Scanning a VM for potential Updates of VMware Tools or its VM Hardware Version using vSphere Client fails with "Scan or remediation is not supported on because of unsupported OS ..." for certain operating systems
search cancel

Scanning a VM for potential Updates of VMware Tools or its VM Hardware Version using vSphere Client fails with "Scan or remediation is not supported on because of unsupported OS ..." for certain operating systems

book

Article ID: 345048

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

 

  • vSphere Client "Updates" tab for the virtual machine shows both VMware Tools and VM Hardware Compatibility as "Unknown" for a virtual machine:


 
  • Performing a scan operation using the "CHECK STATUS" option results in failure similar to the one shown below:


  • The affected VM is configured for either of the following guest operating systems:
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Debian 11 (32 bit)
    • Debian 11 (64 bit)
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9  (64 bit)

 

  • In the VMware Update Manager server log (/var/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/server/vmware-vum-server-xx.log) there are the following entries: 
    [#51] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[57005] [Originator@6876 sub=Activation.trace] [activationValidator 1127] Invoke done: integrity.UpdateManager.scan
    [#51] --> Result:
    [#51] --> 'vim.Task:c3513074-0f3f-4b7f-93ca-4d73ea63f475:task-298559'
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] verbose vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 420] The number of tasks: 1
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 2017] Scheduling task ScanTask{5326}
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 476] Starting task ScanTask{5326}
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=VciScanTask.ScanTask{5326}] [vciTaskBase 1390] VciTask { id: ScanTask{5326}, type: com.vmware.vcIntegrity.ScanTask }: Setting VC task state to: running
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[02254] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryMonitor] [InventoryMonitor 517] ProcessUpdate, Enter, Update version :=  1416
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[02254] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryMonitor] [InventoryMonitor 1675] UpdateHandler: Last updateSet
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] verbose vmware-vum-server[57024] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 1700] ProcessUpdate
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=VciScanTask.ScanTask{5326}] [vciTaskBase 579] Task started...
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryTree] [InventoryTree 433] [AcquireWriteLock] Node vm-185497 write locked successfully, new Lock state: Write.
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=entityLocker] [entityLocker 153] [LockEntitiesInt] Entities to be locked: 1, entities actually locked: 1
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] warning vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=SessionMgr] [sessionMgr 104] Cannot get activation or session. Returning server locale
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] error vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=vmOpsUtils] [vmOpsUtils 561] Action (SCAN) skipped for VM: <VM Name>. The guest OS Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit) is not supported
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryTree] [InventoryTree 497] [ReleaseWriteLock] Released write lock on node vm-185497. Post unlock, notified all the waiting readers and writers.
    [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] error vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=VciScanTask.ScanTask{5326}] [vciTaskBase 604] Task execution has failed: Fault cause: vmodl.fault.NotSupported

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Resolution

VMware is aware of this issue and working to resolve this in a future release.

Workaround 1:
Manually add the operating system to the list for VMware Update Manager. To do this, follow the steps below

     1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance per SSH and log in

     2. Create a backup of the vci-integrity.xml file:

      mkdir /backup && cp /usr/lib/vmware-updatemgr/bin/vci-integrity.xml /backup/
 

    3.Modify the vci-integrity.xml file by opening the file using vi editor:

      vi /usr/lib/vmware-updatemgr/bin/vci-integrity.xml
 

   4. Locate the <vci_vcIntegrity> ..... </vci_vcIntegrity> section

   5. Enter edit mode by hitting the insert or the letter i button

   6. Before the </vci_vcIntegrity> line, add the following lines, depending on the operating system configured in the virtual machine. If entering both versions of the same OS (ie: Windows 2019 AND 2022), see the below Note section.

  • For Windows Server 2019: 
    <supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  <windows2019srv_64Guest/>
</supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  • For Windows Server 2022 (Note: This is not a typo, Value for Windows Server 2022 is 2019srvNext as below): 
    <supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  <windows2019srvNext_64Guest/>
</supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  • For Debian 11 (32 bit): 
    <supportedLinuxGuestIds>
  <debian11Guest/>
</supportedLinuxGuestIds>
  • For Debian 11 (64 bit): 
    <supportedLinuxGuestIds>
  <debian11_64Guest/>
</supportedLinuxGuestIds>​​​​​​
  • For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (64 bit): 
    <supportedLinuxGuestIds>
  <rhel9_64Guest/>  
</supportedLinuxGuestIds>​​​​​​
  • Note: To include both OS versions, combine the lines as shown below.
                  For Windows
        <supportedWindowsGuestIds>
         <windows2019srv_64Guest/>
         <windows2019srvNext_64Guest/> 
        </supportedWindowsGuestIds>
For Debian
       <supportedLinuxGuestIds>
        <debian11Guest/>
        <debian11_64Guest/> 
       </supportedLinuxGuestIds>

     7. Exit edit mode by hitting the ESC button 

     8. Save and exit the file:

    :wq!

    9. Restart the VMware Update Manager service:

    # vmon-cli -r updatemgr

Workaround 2:
 
For some environments the hardware version of the virtual machine must be updated first, once this is done then select the correct Guest OS version in the virtual machine options.
For instance, windows 2019 Guest OS was introduced in hardware version 17 as stated in below KB article, so we need to upgrade to hardware version 17 in order to select windows 2019 Guest OS:
Windows Server 2019 guest operating system option is not available during virtual machine creation
For VMware Tools and VM Hardware Compatibility to be properly displayed, the windows 2019 virtual machine hardware version needs to be on 17 at least.
 
To upgrade virtual machine hardware version, please refer to:

Additional Information

If the lines <supportedWindowsGuestIds> </supportedWindowsGuestIds> and/or <supportedLinuxGuestIs> </supportedLinuxGuestIds> appear more than once, VUM will crash.
Ensure they appear only once in the file.

---------------------------------------------------
For Rocky Linux, use: 

<rocklinux_64Guest/>

---------------------------------------------------
For Windows 11, use:
<supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  <windows11_64Guest/>
</supportedWindowsGuestIds>

 

This issue is being checked by Diagnostics for VMware Cloud Foundation.

The check is as follows:

  • Product: vCenter
  • Log File: vmware-vum-server-xx.log
  • Log Expression Check "Action (SCAN) skipped for VM" AND "The guest OS" AND "is not supported"

If the scan is failing the vCenter Server vCSA VM, the scan/failure can be ignored as the VCSA VM uses a custom OS and modifying its OS and packages is not supported.

Powered by Wolken Software