Configuring vSphere HA task fails with error: Cannot install the vCenter Server agent service. Unknown installer error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

After adding patch to vCenter 8, the vSphere HA agent was failed to be updated on the ESXi host.

In the ESXi log, there were several OEM drivers report "DependencyError".

The log was as follow:
--/var/run/log/esxupdate.log
####-##-##T##:##:##Z Er(11) esxupdate[176790491]: esximage.Errors.DependencyError: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB MEL_bootbank_mft_4.25.0.703-0 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
####-##-##T##:##:##Z Er(11) esxupdate[176790491]: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB HPE_bootbank_ilorest_700.4.5.0.0.3-15843807 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
####-##-##T##:##:##Z Er(11) esxupdate[176790491]: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB MIS_bootbank_ssacli2_6.25.9.0-7.0.0.15525992.oem requires esx-version << 8.0.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
####-##-##T##:##:##Z Er(11) esxupdate[176790491]: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB HPE_bootbank_fc-enablement_700.3.9.0.4-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
####-##-##T##:##:##Z Er(11) esxupdate[176790491]: On platform embeddedEsx, VIB MEL_bootbank_mft-oem_4.25.0.703-0 requires esx-version << 7.1.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.

Environment

ESXi 8.0

vCenter 8.0

Cause

Some OEM driver VIBs depend on the deprecated version of vmkapi.

It prevents vSphere HA to be updated.

Resolution

Remove these OEM driver VIBs which depend on deprecated version vmkapi.

1. At first, we should confirm these drivers are not used for current system.
   1.  # esxcli storage core adapter list
   2.  # esxcli network nic list
2. Remove these incompatibility VIBs with "-f force" options.
   1. # esxcli software vib remove -n ilorest -f
   2.  # esxcli software vib remove -n ssacli2 -f
   3.  # esxcli software vib remove -n fc-enablement -f
   4.  # esxcli software vib remove -n mft-oem -f
   5.  # esxcli software vib remove -n mft -f

If these drives were in used, please refer KB318024.
vmkapi version removal and Installing/upgrading implication with ESXi 7.0