"ESXi Components ESXi VM Tools are either missing or downgraded on the host.Appropriate action will be taken during remediation." warning on hosts after patching.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Host remains non-compliant after patching.
• Hosts are patched with vSphere Lifecycle Manager
• "Host is out of compliance with the image" is seen in the UI and further information shows:
  ESXi Components ESXi VM Tools are either missing or downgraded on the host. Appropriate action will be taken during remediation.
• Single host containing cluster, remediating it fails with:
  Remediation of cluster failed
After host '<ESXi hostname>' remediation completed, compliance check reported host as
'non-compliant'. The image on the host does not match the image set for the cluster. Retry the cluster
remediation operation.
<ESXi hostname> - Failed to remediate host
• From the host logs, entries of the following type are seen:
  

  /var/run/log/hostd.log:
<timestamp> In(166) Hostd[2098743] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.ProductLockerWatcher] Failed to list directory /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages, No such file or directory

  /var/run/log/lifecycle.log:
<timestamp> In(14) lifecycle[2143988] HostImage:249 Installer <class 'esximage.Installer.LockerInstaller.LockerInstaller'> was not initiated - reason: Failed to create empty Database directory: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/locker/packages/var'

• Checking the productLocker location on an affected host and working host shows results as below:
  touch /locker/packages/test.txt -> failed with no such file or directory.
touch /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/test.txt -> failed with no such file or directory.
  
  On a host where patching was successful and VMware Tools is available:

  touch /locker/packages/test.txt -> succeeded.
touch /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/test.txt -> succeeded.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Cause

This issue happens when there are issues with the ProductLocker location which holds the Tools image repository.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, reset the productLocker location. Follow resolution as per:

1. Manually Installing and upgrading VMware Tools on existing hosts

2. Installing and upgrading VMware Tools fails with the error: An error occurred while trying to access image file /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/