VCF Download Tool (VCF-DT) "esx metadata" or "esx download" fails with a proxy configured.

Products

VMware Cloud Foundation VMware vSphere Foundation

Issue/Introduction

Running the VCFDT CLI for 'esx download' or 'esx metadata' with a proxy (-s, -r, --proxy-user-password-file), fails to download the ESXi contents - metadata and binaries

*********Welcome to VCF Download Tool***********

Version: 9.1.0.0.25371089
Downloading vLCM compatibility data.
Successfully downloaded compatibility data.

Depots to be downloaded:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URL Type | Removable | URL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOST | NO | https://dl.broadcom.com/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/iovp-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
HOST | NO | https://dl.broadcom.com/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/addon-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
HOST | NO | https://dl.broadcom.com/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
HOST | NO | https://dl.broadcom.com/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/vmtools-main/vmw-depot-index.xml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 elements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Depots download started.
ERROR: A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the service provider and provide the reference token.

Log file: /vcf-download/tool/log/vdt.log

2026-05-13T08:37:17.859+0000 [ph-payload-upload-task] DEBUG [com.vmware.ph.upload.rest.PhRestClientImpl] /hyper/send request completed with status code: 201; Reason Phrase: Created
2026-05-13T08:37:17.859+0000 [main] DEBUG [com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransfer.telemetry.BundleTransferTelemetryPhoneClientImpl] Succesfully uploaded telemetry data
2026-05-13T08:37:17.859+0000 [main] ERROR [com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.exceptionhandler.ExecutionExceptionHandler] Application failed.
com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.core.error.InternalServerErrorException: A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the service provider and provide the reference token.
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.cli.framework.LeafCommand.executeTask(LeafCommand.java:66)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.cli.framework.LeafCommand.run(LeafCommand.java:48)
at picocli.CommandLine.executeUserObject(CommandLine.java:2030)
at picocli.CommandLine.access$1500(CommandLine.java:148)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.executeUserObjectOfLastSubcommandWithSameParent(CommandLine.java:2465)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.handle(CommandLine.java:2457)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.handle(CommandLine.java:2419)
at picocli.CommandLine$AbstractParseResultHandler.execute(CommandLine.java:2277)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.execute(CommandLine.java:2421)
at picocli.CommandLine.execute(CommandLine.java:2174)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.cli.framework.CommandExecutor.run(CommandExecutor.java:50)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransfer.BundleTransferUtility.main(BundleTransferUtility.java:1841)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectMethodHandleAccessor.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.springframework.boot.loader.MainMethodRunner.run(MainMethodRunner.java:49)
at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:95)
at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:58)
at org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher.main(JarLauncher.java:65)
Caused by: com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.depot_auth.exceptions.DepotAccessTokenIOException: java.net.SocketException: Network is unreachable
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.depot_auth.DepotAccessTokenService.retrieveAccessToken(DepotAccessTokenService.java:107)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.depot_auth.CachedAccessTokenService.getResponseFromAuthServer(CachedAccessTokenService.java:62)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.depot_auth.CachedAccessTokenService.getAccessTokenFromAuthServer(CachedAccessTokenService.java:71)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.depot_auth.CachedAccessTokenService.getAccessToken(CachedAccessTokenService.java:83)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.shared.utils.VdtTokenServiceImpl.getTokenHeaders(VdtTokenServiceImpl.java:35)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.esx.shim.PythonShim.executeWithRetry(PythonShim.java:409)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.esx.shim.PythonShim.syncOnlineDepot(PythonShim.java:333)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.esx.impl.EsxDownloadServiceImpl.download(EsxDownloadServiceImpl.java:135)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.esx.tasks.EsxDownloadTask.execute(EsxDownloadTask.java:45)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.bundletransferv2.esx.tasks.EsxDownloadTask.execute(EsxDownloadTask.java:23)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.lcm.tools.cli.framework.LeafCommand.executeTask(LeafCommand.java:59)
... 17 common frames omitted

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1
VMware vSphere Foundation 9.1

Cause

When a user runs 'vcf-download-tool esx metadata' or 'vcf-download-tool esx download' with a proxy configured (-s, -r, --proxy-user-password-file), the activation-code OAuth token request to Broadcom's auth server(https://eapi.broadcom.com/vcf/generateToken) was sent without the proxy, causing it to fail on proxy-required / air-gapped networks.

Resolution

Workaround:

Manually download the ESXi offline ZIP from support.broadcom.com and import it into the offline depot using vcf-download-tool import.

Download the ESX Offline Bundle manually
Go to support.broadcom.com → My Downloads

Navigate to: VMware Cloud Foundation → VMware Cloud Foundation 9 → 9.1.x.y

Download: VMware-ESXi-9.1.x.y.zzzzz-depot.zip (ESX Offline Bundle)
Import the downloaded zip into the depot store
Run the following command, replacing </path/to/depot> with your actual depot directory:

/bin/vcf-download-tool esx import --depot-store </path/to/depot> --offline-bundle VMware-ESXi-9.1.x.y.zzzz-depot.zip

This extracts and structures the ESX binaries into the depot under:

<depot-store>/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/patch-store/