Troubleshooting when Update Manager is unable to remediate a virtual machine

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting issues when Update Manager is unable to scan and remediate a virtual machine. The article aims to help you eliminate the common causes for your problem by verifying certain configurations and minimum system requirements.

Symptoms:

• Update Manager cannot perform patch remediation on virtual machines.
• You see the error:
  
  Update Manager fails to install Guest Agent in VM
   
• If you scan the virtual machine for updates, you see the error:
  
  There are errors during the scan operation

Environment

VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 1.0.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.5.x

Resolution

Please validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.

1. Ensure that the operating system you are remediating is supported by Update Manager. For more information, see Determining which guest operating systems can be scanned and remediated with Update Manager 4.x (1030595).
2. Check that a DVD/CD-ROM is mounted on the virtual machine to be remediated. Update Manager uses the DVD/CD-ROM as method to transport the patches to be deployed. If this is not present the remediation will fail.
3. If Update Manager has failed to download patches successfully, these errors can be encountered. For more information, see Troubleshooting when Update Manager is unable to download patches (1031781).

Note: If your problem still exists after trying the steps in this article, see:

• Gather the VMware Support Script Data. For more information, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware products (1008524).
• File a support request with VMware Support and note this KB Article ID in the problem description. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.