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

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

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) you find the following entries:

[#51] 2022-01-31T11:28:58.688+01:00 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'
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 verbose vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 420] The number of tasks: 1
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 2017] Scheduling task ScanTask{5326}
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[02327] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 476] Starting task ScanTask{5326}
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 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
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[02254] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryMonitor] [InventoryMonitor 517] ProcessUpdate, Enter, Update version :=  1416
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[02254] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryMonitor] [InventoryMonitor 1675] UpdateHandler: Last updateSet
2022-01-31T11:28:58.695+01:00 verbose vmware-vum-server[57024] [Originator@6876 sub=JobDispatcher] [JobDispatcher 1700] ProcessUpdate
2022-01-31T11:28:58.700+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=VciScanTask.ScanTask{5326}] [vciTaskBase 579] Task started...
2022-01-31T11:28:58.700+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=InventoryTree] [InventoryTree 433] [AcquireWriteLock] Node vm-185497 write locked successfully, new Lock state: Write.
2022-01-31T11:28:58.700+01:00 info vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=entityLocker] [entityLocker 153] [LockEntitiesInt] Entities to be locked: 1, entities actually locked: 1
2022-01-31T11:28:58.706+01:00 warning vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=SessionMgr] [sessionMgr 104] Cannot get activation or session. Returning server locale
2022-01-31T11:28:58.713+01:00 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
2022-01-31T11:28:58.716+01:00 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.
2022-01-31T11:28:58.716+01:00 error vmware-vum-server[57068] [Originator@6876 sub=VciScanTask.ScanTask{5326}] [vciTaskBase 604] Task execution has failed: Fault cause: vmodl.fault.NotSupported

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

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

Cause

This issue occurs, because the specific operating system the virtual machine is configured with, is missing from the pre-populated list of OS versions supported by VMware Update Manager.

Resolution

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

Workaround:
As a workaround, you can manually add the operating system to the list for VMware Update Manager. To do this, please follow the steps below

Connect to your vCenter Server Appliance per SSH and log in
Create a backup of the vci-integrity.xml file:

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

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

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

Locate the <vci_vcIntegrity> ..... </vci_vcIntegrity> section
Enter edit mode by hitting the insert or the letter i button
Before the </vci_vcIntegrity> line, add the following lines, depending on the operating system configured in your 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:

<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: if you would like to include both OS versions, you will need to combine the lines as seen below.

For Windows

<supportedWindowsGuestIds>
  <windows2019srv_64Guest/>
  <windows2019srvNext_64Guest/> 
</supportedWindowsGuestIds>

For Debian

<supportedLinuxGuestIds>
  <debian11Guest/>
  <debian11_64Guest/> 
</supportedLinuxGuestIds>

Exit edit mode by hitting the ESC button
Save and exit the file:
```
:wq!
```
Restart the VMware Update Manager service:
```
# vmon-cli -r updatemgr
```

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>