Uploading License Hub Package Fails with "Invalid bundle metadata" or UI Upload Errors - License Hub Installer(SSP)

Products

• VMware vDefend Firewall with Advanced Threat Prevention
• VMware vDefend Firewall

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms

When attempting to upload a License Hub installation package (.tar) via the License Hub Installer(SSP-I 5.1.2) UI, users experience one or more of the following issues:

• The UI displays an error such as:

  "Bad request: Expected entry named 'metadata.json', not 'sspi_...tar.xz'"

• The upload progress bar stalls or fails, and re-triggering the upload yields a generic UI failure.

• Login to SSP-Installer using sysadmin credentials and taillogging /var/log/ssp/depot.log (or journalctl -u depot.service) reveals repeating HTTP 400 errors with the following message:

  WARNING depot.core.bundle: Invalid bundle metadata: A LICENSE bundle upload is already in progress
  

• The issue occurs in specific network environments (e.g., high-latency, jump hosts, or environments with aggressive proxy timeouts) while succeeding seamlessly in others.

Environment

License Hub Installer - SSP-Installer - 5.1.2

Cause

This issue typically stems from a combination of network latency/jitter.

Resolution

Reset the Depot Upload Lock on the Appliance and trying from a different Network:

Depot service remains stuck in the upload in progress state, clear the lock by resetting the service cache on the installer appliance:

1. SSH into the installer appliance as sysadmin credentials.

2. Switch to root user using the command sudo -i and entering the root/sysadmin password.

3. Stop the Depot service:

   systemctl stop depot
   

4. Remove lingering temporary upload artifacts:

   rm -rf /var/lib/depot/tmp/*
   

5. Restart the Depot service:

   systemctl start depot
   

6. Perform a hard refresh in the browser (or open an Incognito window), log back into the UI, attempt the package upload from a management machine or jump host that resides on the same local subnet/LAN as the installer appliance. Eliminating network latency prevents duplicate request retries during large file transfers and trigger the upload once. Allow sufficient time for the progress bar to reach 100% without refreshing or re-clicking.