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

 

Cause

This issue occurs when the upgrade installer can't connect to the VCSA instance via SSH due to root account misconfigurations.

Resolution

To resolve this issue follow the below steps:

1. SSH to the VCSA
2. Take a backup of /etc/passwd file.
3. Ensure the first line of the /etc/passwd file is exactly as follows:

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

4. Run the vCenter upgrade again.

 

If you are unable to login via SSH, the login shell is likely incorrect and you will need to boot to the bash shell as outlined in the following KB;

* Resetting root password in vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 / 6.7 / 7.x / 8.x
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/322247/resetting-root-password-in-vcenter-serve.html