Missing vSAN Witness Appliance OVA downloads in the Broadcom Support Portal

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

• vSAN Witness Appliance OVA for version 8.0 U3j (or other versions) is not available for download on the Broadcom Support Portal.
• Attempts to patch a Witness node using an OVA template in vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) fail with an "Incompatible Error."

Environment

• VMware vSAN 8.0 OSA / ESA
• vSphere 8.0 Update 3j

Cause

VMware does not release a distinct vSAN Witness Appliance OVA for every minor patch release. Minor updates are applied as in-place patches to a baseline Witness Appliance (e.g., 8.0 U3).

Resolution

Update the vSAN Witness host using the standard ESXi offline patch bundle:

1. Deploy the baseline vSAN Witness Appliance 8.0 Update 3 OVA or closest version to the desired build with out exceeding the build version.
2. Ensure the Witness VM is configured for EFI boot mode. vSphere 8.0 does not support legacy BIOS for upgrades.
3.  Download the ESXi Offline Bundle (.zip) for version 8.0 U3j or desired version from the Broadcom Support Portal.
4. vLCM Update:
   • Import the .zip bundle into Lifecycle Manager > Image Depot.
   • Create a new Upgrade Baseline using the imported bundle.
   • Attach the baseline to the Witness host and remediate.
5. CLI Update (Alternative):
   • Upload the .zip bundle to a local datastore.
   • Run: 

     esxcli software profile update -p <profile_name> -d /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<filename>.zip --no-hardware-warning