Attempting to upgrade an existing cloud proxy for use with a VMware Aria Automation cloud account fails with a manifest access error.

Problem

You can upgrade an existing configured cloud proxy, rather than create and configure a new cloud proxy, for an existing or new VMware Aria Automation cloud account. However, the upgrade may fail with the following or similar error message. 
Details
Checking for available updates, this process can take a few minutes ...
Failure: Error downloading manifest. Please contact your vendor.  
The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found URL: <https:// ...>

Cause

The /opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/provider/provider-runtime.xml manifest file that was used when configuring the cloud proxy may be missing some information that is required by the upgrade process.
Note: This manifest file issue was resolved in more recent versions of VMware Aria Automation. However, if you are using an older version cloud proxy and receive the cited error message, use this workaround to upgrade the cloud proxy provider-runtime.xml manifest file.

Solution

  1. Locate and examine the cloud proxy manifest file. An example /opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/provider/provider-runtime.xml is shown below: 
    <service>
  <properties>
     <property name="jobId" value="1" />_
     <property name="jobList" value='{ "Check":{ "JobStatus": "Failed", "JobState": 8, "TimeOfLastStateChange": "20210120101111.982008+000", "ErrorCode": 20, "ErrorDescription": "Error downloading manifest. Please contact your vendor. The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found URL: https:\/\/vapp-updates.vmware.com\/vai-catalog\/valm\/vmw\/a1ba78af-ec67-4333-8e25-a4be022f97c7\/7.2.0.33184.latest\/manifest\/manifest-latest.xml", "TimeBeforeRemoval": "00000000000500.000000:000", "TimeSubmitted": "20210120101031.385064+000", "InstanceID": "VMware-VAMI:Job_1" }}' />_
  </properties>
</service>
  2. If the file contains content similar to the above, manually update the file with the following content: 
    <service>
    <properties>
        <property name="localRepositoryAddress" value="https://ci-data-collector-sandbox.s3.amazonaws.com/upgrade" />
        <property name="localRepositoryPasswordFormat" value="base64" />
    </properties>
</service>
  3. Restart the cloud proxy on the vCenter.
  4. Run the same cloud proxy upgrade process that you ran earlier and that yielded the above cited error.
  5. If the error persists, contact VMware support.