Configuring vSphere HA fails with error "vSphere HA agent cannot be installed or configured"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Issue is noticed on ESXi hosts which are recently upgraded to 7.x
• In vCenter UI, you see events similar to:

vSphere HA agent for this host has an error: vSphere HA agent cannot be installed or configured

• On the ESXi host, in the /var/run/log/esxupdate.log, you see entries similar to:

2022-11-04T09:17:59Z esxupdate: 2113067: esxupdate: ERROR: vmware.esximage.Errors.InstallationError: Upgrade VIB(s) "loadesx" is required for the transaction. Please use a depot with a complete set of ESXi VIBs.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

Cause

• This issue occurs if loadesx vib is missing on the ESXi host
• If the ESXi hosts are upgraded to 7.x using esxcli software vib update command, loadesx vib will be skipped during the upgrade and result in this issue.

Resolution

The esxcli software vib update and esxcli software vib install commands are not supported for upgrade operations.

Note: This resolution applies on hosts with ESXi versions lesser than 7.03P06.

For all the affected ESXi hosts, re-run the upgrade using the below procedure:

• Put the ESXi host in Maintenance mode
• Run the upgrade again using the below command to install the missing vibs

esxcli software profile update -d <location of Zip file> -p <profile name> -f

Example:
esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/iscsi-2/VMware-ESXi-7.0U2e-19290878-depot.zip -p ESXi-7.0U2e-19290878-standard -f

Note: To get a list of all available image profiles in the zip file, use the command esxcli software sources profile list -d <location of ZIP file>

• Reboot the ESXi host
• Configure vSphere HA

Additional Information

For more information see Upgrade or Update a Host with Image Profiles