vCenter Appliance upgrade failing with an error "Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• vCenter Appliance upgrade failing with an error "Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials"
• In the installer.log file, you see entries similar to:

YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z - error: Error in getting fileData for nodeType. Error: ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z - error: Failed to read the nodetype, Error: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
..
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z - info: Password not expired
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z - error: sourcePrecheck: error in getting source Info: ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.

• Resetting vCenter Server Appliance root password did not help still upgrade failed with same error. 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue follow the below steps:

1. Take putty to the VCSA and check the /etc/passwd file. If you see output similar for "/root:/bin/bash" then follow the step 2.
2. Take a backup of /etc/passwd file, the edit the file and
3. Change that line

From:

root:$6$U4GNcYCK$Ya6CapnNBzNC00yugP4Xnnhifslzury7STp6ysUACJEPitlaiUsuVbfsSD2VCZaf7fUkoCHdn3Ua0yAWlD5c0.:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

To:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

4. Run the vCenter upgrade again.