'Vmware Tools driver is not initialized on source vCSA' 'Missing guest.guestFamily property' error while upgrading VCSA 6.0/6.5 to 6.7

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• 'When attempting to perform an upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to 6.5 or 6.7 the operation fails with below error

VMware Tools driver is not initialized. Make sure that VMware Tools driver is initialized and is running properly on the source vCenter Server Appliance (Sample_FQDN). Also make sure that the ESXi host which contains the source vCenter Server Appliance is not under heavy load. Contact VMware support in case the issue cannot be resolved.

• In the upgrade-requirements.log file you see the entries similar to the following:

2018-09-06T16:54:24.389Z ERROR transport.guestops GuestOpsOperationManager is not initialized. Missing guest.guestFamily property
2018-09-06T16:54:24.389Z ERROR upgrade_commands Vmware Tools driver is not initialized on source vCSA (sample_FQDN), Error: GuestOpsOperationManager is not initialized. Missing guest.guestFamily property
2018-09-06T16:54:24.390Z ERROR root Could not create command factory.
2018-09-06T16:54:24.391Z ERROR __main__ ERROR: Fatal error during upgrade REQUIREMENTS. For more details take a look at: /var/log/vmware/upgrade/requirements-upgrade-runner.log
2018-09-06T16:54:24.394Z INFO root Exiting with exit-code 1

• If you open an SSH session to the ESXi Host running the vCSA VM, and run vim-cmd vmsvc/get.guest xx | grep guest, where 'xx' is the VM_ID of the vCSA, you will see entries similar to the below output

[root@esxi01:~] vim-cmd vmsvc/get.guest 10 | grep guest
toolsVersionStatus = "guestToolsUnmanaged",
toolsVersionStatus2 = "guestToolsUnmanaged",
toolsRunningStatus = "guestToolsRunning",
guestId = <unset>,
guestFamily = <unset>,
guestFullName = "",
guestState = "running",
guestKernelCrashed = <unset>,
guestOperationsReady = true,
guestStateChangeSupported = true,

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x

Cause

This issue is caused when the '/etc/SuSE-release' file is either missing or corrupt on the source vCenter Server Appliance.

Resolution

To resolve this issue follow the steps below:

1. Create or recreate the /etc/SuSE-release file with the below content using a text editor 
   PATCHLEVEL = 3
   VERSION = 11
   SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64)
    
   1. Backup if the file is already available : mv /etc/SuSE-release /etc/SuSE-release-bkp)
   2. Open text edit : vi /etc/SuSE-release
   3. Press the Insert key
   4. Paste the content above
   5. Press Esc key
   6. Save the file using :wq!
2. Reboot the source vCenter Server Appliance
3. Retry the Upgrade again.