NSX VIB removal failed due to DependencyError "VIB VMware_bootbank_vsipfwlib requires nsx-proto2-libs"

Products

• VMware NSX
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When removing NSX VIBs using "esxcli software vib remove" command on ESXi host, the following error message was observed and the command stopped.
  • [DependencyError] VMware_bootbank_vsipfwlib requires nsx-proto2-libs, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile
• ESXi host has been removed from NSX manager cluster but NSX VIBs were remained in ESXi host.
• This was observed when ESXi upgrade 

Environment

• NSX
• ESXi

Resolution

To remove NSX VIBs from ESXi host, "nsxcli -c del nsx" command need to be run instead of "esxcli software vib remove" command.

1. Put the ESXi host into maintenance mode
2. Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal
3. Run esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib' (to check current installed NSX VIBs)
4. Run nsxcli -c del nsx
5. Reboot ESXi host
6. Log in to the ESXi CLI terminal again
7. Run esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsipfwlib' (to check NSX VIBs are removed)

Additional Information

• The similar issue with a different error message is reported in the KB article below:
  • "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""