During Host remediation "Setting desired image spec for cluster failed" on vSphere HA due to image created via file. Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on the host.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to enable HA, the following errors and symptoms may be observed:

Task List Errors:

• "Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on the host. 'Setting desired image spec for cluster failed'"

• "Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on the host. Applying HA VIBs on the cluster encountered a failure"

General Symptoms:

• HA remediation tasks get stuck at 10%.

• The Update Manager service frequently stops.

• "No healthy upstream" displayed on the Host updates page and Lifecycle Manager page.

• No errors in vmware-vum-server.log 

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Cause

• Misconfigured custom image from Vendor.
  
  vSphere FDM (Fault Domain Manager), is a "solution," being incorrectly listed as a "component" in the cluster image. This faulty image prevented successful remediation attempts and causes the Update Manager service to crash.

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.148-06:00 info vmware-vum-server[3034753] [Originator@6876 sub=EntityImageManager] [EntityImageManager 540] [Get] image {
-->     "add_on": {
-->         "name": "Cisco-UCS-Addon-ESXi",
-->         "version": "4.3.5-a"
-->     },
-->     "alternative_images": null,
-->     "base_image": {
-->         "version": "8.0.3-0.70.24674464"
-->     },
-->     "components": {
-->         "vsphere-fdm": "8.0.3-24322831"
-->     },
-->     "hardware_support": null,
-->     "removed_components": null,
-->     "solutions": {
-->         "com.vmware.vsphere-ha": {
-->             "components": [
-->                 {
-->                     "component": "vsphere-fdm"
-->                 }
-->             ],
-->             "version": "8.0.3-24674346"
-->         }
-->     }
• HA is a solution so it shouldn't be managed by users (no need to add to a cluster image)

Resolution

• Modify the cluster image to remove the incorrectly listed vSphere FDM "component"
• Click the 3 horizontal dots next to the Edit button to export the image as a json. edit the file to remove the component and reimport it.
  • Before : 

info vmware-vum-server[3034753] [Originator@6876 sub=EntityImageManager] [EntityImageManager 1019] [SoftwareSpecToStr] image spec(JSON String): {
-->     "add_on": {
-->         "name": "Cisco-UCS-Addon-ESXi",
-->         "version": "4.3.5-a"
-->     },
-->     "alternative_images": null,
-->     "base_image": {
-->         "version": "8.0.3-0.70.24674464"
-->     },
-->     "components": {
-->         "vsphere-fdm": "8.0.3-24322831"  <<<-----
-->     },
-->     "hardware_support": null,
-->     "removed_components": null,
-->     "solutions": {
-->         "com.vmware.vsphere-ha": {
-->             "components": [
-->                 {
-->                     "component": "vsphere-fdm"
-->                 }
-->             ],
-->             "version": "8.0.3-24674346"
-->         }
-->     }

• • After : 

{
    "add_on": {
        "name": "Cisco-UCS-Addon-ESXi",
        "version": "4.3.5-a"
    },
    "alternative_images": null,
    "base_image": {
        "version": "8.0.3-0.73.24784735"
    },
    "components": null,                 <<<--------
    "hardware_support": null,
    "removed_components": null,
    "solutions": null
}

• Note : This remediation will not require host reboot.

• Remediation will success and HA will start as expected.