"Internal error occurs during pre-upgrade checks" while upgrading or deploying a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Upgrading or deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 fails with the error:

Error: Internal error occurs during pre-upgrade checks. Resolution: Send upgrade log files to VMware technical support team

In the /var/log/vmware/upgrade/upgrade-requirements.log file, there are entries similar to:
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] ERROR transport.guestops Failed to create temp file on target xx.xx.xx.xx: (vim.fault.RestrictedVersion) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
msg = 'Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation.',
faultCause = <unset>,
faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) []
}

For vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 see: Upgrading to VCSA 7.0 fails "Internal error occurs during pre-upgrade checks"

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the deployment or upgrade target host is using the vSphere Hypervisor (free version). This version does not support deployment of the vCenter Server Appliance.

Resolution

Select an ESXi host version which is 5.5 and above

Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5

Note: vCenter server 6.5 cannot be deployed on ESXi 5.1 or below version, to deploy vCenter appliance 6.7, ESXi host version should be 6.0 and above.