Unable to enable/reconfigure HA on cluster after ESXi upgrade

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi was recently upgraded
• When attempting to enable/configure HA on the cluster it fails with the following error(s):

"Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA Agent on the host. Applying HA VIBs on the cluster encountered a failure. Failed installing HA component on the host: host-128. There are component relation and content problems with the image"

"A general system error occurred: Installing HA components failed on the cluster: domain-c109"

• The /var/log/lifecycle.log on the ESXi host shows the following error

2025-02-25T17:01:07Z Db(15) lifecycle[5851469] Transaction:2726 Adding solution com.vmware.vsphere-ha (version 8.0.3-24322831) to the image profile.
2025-02-25T17:01:07Z In(14) lifecycle[5851469] Transaction:462 Final list of components being installed:
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Db(15) lifecycle[5851469] ImageProfile:2016 Falling back to VIB validation with orphan VIBs VMware_bootbank_esx-ui_2.13.2-22721163 present.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:98 [DependencyError]
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11)[+] lifecycle[5851469] On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_stHypervisorSvc_5.5.1-7 requires esx-version <= 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11)[+] lifecycle[5851469] On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_hxtools_5.5.1-28 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11)[+] lifecycle[5851469] On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_scvmclient_5.5.1-38 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103 Traceback (most recent call last):
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103   File "/usr/lib/vmware/lifecycle/bin/imagemanagerctl.py", line 412, in components
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103     Transaction(initInstallers=False).InstallComponentsFromSources(
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103   File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 464, in InstallComponentsFromSources
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103     stagedPath, exitstate = self._validateAndInstallProfile(
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103   File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 1343, in _validateAndInstallProfile
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103     raise e
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103 vmware.esximage.Errors.DependencyError: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_stHypervisorSvc_5.5.1-7 requires esx-version <= 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103 On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_hxtools_5.5.1-28 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
2025-02-25T17:01:08Z Er(11) lifecycle[5851469] imagemanagerctl:103 On platform embeddedEsx, VIB CIS_bootbank_scvmclient_5.5.1-38 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.

Environment

vCenter 8.0.x

ESXi 8.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to custom VIBs installed on the host which are not compatible with the version ESXi is currently running

Resolution

1. Identify the VIB(s) from ESXi lifecycle.log which is preventing the HA from being installed on the host successfully

NOTE - In the example above, VIBs CIS_bootbank_scvmclient_5.5.1-38, CIS_bootbank_hxtools_5.5.1-28 and CIS_bootbank_stHypervisorSvc_5.5.1-7 are incompatible with the ESXi host

2. Contact the 3rd party vendor which supplied the VIB(s) and request the new VIB(s) that compatible with the version of ESXi you are running

3. Remove the incompatible VIB(s) from the ESXi host and re-install the VIB(s) with the appropriate version to match the ESXi host

4. After installing the appropriate VIB(s) reconfigure HA on the host/cluster once again