vCenter Server 7.0 U3 Installation failed: Test RPM Transaction Failed. Collect Logs for Diagnostics

When updating my vCenter Server 7.0 to Update 3, the installation of the update package failed in my homelab environment with the error message: Installation failed: Test RPM Transaction Failed. Collect Logs for Diagnostics. By examining the logfiles, I discovered the /storage/log filesystem was full. This short blogpost walks through the troubleshooting steps I took and how I cleared up some space on /storage/log by following VMware KB83070.

Switching to the command line interface

I switched to the command line interface by SSH-ing into my vCenter Server to see if I could get some more information about the error message. I re-tried the update procedure:

Command> software-packages stage --url –acceptEulas
Command> software-packages validate
Command> software-packages list –staged
Command> software-packages install –staged

I got the same error message (Installation failed: Test RPM Transaction Failed. Collect Logs for Diagnostics), so I opened the diagnostics logfile for some further analysis:

Command> shell
root@vcenter [ / ]# cd /vmware/applmgmt
root@vcenter [ /var/log/vmware/applmgmt ]# cat software-packages.log
[...]
2021-10-07T11:55:12.280 [44638]DEBUG:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:STDOUT: Preparing...                          ########################################
2021-10-07T11:55:12.280 [44638]DEBUG:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:STDERR: 	installing package VMware-vpxd-7.0.3.00000-9260569.x86_64 needs 4KB on the /storage/log filesystem
2021-10-07T11:55:12.280 [44638]DEBUG:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:Test transaction failed to update package
out=Preparing...                          ########################################
error=	installing package VMware-vpxd-7.0.3.00000-9260569.x86_64 needs 4KB on the /storage/log filesystem
rc=254
[...]

/storage/log out of disk space

As you can see in the logfile, the /storage/log filesystem is out of disk space. Thankfully, https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83070 explains in detail how to free up some space on this filesystem. To summarize the KB article: you need to scan the following subfolders for old log files and delete them:

/storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat
/storage/log/vmware/eam/web
/storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat
/var/log/vmware/vmware-sps

The command line input is:

root@vcenter [ /var/log/vmware/applmgmt ]# cd /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat/
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat ]# ls -lha catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat ]# rm catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat ]# ls -lha localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat ]# rm localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/tomcat ]# cd /storage/log/vmware/eam/web/
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/eam/web ]# ls -lha catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/eam/web ]# rm catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/sso/web ]# ls -lha localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/eam/web ]# rm localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/eam/web ]# cd /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat/
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat ]# ls -lha catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat ]# rm catalina*log
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat ]# ls -lha localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat ]# rm localhost_access*
root@vcenter [ /storage/log/vmware/lookupsvc/tomcat ]# cd /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps
root@vcenter [ /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps ]# ls -lha sps-access*log
root@vcenter [ /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps ]# rm sps-access*log

And that’s it. Exit the BASH shell to switch back to the vCenter Appliance shell and retry the update:

Command> software-packages install --staged