vCenter Server Update Fails With Error "Internal error occurs during execution of update process"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• While updating vCenter Sever, the pre-update check with error :  "Internal error occurs during  execution of update process"
• vCenter Server service vmware-postgres-archiver is not started and does not start manually
• in var/log/vmware/vpostgres/pg_archiver.log.stderr log file, you can see the error similar to:

<timestamp> ERROR  pg_archiver could not send replication command "TIMELINE_HISTORY": ERROR:  could not open file "pg_wal/00000006.history": No such file or directory
<timestamp> ERROR  pg_archiver disconnected

 

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

• Backup vCenter Server or take a powered-off Snapshot of all vCenter nodes in the same SSO domain "in ELM" before any activity that will include changes in the vCenter Server.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/313886/vmware-vcenter-in-enhanced-linked-mode-p.html

• Drop the replication slot that the archiver uses

#/opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -c "SELECT pg_drop_replication_slot('vpg_archiver');" postgres

•  Create missing pg_wal/00000006.history from the last existing one (00000004.history for example)

#cp -p pg_wal/00000004.history pg_wal/00000006.history

• Start service

#service-control --start vmware-postgres-archiver

•  Perform vCenter Server update