"Downgrades of manually added Components VMware Tools Async Release(#.#.#) in the desired ESXi version are not supported."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to deploy or update the image of ESXi host(s) utilizing Lifecycle Manager Image Deployment the following error is presented:

Error: Downgrades of manually added Components VMware Tools Async Release(#.#.#) in the desired ESXi version are not supported."

Environment

7.x
8.x

Cause

The version of VMware Tools on the target host currently installed is newer than the version on the image

Resolution

Use these steps to Edit the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image for the ESXi host and remove the addon package for Tools:

1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to a cluster or host that you manager with a vLCM image.
2. On the Updates tab, select Hosts > Image.
3. In the Image card, click the Edit button.
4. In the Edit Image card, modify the image set-up
5. Select tool version that matches the ESXi host and add this to the image.
6. Validate the image by clicking the Validate button.
7. Click Save

Once saved, attempt the deployment of the image and the host remediation should complete without error.

Note: You can also downgrade the version of VMware Tools on the host to a lower version than the image being applied by following the directions below:

How to roll back an upgraded VMware Tools offline VIB bundle to a previous version

Additional Information

Steps are in the Edit a vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image section of the following: Working with Images