unable to start the vmware-updatemgr service, due to missing permission.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to start the vmware-updatemgr service, the following error is encountered:

• • service-control --start
    operation is non-cancellable. Please wait for it to finish ...
    operation on profile: ALL ...
    started service vmware-vmon
    failed. Error: Failed to start services in profile ALL. RC=2, stderr=Failed to start updatemgr services. Error: Service crashed while starting
    
    service-control --start vmware-updatemgr
    failed. Error: Failed to restart service updatemgr. vmon-cli RC=2, stderr=Restart service request failed. Error: Service crashed while starting

• /var/log/vmware/vmon/vmon.log:

  • YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:Sec.176Z In(05) host-##### <updatemgr-prestart> Constructed command: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/vmware-updatemgr-root/sbin/updatemgr-vmon-prestart.py
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:Sec.831Z In(05) host-##### <updatemgr> Service pre-start command completed successfully.
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:Sec.831Z In(05) host-##### <updatemgr> Constructed command: /usr/lib/vmware-updatemgr/bin/vmware-updatemgr /usr/lib/vmware-updatemgr/bin/vci-integrity.xml
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:Sec.833Z Er(02) host-##### <updatemgr> [Process: 264869] Failed to redirect std-stream. Error: Permission denied
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:Sec.834Z Wa(03) host-##### <updatemgr> Service exited. Exit code 254

Environment

• VMware vCenter server Appliance 8.0.3 

Cause

• The issue was caused by incorrect file permissions and ownership on the directory /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/.As a result, the VMware Update Manager service was unable to access or write to the log directory.

Resolution

1. Login to the vCenter server appliance using the root credentials.
2. Set the appropriate ownership for the vmware-updatemgr directory and its contents using the following commands:

   • chown -R updatemgr:updatemgr /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/
     chmod 700 /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/
     chmod 600 /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/updatemgr-vmon.log.stderr

3. Restart the Update Manager service, 

• • vmon-cli --start updatemgr

    4. If the issue persists after applying the above steps, please contact Broadcom Technical Support for further assistance.