Error: "Cannot find vSphere HA master agent" after vCenter upgrade in vLCM image-based clusters

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• After upgrading vCenter Server to a newer build (e.g., version 7.0.x or 8.0.x), clusters managed with VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) images may report "Configuration Error" for vSphere HA. This occurs because the ImageService requires time to validate depots before the Fault Domain Manager (FDM) agents can be synchronized with the new vCenter version.
• Recent Tasks in vCenter show one or more of the following errors:

  Cannot complete the configuration of vSphere HA agent on the host "Setting desired image spec for cluster failed".

  A general system error occurred: Setting solution for image failed.

• Image Compliance shows the following error:

  "vSphere HA" service, running on cluster "CLUSTER_NAME", reported issue: The HA constraints in the image spec have version #### whereas the expected version is 8.0.3-########

• ESXi hosts attempting to enable HA report the following error:

  "Cannot find vSphere HA master agent."

• Disabling and re-enabling HA on the cluster immediately after the upgrade does not resolve the issue.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

The underlying cause is the pending completion of depot validations by the ImageService following a vCenter Server upgrade. This process typically requires one to two hours to finalize. Until the depot validation is complete, the HA depot cannot be verified, leading to image draft validation failures and version mismatches for the HA constraints.

Resolution

The system administrator must allow approximately two hours for the ImageService to complete depot validations. Once the process is finished, execute the following steps to reconfigure the cluster:

1. Navigate to the affected cluster in the vSphere Client.
2. Select Configure > Services > vSphere HA.
3. Click Edit and uncheck Enable vSphere HA, then click OK.
4. Wait for the task to complete.
5. Click Edit, check Enable vSphere HA, and click OK.
6. Right-click the affected hosts and select Reconfigure for vSphere HA (or initiate a Remediate HA task) to return them to a "Connected" state.