Content Library Image Upload Fails with "A general system error occurred Transfer failed: Invalid response code: 500"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Uploading specific images (e.g., RHEL 9 VMDK/OVA files) to a local vSAN-backed Content Library fails consistently. Other similarly sized images or older OS versions (e.g., RHEL 7, RHEL 8) upload successfully.

During the failure, the Recent Tasks pane and /var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log record the following exact error:

 

id = com.vmware.vdcs.cls-main.update_session_failed,
defaultMessage = The import of library item <REDACTED_SECRETS> has failed. Reason: Error transferring file <REDACTED_HOSTNAMES>.vmdk to ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:<REDACTED_SECRETS>//contentlib-<REDACTED_SECRETS>... Pipe closed.

Attempting to bypass the Content Library by deploying the identical image directly via the standard "Deploy OVF Template" wizard in the vSphere Client also fails with the following symptom:

A general system error occurred Transfer failed: Invalid response code: 500

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The failure is caused by a corrupted or malformed VMDK/OVA descriptor payload originating from the third-party image creation process. Because the failure occurs across both the Content Library direct ingestion pipeline and the standard vCenter Server OVF deployment wizard, the fault is structurally isolated to the provided image file rather than a VMware parsing limitation.

Resolution

 

1. Verify the structural integrity of the source image by attempting to deploy it via the standard "Deploy OVF Template" wizard in the vSphere Client.

2. If the standard deployment fails with the Invalid response code: 500 error, the image payload is confirmed to be malformed.

3. Work with the image provider or internal engineering team to rebuild, package, and export a new OVA/VMDK file.

4. Once the newly rebuilt image successfully deploys into the vCenter Server inventory as a standard Virtual Machine, right-click the Virtual Machine and select Clone > Clone as Template to Library.

5. Select the target Content Library and set the Template Type to OVF to bypass direct file parsing.

 

Additional Information

For similar "Pipe closed" direct import limitations specific to VeloCloud appliances (where the standard OVF deployment wizard does succeed), refer to Broadcom KB 397178.