Error "[EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM] due to :[ctr image pull projects.packages.broadcom.com/$1/$2]]] during cluster creation" when attempting to deploy a cluster with VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• When deploying a Kubernetes cluster there is an error for the EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM similar to the following:
  
  [error while bootstrapping the machine [####-k8s-core-####/EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM]; unable to wait for post
customization phase [guestinfo.cloudinit.kind.binary.install.status] : [invalid postcustomization phase: [failed] for
key [guestinfo.cloudinit.kind.binary.install.status] for vm [EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM] due to :[ctr image pull
  <projects.packages.broadcom.com>/$1/$2]]] during cluster creation
  
  
• Running ping, curl connectivity commands and nslookup from Ephemeral virtual machine to <projects.packages.broadcom.com> fails with errors similar to:
  
  

  root@EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM:"# curl -k https://projects.packages.broadcom.com
curl: (6) Could not resolve

  
  root@EPHEMERAL-TEMP-VM:  nslookup projects.packages.broadcom.com
  :: connection tined out; no servers could be reached

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.x
Container Service Extension 4.2.x

Cause

• This issue occurs when the Ephemeral VM does not have connectivity to portal 'projects.packages.broadcom.com' to download required Kubernetes packages.
• In /var/log/cloud-final.err on ephemeral VM, you notice following errors about name resolution:
  
  (13>Oct 14 02:39:56 ClusterName-5501065-01/vps: tine="2025-10-14T02:39:562" level=info msg="trying next host" error="failed
to do request: Head \"<https://projects.packages.broadcom.com/v2/vmware-cloud-director/kind-airgapped/manifests/v0.19.0>\": dial
tcp: lookup <projects.packages.broadcom.com>: Temporary failure in name resolution" host=<projects.packages.broadcom.com>
<13>Oct 14 02:39:56 ClusterName-5501065-01/ups: ctr: failed to resolve reference "pro jects.packages.broadcom.com/vmware-clo
d-director/kind-airgapped:v0.19.0": failed to do request: Head "<https://projects.packages.broadcom.com/02/vmware-cloud-director
kind-airgapped/manifests/v0.19.0>": dial tcp: lookup <projects.packages.broadcom.com>: Temporary failure in name resolution

Resolution

To resolve this issue, network and DNS connectivity must be enabled for deployed Kubernetes cluster VMs to ensure they can download required Kubernetes packages from 'projects.packages.broadcom.com' .

Additional Information

Similar issues - ERROR: "failed to create cluster: failed to pull image"