vcenter upgrade from 7 to 8

[crp04991]

Hello all.  I am trying to do an upgrade from a VCSA 7 to a VCSA 8.  I have mounted my ISO and my first step completed without no issues.  However, when I log in to the new VCSA to complete the second step, I receive the error shown below:

Error

Source vSphere ESX Agent Manager (EAM) upgrade failed to obtain EAM URLs to check against trusted certificates by the System!

Resolution

Verify that the ESX Agent Manager extension is running properly on the source vCenter Server instance and https://VC_IP/eam/mob presents correct data.

I have done what the error suggests in that I verified the Agent Manager is running on the source vcenter.  

Has anyone seen this or can anyone make any recommendations?

Thank you.

[SureshKumarMuth]

Was the pre upgrade check completed successfully? Check if this article helps

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/93526

[markbr81]

I have the exact same issue. If I enter the mentioned /eam/mob I get an authentication prompt and after that nothing. I restarted vCenter and the installation. I used only IPs in the setup. The deployment of the new vCenter works fine but phase 2 keeps crashing with the exact same issue as you have.

Did you find a solution yet?

[markbr81]

I was able to fix this. Inspecting the logs on the source vCenter server in /storage/log/vmware/upgrade/ CollectRequirements_com.vmware.eam_<<date>>.log I found a few errors putting me on the right track

2023-10-24T20:30:28.680Z INFO eam.lib.eam-upgrade-prechecks Creating local solution user VIM client(port=8085, st_url=https://vc.xx.local/sts/STSService/vsphere.local) cert=-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
xx
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

2023-10-24T20:30:28.858Z INFO eam.lib.eam-upgrade-prechecks Creating local EAM client(port=15005)
2023-10-24T20:30:28.870Z ERROR eam Failed to execute trusted certificates check..
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/eam_ops.py", line 192, in retrieveUrls
allAgencies = esxAgentMgr.agency
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/pyEam/VmomiSupport.py", line 592, in __call__
return self.f(*args, **kwargs)
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/pyEam/VmomiSupport.py", line 397, in _InvokeAccessor
return self._stub.InvokeAccessor(self, info)
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/pyEam/StubAdapterAccessorImpl.py", line 43, in InvokeAccessor
return self.InvokeMethod(mo, info, (prop, ))
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/pyEam/SoapAdapter.py", line 1577, in InvokeMethod
raise obj # pylint: disable-msg=E0702
eam.lib.pyEam.VmomiSupport.eam.fault.EamServiceNotInitialized: (eam.fault.EamServiceNotInitialized) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
msg = 'EAM is still loading from database. Please try again later.',
faultCause = <unset>,
faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) []
}

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/__init__.py", line 119, in _trustCertsCheck
trustedCheckResult = urlTrustCheck(context)
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/eam-upgrade-prechecks.py", line 58, in urlTrustCheck
_TRUST_FILE
File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dirrzexdTo7jY/tmpQRoi2NRzMu/payload/component-scripts/eam/lib/eam_ops.py", line 210, in retrieveUrls
raise Exception('Cannot retrieve EAM agencies', exc)
Exception: ('Cannot retrieve EAM agencies', (eam.fault.EamServiceNotInitialized) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
msg = 'EAM is still loading from database. Please try again later.',
faultCause = <unset>,
faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) []
})

I then did a little more research and found this article

WCP Service fails to start after replacing vCenter Server certificates (80588) (vmware.com)

Which basically let you execute some commands to replace the certificate in EAM and restart it.

I did have to replace -s localhost with my vCenter fqdn and I also got the sdktunnel error (related info) which I ignored. After that the upgrade worked like a charm