"A problem occurred while getting data from the source vCenter Server" error when upgrading to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Upgrading vCenter Server Appliance fails at Stage 1, Step 3 with the error:
  
  A problem occurred while getting data from the source vCenter Server
   
• In the %TEMP%/vcsaUiInstaller/installer-<year><month><day><hour><minute><second>.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.198Z - debug: initiateFileTransferFromGuest error: ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.200Z - debug: Failed to get fileTransferInfo:ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.200Z - debug: Failed to get url of file in guest vm:ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.201Z - error: Error in getting fileData for nodeType. Error: ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.201Z - error: Failed to read the nodetype, Error: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.202Z - error: sourcePrecheck: error in getting source Info: ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967284).
  
  Note: This issue may also occur with these vix error codes:
  • 1, 4294967294
  • 1, 4294967292
  • 1, 4294967290

Environment

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

Cause

This issue occurs due to an expired root passord on the vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, reset the root user password on the vCenter Server Appliance. For more information, see Root account of vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 and 6.0 is locked (2069041).

Additional Information

Unable to log in to the root account of vCenter Server Appliance