Ive ran recently in to an issue where i couldnt perform an update from the admin UI, in order to get up and running i executed the following from a ssh shell. I was luky enough to find the documentation here

/usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/software-packages.py install --url

Some of the additional options that could be used

software-packages stage --url
software-packages install --staged

I like to perform the update from the command line because it gives me additional information that i might not be able to see in the UI

Typically the patching requires a reboot and the installation can be completed by executing the following:

shutdown reboot -r "patch reboot"

I recently ran in to an issue where the vCenter server appliance update timed out. Rebooting the vCenter server brought the server back up but i was unable to log in to the administration section due to an Update installation in progress error

Doing some research i found that there is a file that holds this information fount at /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf At this point all i had to do was edit the file using vi

vi /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf

When opening the file i noticed that the state was INSTALL_IN_PROGRESS

Tge version was also different from what the console was showing

So i updated the file to reflect the actual version of the appliance. The end result looked like this: