Cannot deploy vSphere replication appliance 8.3/8.4 to vCenter 6.5 U3 ESXi 6.5 U3

[sghosh-sag]

I am having trouble trying to deploy vSphere Replication appliance version 8.3 or 8.4 to vCenter 6.5 U3/ESXi 6.5 U3. When trying to deploy via Flash client to the vCenter, I just get "the operation failed due to invalid fault". If trying to deploy directly to a host via webclient, it says "line 348: unsupported section 'vServiceDependencySection' (vCenter Extension vService Dependency)"

I have also tried deploying via the HTML5 client, but the OVA deployment wizard is stuck at the page about vService extension, where clicking next doesn't do anything.

According to the compatibility matrix, both 8.3 and 8.4 of the appliance are compatible with vCenter 6.5 U3 and ESXi 6.5 U3, so would have thought they would work. I have confirmed that in "runtime settings" of the vCenter, the managed IP address is present. Anyone have any ideas?

[Ajay1988 · Accepted solution]

Please upgrade vCenter to 6.7 latest and use vSphere Replication 8.5 .
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/88206

[sghosh-sag]

Thanks for this. Unfortunately we have some Dell R720s which according to the VMware Compatibility Guide are not compatible with ESXi 6.7 meaning they would have to stay at 6.5, and in turn ESXi 6.5 is not compatible with vSphere Replication 8.5 according to the compatibility matrix, so doesn't look like there's a solution until we upgrade our hosts.

[Ajay1988]

I don't see anything specific for ESXi upgrade to 6.7. KB just mentions VC 6.7 ; so just upgrading to VC 6.7 should be enough as I see. 
For more queries I think u need to contact VMware Support.

[sghosh-sag]

I've contacted VMware support, and I am getting no where fast - this is what I originally asked:

1. Does the latest version of vCenter, 6.5U3t, fix this problem? I have looked through the release notes for vCenter 6.5U3t already and can't however see anything that explicitly states this problem has been resolved
2. Are you aware of any vCenter 6.5U3 update in the near future that will resolve this?
3. The VMware product Interoperability Matrix suggests that ESXi 6.5 U3 is not compatible with vSphere Replication 8.5 either. Does this mean we also have to upgrade our ESXi hosts to 6.7U3? Or will vSphere Replication 8.5 continue to work with ESXi 6.5U3 despite the above?

1. If the answer to 3 is yes, then can you confirm that our Dell R720 servers are NOT compatible with ESXi 6.7U3, as per the below from the VMware Compatibility Matrix

Apart from not answering any of the questions, all the support engineer has done so far is point me to these articles, of which none of the stated "resolutions" have worked:

1. Install the appliance using OVFTool 4.4.3

2. Install the appliance using OVFTool 4.3.0

3. restart VMware vService Manager service (vmware-vsm) on the vCenter? and try the installation again.

KB: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2109881

4. "

Could you please check "vpxd-rhttpproxy-endpoint.conf" you will see vCenter address if it has uppercase characters add a second line right below it as a lowercase

The reason is the Endpoints are case-sensitive and you have added this endpoint:

Then restart the all the services in vCenter.

service-control --stop --all
service-control --start --all

and try to deploy again.

path to the file: /etc/vmware-rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf.d/vpxd-rhttpproxy-endpoint.conf"

5. Replace certificate for vmware-eam https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2112577

Bit staggered that I can't get a clear answer from Vmware support with regards to my original 4 questions.