Patching Aria Lifecycle Manager 8.18.2 using Patch 5 Fails: "Waiting for services to start" due to nmp-ncat Package Conflict

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

Patching VMware Aria Lifecycle Manager (vRLCM) version 8.18.2 with Patch Level 5 consistently fails to complete. The update process gets stuck, displaying a message indicating it is "waiting for services to start," preventing the patch from being applied successfully.

The vRLCM update process to Patch Level 5 halts at the "waiting for services to start" phase.
vrlcm-server.service is running, but the vpostgres service fails to start as it's not configured correctly.

We found the Error in the /var/log/vrlcm/os-package-update.log
Error: Packages - nmp-ncat - are not available in the target repo for OS upgrade. Please provide the correct repo having the required packages.
Original list of RPMs and RPM DB are stored in /tmp/photon-upgrade-jkJ/, please provide the contents of that folder along with system journal logs for analysis; these logs can be captured using command-
# /usr/bin/journalctl -xa > /tmp/photon-upgrade-jkJ/journal.log
Cannot continue. Aborting.

Environment

 VMware Aria Lifecycle Manager 8.18

Cause

The Aria Lifecycle Manager patching mechanism relies on its internal package manager to upgrade all installed packages to versions compatible with the new patch level.

When a non-standard package like nmp-ncat-7.91-1.ph3.x86_64 is encountered, the package manager cannot find a compatible update for it within the official vRLCM repositories.

This dependency resolution failure causes the entire upgrade process to abort.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the conflicting nmp-ncat package must be removed from the Aria Lifecycle Manager appliance before attempting the Patch 5 upgrade.

Additional Information

To resolve this issue, the conflicting nmp-ncat package must be removed from the Aria Lifecycle Manager appliance before attempting the Patch 5 upgrade.

Procedure:
1. Take a snapshot of the vRLCM appliance before attempt to apply the patch.
2.Connect to your Aria Lifecycle Manager appliance using its IP address or FQDN.
    Log in as root.
    bash ssh root@<vRLCM_IP_or_FQDN>
3.Identify the nmp-ncat package:
Execute the following command on the appliance to find the exact name of the installed nmp-ncat package:
    bash rpm -qa | grep nmp-ncat
    Example output: nmp-ncat-7.91-1.ph3.x86_64

4.Remove the conflicting package: 
This action removes a non-standard package. 
   rpm -e <packaged_found_in_the_system>
   Replace <packaged_found_in_the_system> with the exact package name identified in the previous step (e.g., nmp-ncat-7.91-1.ph3.x86_64).

5.Initiate Patch Level 5 Update
Follow the standard patching instructions as detailed in the official Broadcom documentation:
VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18 Patch 5 Release Notes
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/aria/aria-suite-lifecycle/8-18/release-notes/vmware-aria-suite-lifecycle-818-patch-5-release-notes.html

After the update completes, verify the health status of the Aria Lifecycle Manager appliance and confirm that all services are running correctly.
Ensure the appliance is reporting the correct patch level (Patch 5) in the UI.