vCenter Installation fails at 68%, with an error "please check network connection".

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When deploying a new vCenter appliance on an Equinix Metal (IaaS), you face an issue where the vCenter installation fails at 68% with an error:

"Failed to send file [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.vmdk] to host [ESXi01.testdomain.local], please check the network connection
Installer log files are located at C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\2\vcsaUiInstaller"

The networking on the ESXi hosts are configured correctly and DNS resolution is configured and working as expected.

Equinix Metal Deployment:

The ESXi hosts are deployed on Equinix Metal via the Equinix portal and is deployed as VMware ESXi 8.0 L2 Hypervisor Mode.
This is currently the only mode available for Equinix ESXi deployments.
The ESXi hosts deployed from the Equinix portal is: VMware ESXi 8.0.2 build-22380479.

 

From the Installer log file we see the following:

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: targetServer: ESXI01.testdomain.local, sysName: VCSA01.testdomain.local, ipAddr: 10.x.x.x
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - info: isHost: true Network Mode: static
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: ESXI01.testdomain.local: dnsResolve result for IPv4 : undefined
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - warn: DNS is not resolved to IPv4: Error: queryA ENOTFOUND ESXI01.testdomain.local
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: checking if 10.x.x.x exists in the network of vimConn: undefined
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: isIp: 10.x.x.x: true
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: getVmWithIPFQDN: hostName 10.x.x.x is associated with [ '10.x.x.x' ]
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: token:undefined, length:1, running total:1
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - error: No VM found with hostname 10.x.x.x
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - debug: Error in getVmWithIPFQDN: No VM found with hostname 10.x.x.x
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] - info: Network Prechecks Succeeded

Environment

Equinix Metal (IaaS)
VMware ESXi 8.0.2 build-22380479
VMware vCenter Server 8.0U2

Cause

The vCenter installation fails due to incompatibility between the Equinix Metal deployed ESXi hosts (VMware ESXi 8.0.2 build-22380479), and the version of vCenter you are attempting to deploy (VMware vCenter 8.0.3).

Resolution

Download and deploy the following vCenter version on the ESXi hosts: VMware vCenter Server 8.0U2a – (VMware-VCSA-all-8.0.2-22617221)

VMware vCenter Server 8.0U2a Download

 

 

Additional Information

For compatibility check please reach out to Equinix support.