If you have upgraded your VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment to version 5.x from an earlier release, you may find yourself unable to update BOM (Bill of Materials) components from the SDDC Manager UI. The “Update Now” or “Configure Update” button is greyed out and you see a frustrating error:

“Update cannot be started now as compatibility file is missing”

This post walks through the symptoms, root cause, and the step-by-step fix based on Broadcom KB 396202.

Symptoms

You will typically notice one or more of the following:

  • In the Updates tab of the relevant Workload Domain (WLD), the “Update Now” or “Configure Update” button is greyed out.
  • The “Available Updates” section displays the error: “Update cannot be started now as compatibility file is missing”.
  • Attempting to manually download the VmwareCompatibilityData.json file fails.
  • In the SDDC Manager LCM debug log (/var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-debug.log), you see entries similar to:
Recoverable I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when processing request to {s}->https://storage.googleapis.com:443

VVS Compatibility Data update failed
com.vmware.vcf.compatibility.controllers.internal.vvs.exception.VvsException:
The VVS api call to https://vvs.esp.vmware.com/v1/products/bundles/type/vcf-lcm-bundle?format=json failed.
Response: Connection reset

Root Cause

The compatibility data file VmwareCompatibilityData.json is missing from the expected path on the SDDC Manager appliance:

/nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/VmwareCompatibilityData.json

Why is it missing? The most common reason is that the SDDC Manager was upgraded from a VCF version prior to 5.0.0.0. The VVS compatibility data directory was introduced in VCF 5.0, so environments that were upgraded (rather than freshly deployed) may never have had this directory created.

Step-by-Step Resolution

Step 1 — Take a Snapshot

Before making any changes, take an offline snapshot of the SDDC Manager appliance VM. This gives you a safe rollback point.

Step 2 — SSH Into SDDC Manager

Connect via SSH using the vcf user, then elevate to root:

ssh vcf@<sddc-manager-fqdn>
su root

Step 3 — Create the Compatibility Directory

The directory likely does not exist. Create it and navigate into it:

mkdir -p /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/
cd /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/

Step 4 — Download the Compatibility Data File

Run the following curl command to pull the VmwareCompatibilityData.json file from Broadcom’s VVS endpoint:

curl --location 'https://vvs.broadcom.com/v1/products/bundles/type/vcf-lcm-v2-bundle?format=json' \
  --header 'X-Vmw-Esp-ClientId: vcf-lcm' \
  > VmwareCompatibilityData.json

Note: If the SDDC Manager does not have internet access, run the curl command on a separate Linux machine that can reach vvs.broadcom.com, then transfer the resulting VmwareCompatibilityData.json file to the SDDC Manager appliance via SCP or another file transfer method.

Step 5 — Set Correct Permissions and Ownership

Apply the proper ownership and permissions so the LCM service can read the file:

chown vcf_lcm:vcf -R /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility
chmod 755 -R /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/

Step 6 — Restart the LCM Service

Restart the Lifecycle Manager service for the changes to take effect:

systemctl restart lcm

Wait a couple of minutes for the service to fully come back up, then refresh the SDDC Manager UI. The “Update Now” or “Configure Update” button should no longer be greyed out.

Additional Step — Update Depot URLs

If you are also seeing depot-related errors, the download URLs in the LCM configuration may still reference old repository endpoints that require a valid download token. You should update the depot configuration in:

/opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/conf/application-prod.properties

Broadcom has a dedicated KB for this issue: Depot connection has issues — SDDC fails to download updates from online repositories (KB 389871).

Quick Reference — All Commands

For convenience, here are all the commands in sequence:

# SSH in and elevate
ssh vcf@<sddc-manager-fqdn>
su root

# Create directory
mkdir -p /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/
cd /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/

# Download compatibility data
curl --location 'https://vvs.broadcom.com/v1/products/bundles/type/vcf-lcm-v2-bundle?format=json' \
  --header 'X-Vmw-Esp-ClientId: vcf-lcm' \
  > VmwareCompatibilityData.json

# Fix permissions
chown vcf_lcm:vcf -R /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility
chmod 755 -R /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/compatibility/

# Restart LCM
systemctl restart lcm