Aria Operations upgrade to VCF Operations 9.0.1 fails due to invalid upgrade pak file

Products

• VCF Operations
• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

The upgrade of Aria Operations from version 8.18.5 to VCF Operations 9.0.1 failed. The vmware_vrlcm.log reported an “invalid upgrade pak file” error, despite the pak file uploaded under Product Binary in Lifecycle Manager being valid. LCM was already upgraded to Patch 5, which supports this upgrade path

Environment

VCF Operations 9.0.1
Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18.x

Cause

The failure occurred due to an old upgrade request that had been initiated long ago and still stuck in a pending state within Aria Lifecycle Manager. This stale request referenced an outdated upgrade pak file, which resulted in the 'invalid file' error during the current upgrade attempt

Resolution

Here are the steps to delete the old pending request in Aria Lifecycle Manager:

1. 1. Log in to the Aria Lifecycle Manager UI.

   2. Navigate to Lifecycle Operations.

   3. Click on Requests from the left-hand menu.

   4. Filter or view the Pending requests.

   5. Locate the old upgrade request based on the above filter.

   6. Select the request.

   7. Click Delete (or Cancel Request, depending on the UI option).

   8. Confirm the deletion when prompted.

   9. Verify that the request is no longer listed under Pending requests.

Afterward, trigger an inventory sync and make sure it completes successfully. Then, start with the upgrade. 

Additional Information

As part of the Aria Ops to VCF Ops upgrade, the VCF Operations fleet management appliance deployment was initiated, requiring the following inputs:

• VM Name: Name of the new appliance

• FQDN: Fully qualified domain name

• IP Address: Appliance IP

• Admin Password: Password for admin@local login

• Root Password: Must be at least 15 characters to pass Precheck

Deployment of the VCF Operations fleet management appliance is a mandatory step during the transition from Aria Lifecycle Manager to VCF Operations.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-0/deployment/upgrading-cloud-foundation/preparing-your-vcf-9-management-components/upgrading-management-components/upgrade-to-vcf-operations.html