'Failed to install the service VMwareSTSService Error code=255' while upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0 fails.
• You see the error similar to:
  
  Failed to install the service VMwareSTSService Error code=255
   
• In the %TEMP%\vminst.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  2015-06-15 11:09:31.797-04:00| vcsInstUtil-2656758| I: ParseStatusFile: curr error msg: "Encountered an internal error.
   
• In the fbInstall.json file, you see entries similar to:
  
  {
  "status": "error",
  "info": [],
  "question": null,
  "progress_message": {
  "args": [
  "VMware Identity Management Service"
  ],
  "id": "install.ciscommon.component.starting",
  "localized": "Starting VMware Identity Management Service...",
  "translatable": "Starting %(0)s..."
  },
  "warning": [],
  "error": {
  "resolution": {
  "id": "install.default.failure.resolution",
  "localized": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you run into this error again, please collect a support bundle and open a support request.",
  "translatable": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you run into this error again, please collect a support bundle and open a support request."
  
  Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Cause

This issue occurs due to System Environment Variables present within the Windows environment and related to Dell Compellent software. The vCenter Server 6.0 installer calls the InstallApp-NT.bat which sets temporary parameters for the Tanuki wrappers.

 

These variables are temporarily used in the initial setup of Tanuki:

 

set _WRAPPER_EXE="%_WRAPPER_L_EXE:"=%"

set _WRAPPER_CONF="%_WRAPPER_CONF_DEFAULT:"=%"

 

Upon the install/upgrade, these variables are not required at runtime for the software to execute correctly.

Resolution

To verify if the system environment variables are present. perform one of the following:

1. Click Start > run, type cmd and click OK.
2. Run this command:
   
   set | findstr wrapper
   
   The following system variables are returned:
   
   _WRAPPER_CONF=C:\Program Files (x86)\Compellent Technologies\Compellent Enterprise Manager\msaservice\conf\wrapper.conf
   _WRAPPER_EXE=C:\Program Files (x86)\Compellent Technologies\Compellent Enterprise Manager\msaservice\wrapper.exe

To modify or remove the variables:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click and select Properties.
3. Select Advanced system settings.
4. Select Environment Variables.
5. Under System variables search for _WRAPPER_CONF and _WRAPPER_EXE.
6. Edit or Delete the variable:
7. To edit the variable, highlight the variable and select Edit or change the variable name to OLD_WRAPPER_CONF and OLD_WRAPPER_EXE.