ESXi host upgrade from 7.0 to 8.0 fails with "The upgrade has VIBs that are missing dependencies: VMware_bootbank_nsx-datapath_3.1.3.7.0-7.0.19380480"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware NSX-T Data Center

Issue/Introduction

• Upgrade ESXi host from 7.0 to 8.0 via vCenter Lifecycle Manager fails with error:
  
  The upgrade has VIBs that are missing dependencies: VMware_bootbank_nsx-datapath_3.1.3.7.0-7.0.19380480. Remove the VIBs or use Image Builder to create a custom upgrade ISO image that contains the missing dependencies and try to upgrade again. 
  
  
• This happens to ESXi hosts in a particular cluster. ESXi hosts in other clusters can be upgraded with no issue.
• The NSX-T manager is already upgraded to 4.1.2.5 version.
• The NSX-T vibs installed on problematic ESXi hosts are on 3.1.3.7 while the NSX-T vibs installed on those ESXi hosts successfully upgraded are on 4.1.2.5 version checking with command:
  
  esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib'
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0 
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0 
VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

The ESXi host is not installed or configured in NSX-T manager.
As a result, the NSX-T vibs are not upgraded during NSX-T manager upgrade and still on 3.1.3.7 version which is incompatible with ESXi 8.0 target version according to compatibility guide.

Resolution

Uninstall NSX-T vibs from ESXi host:

1. Put the ESXi host into maintenance mode
2. Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal, run nsxcli -c del nsx

Additional Information

For more information on how to uninstall NSX-T from ESXi host, please refer to Uninstall NSX-T Data Center from an ESXi.