Remediation of cluster fails with error 'Cannot download/load depots' during ESX 9.1.0.0100 Upgrade

Products

VCF Operations VMware vSphere ESXi VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to upgrade ESXi hosts to version ESX 9.1.0.0100 , the cluster remediation fails with the following error in the vSphere Client:
```
Remediation of cluster failed Cannot download/load depots.
```

In the /var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/imageservice.log , we see below entries:

INFO imageService[140276323313344] [DepotCollection 463] Error parsing file:///storage/updatemgr/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/metadata-10993899.zip: ('MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933', 'kburl', '', 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html', "Components MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933 and MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933 have unequal values of the 'kburl' attribute: '' != 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html'")
INFO imageService[14027#######44] [Metadata 142] Reading /storage/updatemgr/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/vmw-ESXi-8.0-vmtools-12.2-metadata.zip
INFO imageService[14027########44] [DepotCollection 463] Error parsing file:///storage/updatemgr/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/vmw-ESXi-8.0-vmtools-12.2-metadata.zip: ('MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933', 'kburl', '', 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html', "Components MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933 and MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933 have unequal values of the 'kburl' attribute: '' != 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html'")
INFO imageService[14027#######344] [Metadata 142] Reading /storage/updatemgr/patch-store/hostupdate/HDS/HDS-ESXi-8.0-Addon-cumulative_metadata.zip
INFO imageService[14027#######44] [DepotCollection 463] Error parsing file:///storage/updatemgr/patch-store/hostupdate/HDS/HDS-ESXi-8.0-Addon-cumulative_metadata.zip: ('MRVL-E3-Ethernet-iSCSI-FCoE_1.0.0.2-8vmw.910.0.25370933', 'kburl', '',

Error parsing https://<SDDC_FQDN>/vmware/vcf/umds/patch-store/hostupdate/vmw/metadata-2558455.zip: ('Intel-irdman_1.5.0.2-1vmw.910.0.25370933', 'kburl', 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html', '', "Components Intel-irdman_1.5.0.2-1vmw.910.0.25370933 and Intel-irdman_1.5.0.2-1vmw.910.0.25370933 have unequal values of the 'kburl' attribute: 'https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/206567/contact-broadcom-support.html' != ''")
ERROR imageService[13########000] [imageService 457] Unable to connect to depot(s) http://localhost:1080/depot/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/iovp-main/vmw-depot-index.xml,https://<SDDC_FQDN>/vmware/vcf/umds/patch-store/hostupdate/__hostupdate20-consolidated-index__.xml,http://localhost:1080/depot/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/addon-main/vmw-depot-index.xml,http://localhost:1080/depot/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/main/vmw-depot-index.xml,http://localhost:1080/depot/PROD/COMP/ESX_HOST/vmtools-main/vmw-depot-index.xml.

Environment

VMware ESXi 9.1.0
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.0

Cause

This issue occurs because the metadata for certain components (such as the Intel RDMA driver) contains an empty KB URL field. This typically happens if a pre-release version of v9.1 was previously installed, followed by an update to VCF 9.1.0 GA components, leading to a metadata mismatch or corruption in the Update Manager database.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the VMware Update Manager (VUM) database must be reset to clear the inconsistent metadata and re-synchronize with the correct GA depots.

Log into the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH.
Follow the steps outlined in Reset VMware Lifecycle Manager depot in vCenter Server Appliance to perform the VUM DB reset.
After the database reset is complete, restart the VMware Update Manager service using command:
```
service-control --start vmware-updatemgr
```
Re-attempt the host remediation/upgrade.