vCenter Server installation gets stuck at 0%

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

To assist resolving the installation that is stuck, when there is no issue with the IP addresses, ports, configuration, DNS resolution, firewalls. fails.

Symptoms:

• Cannot install vCenter Server on a standalone ESXi host.
• 7.x vCenter installation gets stuck at 80% rpm_install for a very long in stage 1.
• 8.x/9.x vCenter installation gets stuck at 0% for a very long time in stage 1.
  
  
  
  
• Below are the sample installation logs:
  
  From vCenter Server 7.x network-######-######.log, below log snippets are available:

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - debug: [720]pollRpmInstallProgress:getGuestFileErr:ServerFaultCode: Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - error: pollRpmInstallProgress reached timeout before completed: loopCount=721, installProgress=null
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - info: Cancelling the ping timer for session mgmt

  
  From vCenter Server 8.x/9.x installer-######-######.log, below log snippets are available:
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - error: No VM found with hostname <vCenter Server IP address>
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - debug: Error in getVmWithIPFQDN: No VM found with hostname <vCenter Server IP address>
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - info: Network Prechecks Succeeded
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - info: Terminate the ovfDeploy process
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS - error: Error on terminating the ovfDeploy process: TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'kill')

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
• VMware vCenter Server 9.0.x

Cause

• Hypervisor licensing is a free licensing which works only as standalone ESXi host and does not work as centralized entities.
• Licensing of ESXi host is hypervisor licensing (free).
• ESXi Host license expired on which vCenter server is being installed.

Resolution

Option1:

• Install the vCenter server on an ESXi host that has a valid license.

Option 2: 

• Purchase the license(s) that allows centralized components. 
• Assign the license to the ESXi host.
• Re-attempt the vCenter server installation.

Additional Information

The vCenter server can also be installed on an ESXi Host that has a valid license.