VCSA 7.0.2 Upgrade Installer - Stage 2 Export Partition

[AhhhOK]

I ran the new VMware-VCSA-all-7.0.2-17694817.iso UI installer to upgrade a 6.7U3 vCenter and when I got to Stage 2 Select upgrade data screen I see they removed the option to change the Export directory to a partition that is large enough from the default partition which typically does not have enough space. 

I assumed the installer was now smart enough to choose a drive with enough space on its own but after initiating the move Stage 2 failed and gave me an insufficient space error and suggest I:

a. Select a different partition w the required space

b. Increase the size of the partition

c. Select upgrade data option that requires less space.

However, it never gives you an option to do A. B. or C. and once you clear the message you have no option to go back so you have to close out.  If I go to the VAMI of the new VCSA to try restart Stage 2 I am greeted with an Unable to get deployment status message.  

Don't get me wrong, I understand the space issue, but I am used to just picking another directory as part of the UI screen and moving on.  I thought maybe I missed something reverted to snapshot and tried again and you never get an option to choose a different path.  Silly they don't allow you to change the default anymore but then errors and ends with no direction forward. 

Am I missing something?  Anyone else experienced this?  The option was there in the 7.0U1 Installer. 

[Dickiebird]

We to are stuck on this and have no way of moving forward with the install.

[AhhhOK]

I didn't want to wait around for support to get back to me so I went forward with using the U1 installer since I knew it had the option to change the partition.  However, that install blew up on me somewhere else along the line and now I am waiting for support to get back to me.  If you reached out to support for the U2 issue please let us know what they came back with.  

[Dickiebird]

We too went down the route of using U1 with the options, but it wasn't smooth. 1st attempt failed even with the custom path, we are not sure why it could have been a typo in the path but we doubt it. We then cleared down the events and tasks database and moved logging to "0". The 2nd attempt was successful thankfully, we then did the upgrade to U2 without issue.

All in all what should have taken a few hours ended up taking all day. Ironically VMWare's download pages were not functioning over the weekend in question so we had to restore from one of our own backups to get hold of the U1 iso (just another annoyance) in the upgrade process.

[AhhhOK]

Yes, my first attempt at upgrading with the U1 installer also failed because of the path I used. I have successfully used /storage/updatemgr in the past. There was plenty of room, and my installer allowed me to use it, but it failed at 25%.  After multiple update requests, 4 days later support finally got back to me and we re-ran the U1 installer and used /storage/core for the Export path and it worked.

I am waiting until the next U2 upgrade is available before I move to U2.  I am not trusting the one out there now.  Glad it worked for you.

[Joffer77]

I guess this wasn't fixed/solved yet? I just hit the same problem when I was going to upgrade vCenter Appliance 6.5U3n to 7.0U2. The '/' partition was only 3,6GB free and I needed 5.6GB. Wasn't enough logs to get rid of either.

While I could expand the VMDK1 disk (sda) (but not supported for 6.5, only 6.7/7.0) there was a new unknown last partition for "BIOS Boot" which stopped me to just expand the sda3 partition. I did not try to use any other tools to move this partition though. I figured I'd get VMware support on the ball.. and now I'm waiting.

I know there is an "export_dir" option if I had gone the CLI way of upgrading.. but that seems so annoyingly complicated for such an easy task (or what should have been an easy task), so I might just wait for support to reach out.

And since vcenter is 6.5U3n the only supported upgrade is 70U2. Otherwise I might have done 70U1 and then just use VAMI to upgrade to 70U2.

[dmkmills]

So no word on this then yet?   This would be far less annoying if it didn't take me 3+ hours to get to the point where it fails...

I guess I may have to just lose all my performance data, but that realllllllly bugs me.  Does nobody else ever transfer data?!  I feel like this would be an issue for like, everyone.

I'm stuck here until I can either figure out who at my company is authorized and has time to call VMware support, or hope that a random user has derived a solution, or wait for the next installer version to see if the option to change export path is randomly back? 

VMware pls help us

[FilipSmeets81]

Had the same issue today. Using the Update 1 installer and pointing the export directory to /storage/core worked for me.

[ZibiM]

Got hit with this yesterday.

I used option 3 from this guide:

https://www.provirtualzone.com/how-to-add-extra-space-to-vcenter-for-the-upgrade/

In short - before the upgrade you need to resize the vmdk1 of the source VCSA, and then use autogrow script.

[Joffer77 · Accepted solution]

To follow up from my side. We got a solution from support. After Stage 1 is done, close the installer and open the VAMI interface on the new deployment of vCSA: https://<IP>:5480/configure/. You can now do the Stage 2 from your browser, and set a export directory that is big enough (for instance /storage/updatemgr/)

Apparently the installer is using a "v2" of the configuration (https://<IP>:5480/configurev2/) where the export directory can't be set.

[AhhhOK]

Wow!  Good info Joffer77.  Thanks for the update.  Wish I had known that.  If anyone else can validate this lets give Joffer77 a "correct answer".  I have already upgraded all my VCSA's to 7.0 U1. 

[Joffer77]

Happy to help.

Successfully used that method (VAMI) twice now from v6.5U3 vCSAs. 

[dmkmills]

Can confirm!  This works for me.  Thank you!

[Joffer77]

Forgot to say the webpage times out at around 63%, but it will finish when you check the VAMI some time later (or vCenter itself) 

[James_Holden]

This solution worked for me as well, 6/14/2021.

This is a pretty bad problem; I can't imagine a scenario where it DOES work. The / path is literally the smallest volume available on the appliance. Why it would default to / , and not give you the opportunity to change, is beyond me. Real smart, vmware, make the 2nd version of the wizard even worse than the first. This has cost me hours of work, lots of stress, and many emails to management.

[James_Holden]

In response to Joffer77, with regards to the timeout on the web page at 63% --

I assume you are referring to this screenshot; which, yes, did happen to me just now. I'll just wait another 10 min and keep checking.

[Salton2007]

This is a freshly installed vCenter 7.0.3 (build:20051473)  Everything works great except when I try to go to appliance management where my URL to get this https myvcenterservername : 5480/configurev2/#/  error :

Getting Started - vCenter Server

Unable to get deployment status.

It prompts me to log in and after I log in I get this error and the URL takes it to https myvcenterservername:5480/configurev2/#/

I am not able to upgrade or patch because this is also required to goto appliance management.

Any solution or workaround?

Please help

Thanks 

[vjrk83]

yes running into same issue with new installation of 7.0u3e and cant proceed further. Keeps failing with error unable to get the deployment status.