VKS Standard Packages installation fails with MANIFEST_UNKNOWN from private Harbor registry

Products

• VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to install the Istio package from a private registry (such as Harbor) in a vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) environment running on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), the provisioning fails with a manifest retrieval error.

Error Message:

MANIFEST_UNKNOWN: manifest unknown; map[Name:packages/istio Revision:sha256:f80707b5dd9cd953a0c0032ad71697194#####cbdd75d96d289d89b33f737cdc]

During deployment, kapp-controller is unable to pull the required container manifest that the package depends on from the local registry, causing the process to stall.

Environment

vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS)
VKS Standard Packages

Cause

The required packages (manifests) were not fully transferred when copying the Carvel bundle to the private registry due to an interrupted copy command.
Consequently, the registry lacks the dependent container images necessary for installing the Standard Packages.

Resolution

Follow these steps to upload the missing dependent image bundles to the private registry:

Run the imgpkg copy command, referring to the documentation "Push Standard Packages to a Private Harbor Registry":

imgpkg copy -b  projects.packages.broadcom.com/vsphere/supervisor/packages/2025.1.7/vks-standard-packages:v2025.1.7 --to-repo harbordomain.com/packages/repo --registry-ca-cert-path xxx/ca.crt
...
copy | will export projects.packages.broadcom.com/vsphere/supervisor/packages/2025.8.19/vks-standard-packages@sha256:f80707b5dd9cd953a0c0032ad71697194#####cbdd75d96d289d89b33f737cdc
  copy | exported  180 images
  copy | importing 180 images
  ...

If the failure persists, lower the concurrency level (--concurrency 1) and verify if the upload completes successfully:

imgpkg copy -b  projects.packages.broadcom.com/vsphere/supervisor/packages/2025.1.7/vks-standard-packages:v2025.1.7 --to-repo harbordomain.com/packages/repo --registry-ca-cert-path xxx/ca.crt --concurrency 1

Additional Information

• VKS 環境においてプライベート レジストリを使用すると MANIFEST_UNKNOWN エラーで VKS Standard Packages のインストールが失敗する
• Push Standard Packages to a Private Harbor Registry