Error: "A child process exited with code: 234" when upgrading to VCDA 4.7.4

Products

• VMware Cloud Director
• VMware Cloud Director Availability - Disaster Recovery 4.x
• VMware Cloud Director Availability - Migration 4.x

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to upgrade a VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance to VCDA 4.7.4, the upgrade does not complete.
• The error "A child process exited with code: 234" is shown in the UI on the Ready For Upgrade page after clicking Finish.
• In /var/log/upgrade.log you may see similar errors:

Error verifying signature of: /mnt/cdrom/update/dnf/x86_64/vim-9.1.1441-1.ph4.x86_64.rpm
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] Error processing package: x86_64/vim-9.1.1441-1.ph4.x86_64.rpm
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] Error(1514) : RPM is signed but failed to match with known keys. Use --nogpgcheck to ignore.
...
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] Downloading:
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] importing key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/vcav-public-key.asc
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] Bad exit code: 234
[2025-12-02 19:18:26 UTC] {
    "code": "BadExitCode",
    "msg": "",
    "args": [
        "234"
    ]
}

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Cause

Photon OS began using a newer 4096-bit GPG key for signing RPM packages on 28-Mar-2024. VCDA appliances deployed prior to this change do not have the new key in the local package manager trust store.

Resolution

Fixed in release 4.7.5 and higher. See Download Broadcom products and software for steps to download this release.

To resolve the issue on the current version and proceed with the upgrade:

1. SSH into the VCDA appliance as root.
2. Run the following command to import the key: rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/VMWARE-RPM-GPG-KEY-4096
3. Retry the upgrade to version 4.7.4.