Unpreparing the Stateless ESXi host in NSX fails with the error: Agent VIB module is not installed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
In VMware NSX for vSphere 6.x environment with Stateless ESXi 6.0.x hosts, you experience these symptoms:

• Unpreparing an ESXi host fails
• In the /var/log/vmware/eam/eam.log file or the C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\logs\eam\eam.log file of the ESX Agent Manager (EAM), you see entries similar to:
  
  Agent VIB module is not installed. Cause : 15 The installation transaction failed. The transaction is not supported: VIB VMware_bootbank_esx-vxlan_6.0.0-0.0.3234748 cannot be removed live.

Environment

VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Cause

This issue occurs because the ESX Agent Manager (EAM) sends uninstall operations to Stateless ESXi hosts which should not be occurring during an unprepare task.

EAM tries to uninstall the VIBs on the Stateless ESXi hosts and esxupdate fails if the VIB does not support live-removal. EAM handles this failure incorrectly and shows a reboot required message. The agency then fails to be uninstalled and the status then displays as Red.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware NSX for vSphere 6.x with Stateless ESXi 6.0.x hosts.

Currently, there is no resolution.

Note: This issue can be avoided by preparing your Stateless ESXi 6.0.x host using an Auto Deploy. For more information, see Deploying VXLAN through Auto Deploy and VMware NSX for vSphere 6.x (2092871).

To unprepare Stateless ESXi 6.0.x hosts:

1. Click Uninstall on the NSX Manager Host Preparation tab.
   EAM goalState is set for uninstall and tries to uninstall the VIBs from the ESXi host which then fails.
2. Modify the image-profile on the Auto-Deploy server to exclude the VIBs.
3. Reboot all the ESXi hosts on the cluster.
   When the ESXi hosts are booting up, EAM polls the Auto-Deploy server and identifies the VIBs as absent. The ESXi hosts should then come up without the VIBs. When all ESXi hosts complete booting up without the VIBs, the EAM agency is destroyed.NSX Manager then displays as Green on the cluster.

Additional Information

In case of situations where a stale agency manifests due to not properly unpreparing Stateless ESXi 6.0.x host, you can remove the offending agency from the vCenter Server database.

For assistance on removing the offending agency from the vCenter Server database, contact Broadcom Support.

 

Deploying VMware NSX for vSphere 6.x through Auto Deploy