VCF 4.5.2 to VCF 5.2.1 Upgrade Failed Due to RPM

Upgrading VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) from version 4.5.2 to 5.2.1 can be a smooth ride—until it’s not. During one such upgrade in our environment, we encountered a critical failure that halted the upgrade process. Let’s walk through what happened, how we diagnosed it, and what you can do to avoid or fix this issue.

/var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/thirdparty/upgrades/<upgrade_bundle_id>/vcf-platform/upgrade/vcf_platform_upgrade.log

2025/05/24 05:52:28.292442 installer.go:434: Executing command: umount -l /storage/alt_root/home/backup/nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/backup

2025/05/24 05:52:28.308446 installer.go:442: Unmounting dev, proc, sys

2025/05/24 05:52:28.360443 installer.go:454: Finished unmounting

2025/05/24 05:52:28.364056 workflow_manager.go:217: Task install failed. Error: failed to install RPMs

2025/05/24 05:52:28.364069 parameter_logger.go:15: Execution parameters

Workaround :

1. SSH to SDDC Manager vcf

2. switch to root su

3. run the command "rpm -qa | grep -i json-glib "

4. output will be like below

   root@-vcf [ /var/log/vmware/capengine/cap-update ]# rpm -qa | grep -i json-glib

   json-glib-1.4.4-1.ph3.x86_64

5. Re-run the same command it should not return the file name , which means file got removed , if this command failed try the below command .

6. rpm -e json-glib-1.4.4-1.ph3.x86_64

7. Example :

   root@vcf [ /home/vcf ]# rpm -e json-glib-1.4.4-1.ph3.x86_64

   root@vcf [ /home/vcf ]# rpm -qa | grep -i json-glib

   root@vcf [ /home/vcf ]#

8. Retry the upgrade it will finish; to avoid the issue we can run this before starting the upgrade.

   

   Figure