6.5 to 6.7 VCenter upgrade fails at 5%

[JordonC]

I'm at a loss currently.  Trying to upgrade our Test VCenter environment from 6.5 to 6.7.  Stage 1 finished fine.  I get to stage 2 where the data is copied and it errors out with "A problem occurred while - Starting VMware Identity Management Service

I did not have this issue at all with 6.0 to 6.5.  I have doubled checked forward and reverse DNS records for the source VCenter and those are good.  I have also tried the echo "::1 localhost.localdom localhost" >> /etc/hosts fix that i found online.  But that hasn't worked either.  Anybody have any suggestions before I submit the logs to VMware support. 

[tezgnomedia]

I'm having this exact same problem too. Also tried the same things you did to no avail. Getting ready to try one additional item before going to support. That item is:

deploying to vcenter versus deploying to the ESXi host

Using the IP address versus the DNS name.

[JordonC]

tezgnomedia you may have better luck that I did. I tried both of solutions your looking at.  

I Tried it:     deploying to vcenter versus deploying to the ESXi host :

I Tried it:     Using the IP address versus the DNS name.

[tezgnomedia]

It didn't work. It failed as well.

Are you getting any errors prior to your deployment? Trying to see what all we may have in common.

[rameshvl · Accepted solution]

Hi Guys,

You might be having an issue described in this KB article.

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/54724

Please go thru' the KB and it might solve your problem.

However, as described in the KB, please check this:

1. Retrieve the list of ports with this command:
   
   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell list_values "[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\\Services\\vmdir\\Parameters]"
2. The previous list should contain an entry for LdapPort referencing port 11711. If the below line is not observed, do not make modifications.
   
   +  "LdapPort"                    REG_DWORD       0x00002dbf (11711).

Regards,

Ramesh V L

[JordonC]

Thanks.  I have a current ticket opened up but I will try your suggestion rameshvl.  All of our VCenter servers were converted to appliances in version 5.5 and have been upgraded over the years from 6.0 and 6.5.  So this could be our issue.  Will give it a try and let you know. 

[JordonC]

I'm up and running now.  https://kb.vmware.com/kb/54724 was the fix.  Turns out our VCenter server was still using the old LDAP port 11711.  Applied the fix to the source VCenter Server and then ran through the upgrade process.  Everything worked.  Well kinda worked.  I got further in the upgrade....and then I found out the hard way that certain services will not start if your root or sso accounts contain certain characters.... \ or : are a couple bad ones.  So I also had to change my passwords on the source VCenter to conform to these changes and then performed the upgrade again.  Flawless this time.  Here is a link to the new password requirements.  vSphere 6.7 Release Notes

[rameshvl]

Hi JordonC,

Glad to know that the KB helped you to fix the issue and go further successfully and thanks for sharing the password requirements link too.

Regards,
Ramesh V L

[tezgnomedia]

I second the KB article as a fix as well. After applying the change to the LDAP port, the upgrade completed with no issues. Fortunately, I have already run into the "password" problem before and have my passwords set without the bad characters. I will be closing my support ticket as I have one open as well.