Triaging a vCenter Server 6.0 installation or upgrade failure
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Triaging a vCenter Server 6.0 installation or upgrade failure

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Article ID: 335970

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the process of triaging a failed vCenter Server 6.0 Microsoft Windows installer.
 
For more information on vCenter Server Appliance see, Triaging a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 installation or upgrade failure (2106760).


Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x

Resolution

High level install process Overview

The Microsoft Windows installer for vCenter Server 6.0 perform these functions:
  1. Extract all necessary files and libraries required to execute the installation wizard. The files are extracted to the %TMP% folder for the duration of the install.
  2. Performs various build-in Standard Actions and some VMware specific Custom Actions to validate that the system meets the minimum requirements.
     
  3. User is prompted for information, and the information is validated by the installer using Standard and Custom Actions.
  4. When the user click Finish, the specifications of the install is passed to the first boot scripts.

    Note: There are multiple first boot script log files, which you can find in the windows upgrade log location: %ProgramData%\VMware\CIS\logs\firstboot
  5. The installation completes and display post-installation steps that the user must perform.

    Note: The preceding links were correct as of March 6, 2015. If you find a link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

High level upgrade process overview

The Microsoft Windows installer for vCenter Server 6.0 perform these functions:

  1. Extract all necessary files and libraries required to execute the installation wizard. The files are extracted to the %TMP% folder for the duration of the install.
  2. Performs various build-in Standard Actions and some VMware specific Custom Actions to validate that the system meets the minimum requirements.
     
  3. User is prompted for information, and the information is validated by the installer using MSI Standard and Custom Actions as described in the preceding process.
  4. When the user clicks Finish, the upgrade is performed in separate phases:
     
    • Export phase: A collection of scripts exports information from the existing vSphere services and place the data into the export folder specified during install. The logs for the export process are stored in %Temp%/vcsUpgrade on the live system.

      Note: By default, the logs for the exported data is located at %ProgramData%/VMware/vCenterServer/export/
       
    • Uninstall phase: The upgraded versions of VMware products are removed.
    • Install phase: Newer versions of the VMware products are installed using the parameters provided earlier in the upgrade process. This is when the firstboot scripts are executed. There are multiple firstboot script log files. They are stored in %ProgramData%\VMware\CIS\logs\firstboot\.
    • Import phase: A collection of scripts import the information that was exported earlier into the new version of vSphere. The logs for the export process are stored in the %Temp%/vcsUpgrade on the live system.
       
  5. The upgrading completes and display post-installation steps that the user must perform.

    Note: The preceding links were correct as of March 6, 2015. If you find a link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Collecting information

If the installation fails, perform these steps:
  1. Navigate to your desktop.
  2. Identify and extract the file called VMware-VCS-logs-<year><month><day><hour><minute><second>.zip.
  3. If the installation was in an environment using the external model:
     
    • Collect the support bundle from any External Platform Services Controller specified during the install.
    • Collect the support bundle from the third party load balancer specified during the install (in the case of some high availability configuration). For more information, consult the third-party load-balancer vendor documentation.
       
  4. Upload the information to VMware. For more information, see Uploading diagnostic information for VMware (1008525).


Additional Information

Directories and Files

On the Microsoft Windows system on which you attempted to perform the install

  • Directory %Temp% contains these files:
     
    • vc-install.txt: A human readable report on the outcome of the installation or upgrade as well as all selected install and upgrade options.
    • vminst.log: Log containing log messages related to Microsoft Installer custom actions used during the vSphere install or upgrade process.
    • *-msi.log: Standard MSI log messages related to each separate installer. Microsoft has provided a tool that can parse through the MSI logs called Wilogutil.exe.

      Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 6, 2015. If you find a link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
       
  • Directory %ProgramData%\VMware\CIS\logs\firstboot contains these files:
     
    • firstbootStatus.json: JSON file contains the current status of the installation process.
    • firstbootInfrastructure.log: This log file contain messages that identify when the firstboot scripts were initiated and whether they completed successfully.
    • *_stdout.log: This log file is created to capture the standard output of each firstboot scripts.
    • *_stderr.log: This log file is created to capture the standard error of each firstboot scripts.
       
  • Directory %Temp%/vcsUpgrade/ contains these files:
     
    • UpgradeRunner.log: Aggregates all of the logs throughout the upgrade process including all import and export scripts.
    • Import*.log: This log file contain log message related to each individual import script.
    • Export*.log: This log file contain log message related to each individual export script.

Log Bundles Upgrade

If the upgrade fails we attempt to create a bundle containing all of the log files related to the upgrade called VMware-VCS-logs- <year><month><day><hour><minute><second>.zip. When extracting this archive, you can find these files within:

  • The root directory contains the contents of the %Temp% folder as described above.
  • Directory vcsUpgrade contains the contents of the %Temp%/vcsUpgrade/ as described above.
  • Directory vcs_logs/uninstall, contains the contents of %ProgramData%\VMware\CIS\logs\firstboot, contains the logs from the rollback process.

    Note: The firstboot scripts run during uninstall with the lastboot switch.
     
  • File vcs_logs/uninstall/vc- hostname-year-month-day--hour. minute.zip contains a log bundle of the system before the rollback operation was initiated.
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分类诊断 vCenter Server 6.0 安装或升级故障

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