Aria Automation Orchestrator (vRO) upgrade fails with error: "unpacking of archive failed on file /srv: cpio: File from package already exists as a directory in system"

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.x (formerly VMware vRealize Orchestrator) upgrade fails with error: "unpacking of archive failed on file /srv: cpio: File from package already exists as a directory in system" in updatecli.log :

  warning: /etc/sysconfig/clock created as /etc/sysconfig/clock. rpmnew
  error: unpacking of archive failed on file /srv: cpio: File from package already exists as a directory in system
  error: filesystem-1.1-4.ph4. x86_64: install failed
  ...
  DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS [INFO] Update status: Done VMware tools reconfiguration
  DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS [INFO] Update status: Error while running package installation
  DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS [ERROR] Failure: updatecli exiting abnormally
  DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS [INFO] Install Finished

   
• vracli upgrade status --follow will return below error message :

  The required quorum of successfully upgraded appliance nodes is not achieved due to upgrade failures in one or more nodes.
  ... Upgrade terminated due to critical error. Follow the upgrade guide to recover the system. ...

   
• /var/log/bootstrap/postupdate.log reveals the VAMI upgrade has failed : 

  [INFO][YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] [<Aria Automation Orchestrator FQDN>] Waiting for VAMI to exit ...
  [INFO][YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] [<Aria Automation Orchestrator FQDN>] Verifying VAMI overall upgrade result ...
  [INFO][YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] [<Aria Automation Orchestrator FQDN>] VAMI upgrade completed with error.
  [ERROR][YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] [<Aria Automation Orchestrator FQDN>]  VAMI overall upgrade has failed.
  VAMI has exited with an error. Upgrade has failed.

Environment

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the srv path exists as a directory under the root partition instead of the expected symbolic link (symlink) to /var/srv .

 

The srv path type can be verified using the command ls -l / | grep "srv" :

 

Incorrect result : 

lrwxrwxrwx   # root root     ### MMM DD  YYYY srv

 

Expected result :

lrwxrwxrwx   # root root     ### MMM DD  YYYY srv -> var/srv
 

 

Resolution

1. Revert the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator node(s) to the pre-upgrade snapshot.
   
   
2. Power On the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator node(s).
   
   
3. SSH to the problematic VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator node(s) using root account.
   
   
4. Delete the "srv" directory:
   
   rm -rf /srv
   
   
   Note: Ensure there is no critical data within this directory before proceeding. If there is any data inside srv directory, then take a backup of the directory.
   
   
5. Create a symlink pointing to var/srv: 
   
   ln -s var/srv /srv
   
   
6. Re-attempt VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator upgrade.