VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgrade might fail to start due to "Operation not allowed in the current state of workflow" exception

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In a very rare scenario, you VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgrade might be failing before it even starts to upgrade to the new version.

This is applicable for upgrades from 8.12.0 ,8.14.0 or 8.16.0 versions of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle as we leverage a new platform called CAP, Common Appliance Platform

Exception reads as below

Reference : /var/log/vmware/capengine/core-engine.log

2024/03/01 15:01:50.652977 workflow_handler.go:168: Starting workflow cap-non-lvm-update

2024/03/01 15:01:50.653043 workflow_handler.go:154: Error in executing request. Error: Operation not allowed in the current state of workflow

2024/03/01 15:01:50.653049 engine.go:127: Failed to execute workflow request. Error: Operation not allowed in the current state of workflow

What do i do in this case

• Take a snapshot of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance. This is mandatory and cannot be skipped

• Browse to this location

/storage/lifecycle/capengine

• You would see a file called workflow.db

root@vrlcm [ / ]# cd storage/lifecycle/capengine

root@vrlcm [ /storage/lifecycle/capengine ]# ls
workflow.db

root@vrlcm [ /storage/lifecycle/capengine ]# ls -ltrh
total 36K
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36K Mar  2 20:47 workflow.db

• Check the status of cap-workflow-engnie service

systemctl status cap-workflow-engine.service

• Stop the cap-workflow-engine service

systemctl stop cap-workflow-engine.service

• Remove cap engine service workflow database

rm -rf /storage/lifecycle/capengine/workflow.db

• Restart cap engine service

systemctl start cap-workflow-engine.service

• This will recreate a new workflow.db under the same location

ls -l /storage/lifecycle/capengine

• Check the status of cap engine

systemctl status cap-workflow-engine.service

Expected Output

root@vrlcm.arun.com [ /storage/lifecycle/capengine ]# systemctl status cap-workflow-engine.service
* cap-workflow-engine.service - Cap workflow engine
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/cap-workflow-engine.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2024-03-03 02:22:18 UTC; 41min ago
 Main PID: 2981 (bash)
    Tasks: 7 (limit: 5883)
   Memory: 181.5M
   CGroup: /system.slice/cap-workflow-engine.service
           |-2981 /bin/bash -c . /etc/profile; /usr/lib/vmware-capengine/capengine
           `-3039 /usr/lib/vmware-capengine/capengine

Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82> Handlers ............ 10  Threads ............. 2 <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82> Prefork ....... Disabled  PID .............. 3039 <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><94><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><8C><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82>                    Fiber v2.1.0                   <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82>            http:///tmp/capengine.sock:            <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82>                                                   <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82> Handlers ............ 10  Threads ............. 2 <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><82> Prefork ....... Disabled  PID .............. 3039 <E2><94><82>
Mar 03 02:22:21 vrlcm.arun.com bash[2981]:  <E2><94><94><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><E2><94><80><

• Start your upgrades again

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