Task 'Downloading Esx metadata, vibs and vendor add-ons' Failed in VF 9.0.x

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

• This is an Online environment where the Depot is connected
• The "Downloading Esx metadata, vibs and vendor add-ons" task failed every 24hrs

ERROR: Failed to execute UMDS command: /opt/vmware/vmware-umds/bin/vmware-umds -D -m --info-level error --task-id

The following entries are seen in /var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-debug.log

yyyy-mm-ddT00:00:00.000+0000 ERROR [vcf_lcm,] [c.v.e.s.l.s.u.i.UmdsDownloadServiceImpl,pool-11-
thread-19]   what():  Failed to parse file /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/umds/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/__hostupdate20-consolidated-met
adata-index__.xml: no element found
yyyy-mm-ddT00:00:00.000+0000 DEBUG [vcf_lcm,] [c.v.e.s.c.util.LocalProcessService,Scheduled-2] 
exitValue 134
yyyy-mm-ddT00:00:00.000+0000 ERROR [vcf_lcm,] [c.v.e.s.c.util.LocalProcessService,Scheduled-2] 
Local command  /opt/vmware/vmware-umds/bin/vmware-umds -D -m --info-level error --task-id  failed with exit value 134

Environment

VCF 9.0.x

Cause

This error in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) indicates that the Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) patch metadata index file is corrupted, empty, or unreachable.

In this case the file was empty. 

Resolution

1. Take a snapshot of the SDDC Manager
2. Navigate to the following directory: /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/umds/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/
3. Rename the empty __hostupdate20-consolidated-metadata-index__.xml file 

   1. mv __hostupdate20-consolidated-metadata-index__.xml __hostupdate20-consolidated-metadata-index__.xml_old 

4. From the VCF Operations UI navigate to : Lifecycle Management -> Binary Management -> ESX Components card -> Synchronize now 
5. Trigger a force sync.
6. The Task should now finish successfully.