vCenter Upgrade from 7.x to 8.x fails at vmafd-firstboot "Failed to update attribute vmwMaximumDomainFunctionalLevel with new value 4"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter Upgrade fails at Stage 2 during vmafd-firstboot. Upon checking /var/log/firstboot/vmafd-firstboot.py_xxxx_stderr.log:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ  Failed to update attribute vmwMaximumDomainFunctionalLevel with new value 4. Error: {'result': 19, 'description': 'constraintViolation', 'dn': '', 'message': 'attribute (vmwMaximumDomainFunctionalLevel) can not be modified', 'referrals': None, 'type': 'modifyResponse'}
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ  Error setting the Domain Functional level for vcenter.domain.com to 4
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ  dir-cli failed. Error 19: Possible errors: 
LDAP error: Constraint violation 
Win Error: Operation failed with error ERROR_WRITE_PROTECT (19)

• vmafd firstboot fails while setting the Domain Functional level to 4:
• The domain functional level (DFL) of the vCenter is not "4".

• Modifying the DFL value manually reports same error.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The local SSO Administrator user was deleted and recreated in the past due to which vmafd is unable to modify the Domain Functional Level (DFL) value on the vCenter Server.

Resolution

The DFL value on the Source vCenter 7.x needs to be modified to "4" prior to upgrade.

• /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/dir-cli domain-functional-level set