection; <cs p:00007fe9d41d5e80, TCP:<vCenter-FQDN:80>, (null), duration: 0msec, N7Vmacore15SystemExceptionE(Connection refused: The remote service is not running, OR is overloaded, OR a firewall is rejecting connections.)^M
 --> [context]zKq7AVECAQAAAI48ewENdm13YXJlLXZ1bS1zZXJ2ZXIAAEMcU2xpYnZtYWNvcmUuc28AAAgYQgApP0MAlplKAChyOACZkjgAbaM4AAeyOAAE7DcAF0U4AMUPUQGwjgBsaWJwdGhyZWFkLnNvLjAAAt/6D2xpYmMuc28uNgA=[/context]^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.406Z info vmware-vum-server[1459653] [Originator@6876 sub=IO.Http] Set user agent error; state: 1, (null), N7Vmacore15SystemExceptionE(Connection refused: The remote service is not running, OR is overloaded, OR a firewall is rejecting connections.)^M
 --> [context]zKq7AVECAQAAAI48ewENdm13YXJlLXZ1bS1zZXJ2ZXIAAEMcU2xpYnZtYWNvcmUuc28AAAgYQgApP0MAlplKAChyOACZkjgAbaM4AAeyOAAE7DcAF0U4AMUPUQGwjgBsaWJwdGhyZWFkLnNvLjAAAt/6D2xpYmMuc28uNgA=[/context]^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.407Z error vmware-vum-server[1458799] [Originator@6876 sub=PM.AsyncTask.SetSolutionTask{42}] [vciTaskBase 1458] Update VC task progress failed: Connection refused: The remote service is not running, OR is overloaded, OR a firewall is rejecting connections.^M
 2025-10-01T07:43:58.407Z error vmware-vum-server[1459653] [Originator@6876 sub=IO.Http] User agent failed to send request; (null), N7Vmacore15SystemExceptionE(Connection refused: The remote service is not running, OR is overloaded, OR a firewall is rejecting connections.)^M

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

Because the cluster’s image reference was invalid or mismatched, dependent tasks were queued indefinitely. This led to the accumulation of background threads waiting for completion, resulting in service overload and intermittent VUM service failures.

 

Resolution

1. Correct the image reference on the affected cluster to ensure the desired image spec is valid and correctly applied.

2. Restart the VUM service to clear pending threads and restore normal operation.
   service-control --restart vmware-updatemgr

3. Monitor the service and vCenter task execution to confirm thread utilization remains stable.

Additional Information

The thread exhaustion caused background service overload, leading to intermittent “Connection refused” and “Connection reset by peer” errors in the logs.
Correcting the image reference prevents HA and related tasks from queuing indefinitely, avoiding further thread buildup.
Restarting the service reinitializes internal connections and clears stale tasks, ensuring continued stability of the Update Manager operations.
Reference Article: Broadcom KB 336296