Checking for updates in the vSphere Replication appliance fails on “Checking for available updates…”

Symptoms

When you log in to the vSphere Replication VAMI page and click Update tab > Check Updates, you experience these symptoms:

• Last Check status changes to Checking for available updates…
• Unable to break out of this loop to update settings.
• Rebooting the appliance does not break the loop.

Resolution

To resolve the issue:

• Connect to vSphere Replication using root credentials through SSH.

To enable SSH for the VMware vSphere Replication 6.0 appliance:   – Open the virtual machine console and log in as root with the password supplied during installation. – Run this script as root to enable SSH connections on the VMware vSphere Replication appliance: /usr/bin/enable-sshd.sh

• Stop the vami-sfcb service by running this command:

            /etc/init.d/vami-sfcb stop

• Back up the provider-runtime.xml file by running this command:

            cp /opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/provider/provider-runtime.xml ~/provider-runtime.xml.bck

• Build a new skeleton for the provider-runtime.xml file by running this command:

          echo -e ‘<service>\n <properties />\n</service>’ > /opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/provider/provider-runtime.xml

• Start the vami-sfcb service by running this command:

           /etc/init.d/vami-sfcb start

• Log back into the Appliance VAMI and the ability to click Check Updates is restored.