ESXI 6.7 profile update: No space left on device
I have recently tried to update a VMware ESXi 6.7 host to the latest image profile (image profile ensures all previous patches are updated too, not just the ones in the last patch set). On the host's SSH console, the command to use is:
esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20181104001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Unfortunately for me, this gave me this error:
[InstallationError] [Errno 28] No space left on device vibs = VMware_locker_tools-light_10.3.2.9925305-10176879 Please refer to the log file for more details.
I'm not sure where the error log is, as /var/log/esxcli.log only gives that exact message! Still, it should be fairly obvious a problem, there is no disk space left. Just, there is. Oodles of the stuff. The commonly accepted fix for this problem is to enable using your datastore as swap space:
- Logon to web ui
- Go to Host, Manage, System
- Select the Swap entry and change it to be enabled
- Pick a datastore of your choice, and enable Host cache and Local swap
Unfortunately, in this situation, enabling host swap did not resolve the issue and it still did not work.
There is though, a workaround. You can use an image that doesn't have the tools vib included with this command:
esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20181104001-no-tools -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot -index.xml
You can then manually install the troublesome vib (if you have a need for tools) with this command:
esxcli software vib install -v https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/tools-light/VMware_locker_tools-light_10.3.2.9925305-10176879.vib