Summary

This article covers a VOS OS-upgrade failure where the upgrade reports APT 404 Not Found errors while fetching package index files. The failure is caused by stale or extra APT source entries on the VOS appliance pointing to deprecated Ubuntu repositories (for example old-releases.ubuntu.com / trusty), not by a connectivity problem on the OS-Orchestrator.

Symptom

The OS-upgrade fails and the logs show APT warnings similar to the following:

W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/restricted/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/universe/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/restricted/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
W: Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty-security/universe/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 127.0.0.1 3142]
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Cause

The VOS appliance has one or more active (unhashed) APT source lines referencing a deprecated or end-of-life Ubuntu release. During the upgrade, APT attempts to refresh these indexes through the orchestrator proxy and receives a 404, which aborts or degrades the upgrade.

Resolution

Step 1: Confirm the OS-Orchestrator connectivity is healthy

Run the built-in connectivity test on the Versa OS-Orchestrator. This confirms the orchestrator itself can reach the Ubuntu, Docker, and Postgres repositories and that the APT proxy is serving correctly.

versa@vs-OSU-orch:~$ vsh test-connectivity

A healthy run passes all of the following stages:

  • Ping test to us.archive.ubuntu.com (0% packet loss)
  • apt-get update via the APT proxy on the orchestrator (all sources Hit, no errors)
  • wget HTTP test to an Ubuntu repository URL (200 OK)
  • wget HTTPS test to the Docker URL (200 OK)
  • wget HTTPS test to the Postgres URL (200 OK)

Example of a successful orchestrator apt-get update stage:

>>>>>>>>>> Testing apt-get update via APT proxy on orchestrator..

Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Hit:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
======================================================

 apt-get check on orchestrator successful

======================================================

If all stages pass, the orchestrator is healthy and the problem is on the VOS appliance being upgraded. Proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Inspect the APT sources on the VOS appliance

On the VOS appliance you are upgrading, check for stale or extra repository entries.

Check the main sources file for any active (non-commented) line, especially ones pointing to old-releases.ubuntu.com or an old distribution such as trusty:

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

Check whether any additional source files are present in the drop-in directory:

ls -ltr /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

Step 3: Disable the offending entries and re-trigger the upgrade

If /etc/apt/sources.list contains an unhashed line pointing to a deprecated repository, comment it out by prefixing the line with #. If /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ contains files with stale entries, comment out the offending lines (or move the file aside) the same way.

After hashing out the bad entries, re-trigger the OS-upgrade from the OS-Orchestrator. The upgrade should now proceed without the 404 fetch failures.

Notes

  • The 127.0.0.1:3142 address in the error is the local APT proxy and is expected behavior, not a fault.
  • Always edit APT sources by commenting (hashing) lines rather than deleting them, so the original configuration can be restored if needed.
  • Always re-trigger the upgrade from the OS-Orchestrator.