update manager failing to download patches

[esarakaitis]

any ideas?

Download Patch Definitions

Web sites:

https://www.vmware.com/PatchManagementSystem/patchmanagement

hosting the patch definitions and patches cannot be reached or has

no patch data. Check the internet connectivity.

Download Patch Definitions

Web sites:

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/index.xm-

l; hosting the patch definitions and patches cannot be reached or

has no patch data. Check the internet connectivity.

[dnetz]

Hi,

Is the update manager server behind a firewall/proxy of some sort? From the documentation: "To obtain metadata for the updates, Update Manager must be able to connect to http://www.vmware.com and

http://xml.shavlik.com, and requires outbound ports 80 and 443."

Page 19 of the Update Manager Administration Guide (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vum_10u2_admin_guide.pdf) discusses the network requirements.

[esarakaitis]

nope, and i can get to the links in the errors from a web browser on the update manager server

[esarakaitis]

this is vsphere, not vi3 as well

[petkom]

try to use UMDS to get the patches and then connect the folder to the VUM

[admin]

I am probably repeating the information here, but want to make sure there are no proxies involved as well.

Please also confirm the links are reachable via internet explorer.

[jaredm77]

I am having the same issue. I can access them on my server using IE, but not vSphere. Proxy settings are correct and the "Test Connection" button reports a successful test.

Fairly aggravating at this point to be completely honest.

[admin]

Downloading data is fairly straightforward, the only complications comes when proxy is involved, but if that is correcty configured (and Test Connection works), there is no reason why the download should fail. I would request you to put the log snippet where the download failure occurs.

[AllBlack]

I have exactly the same problem. I can't see anything in the system log that stands out.

Proxy and browser access works just fine

Please consider marking my answer as "helpful" or "correct"

[admin]

I would love to help in finding the root cause, but without log or log snippet, its very difficult to conclude what is happening. If you guys can attach the log snippet or just the logs I can have a quick look at it.

[dsoltesz]

I was having the same issue. All of the urls came back okay when I clicked the Test Connection, but the downloads failed.

To fix the problem, I went into Update Manager Administration -> Configuration -> Patch Download Settings.

I unchecked the Patch Sources until I found the one that was not returning valid. It appears that vmware from time to time changes the Patch Source.

Now I just have the Sources listed that are relevant to my environment, and the downloads go fine each day.

I hope this helps.

[markus_herbert]

I unchecked the Patch Sources until I found the one that was not returning valid. It appears that vmware from time to time changes the Patch Source.

I think this solution is for VSphere4 Update Manager.

Is there a similar solution for VCenter 2.5 Update Manager?

[dsoltesz]

Yes, we are currently running vSphere. I don't know the way to fix this in 2.5, but I would assume that if you search the registry or files for http://www.vmware.com/PatchManagementSystem/PatchManagement you may find a solutions.

This is the entry in our system that does not download properly, and it is related to the 3.5 Patches.

[nathanw]

From what I remember of 2.5 if you have a Proxy server it's a bit tricky to get it going.

VUM will not use system proxy settings you need to configure the proxy in the Update Manager manually, also ensure that you set the correct user account with proxy access etc.

Also you may need to get your Proxy admin to add exceptions for the VMware sites listed in the doco in the Proxy rules, i.e. an allow rule for xx.vmware.com, vmware.com/xxxx etc.

[MartinAmaro]

If any still having this issue, for my client the issue was one of the default URLs. ()

Uncheck all and try one patch soruce at a time until you discover which one is failing.

As everyone already indicated first

1.- Check DNS

2.- Check that you can access the URL from your VM

3.- Firewaill access

4.-Proxy

[thertel]

Same issue - UM not downloading patches. New vSphere 4.1 vCenter Server and Update Manager install (on 64 bit Win 2008 std, separate W2k3 SQL 2005 box for DB). No Proxy. "Test Connection" button is successful. Nothing obvious in the logs.

As suggested earlier in this post, selected each of the downloads individually and found the ESX 3.X was failing. Still have 3.X hosts, so just desecting it was not an option. Call into VM support. The tech uninstalled, then attempted to reinstall UM. It would not re-install cleanly, so he uninstalled, then deleted any registry entries referring to UM (backed up first). Install this time went clean. Updates for ESX 3.X now download. Created a baseline, remediated a host, all is good with ESX 3.X patches.

However, enabling all downloads still fails. Selectively checking again reveals the Unix downloads causing the issue. A call back into the tech. He reports the problem is a widley reported or known issue. He states it is a Shavlik problem not VMware. As of 10/19/2010 Shavlik is aware and working to resolve it. The tech said it could take as long as 20 days to resolve though?!

[emenius77]

Try running the VMware Vcenter update manager service under a domain account that can authenticate through the proxy.  Once i changed my service from Local System to a domain account with proxy access the downloads started working.

[BrianHarris]

Had same problem with an error of Could not download host patch definitions.  On the Configuration tab, Patch Download Settings, unchecked VMWare, ESX 3x patches, and worked fine.  If checked this box, the updates would fail.  We are running version 4.0, so it was not an issue to turn these off.

[jgrant5]

I am having the same issue however,  I cannot remove any of lines in the configuration.  They all appear grayed out (see below) also the test connection comes back successful but when I click download now it finished very quick and obviously didn't download any updates.  When I place the Path source in a browser none of the top 3 links appear to bring back a page all fail.  any ideas?

The other thing that's very puzzling is that it appears that the "Test Connection" button tests a conneect to simply www.vmware.com and www.microsoft.com which aren't even a part of the actual Patch source path.  I assume this is configured in the registry somewhere, but pretty useless in my opinion.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Braumin]

I just got this working.  Our company has a trusted root certificate in the internet gateway so that it can scan https traffic.  I had to add this as a trusted root certificate authority on the vCenter Server (which has update manager installed).  I also had to add the hostupdate.vmware.com url as a trusted site in the IE Security Configuration.

Hopefully this helps others - I have been struggling with this for a couple of hours already!