"Solution specification in the image are incompatible with hosts" error when performing an NSX upgrade of ESX Hosts managed by vLCM

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• Performing an NSX upgrade results in a failure: Upgrade failed: Solution specification in the image are incompatible with hosts '####'

• vLCM remediation task fails with: A general system error occurred: Solution apply failed because the vSphere Lifecycle image contains either a new ESXi version or a new addons version or new components.
• NSX Manager UI shows: Solution apply failed on host: '####'
• On the NSX manager UI, as error similar to the following would be seen :

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.x
• VMware NSX 4.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
• vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM)

Cause

vLCM prevents remediation if the desired image contains a component version lower than what is currently installed on the host (downgrade protection). During NSX upgrades, the NSX Manager sends VIBs to vLCM, which may conflict with the existing host image components.

Resolution

1. Refer to Option 1 in the resolution section of article, vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image Compliance check fails with Error: Host not compatible with the image, or Downgrades of manually added Components with instructions for editing VLCM settings for the hosts in vCenter to "select a version of the Vendor Addon that contains higher versions of the components".
2. With a version selected that no longer causes a component downgrade problem for VLCM, a remediation can be performed in vLCM.
3. Since the NSX VIBs would already have been added to vLCM, running the remediation through vLCM at this point will also update the NSX VIBs on the hosts.
4. Once complete, the ESXi transport node upgrade can be run again through the NSX Manager which should detect the current version and mark the ESXi hosts' upgrade as complete.