Upgrade from ESXi 7.0U3 to 8.0, for an image based cluster, fails with the error "An unknown error occurred while performing the operation."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to upgrade ESXi hosts from 7.0 to 8.0 using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) in an image-based cluster, the following error message may be observed:

• The error is triggered after the compliance check completes, preventing remediation of the cluster.
  
  
• The following log snippets are observed in the /var/run/log/lifecycle.log of one of the hosts in the cluster:
  

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:152 ERROR [ModuleNotFoundError] spec not found for the module 'systemStorage.errors'
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR Traceback (most recent call last):
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/usr/lib/vmware/lifecycle/bin/imagemanagerctl.py", line 639, in software
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR     t.ScanImage(swSpec, opts.depots, opts.taskId)
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 1771, in ScanImage
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR     from esximage.ImageManager import DepotMgr as NewDepotMgr
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/tmp/esx-update-1175679/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/__init__.py", line 302, in <module>
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/tmp/esx-update-1175679/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/__init__.py", line 116, in _configurePatcher
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/tmp/esx-update-1175679/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/vmware/esximage/__init__.py", line 83, in _reImportSystemStorage
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR   File "/lib64/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py", line 168, in reload
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ lifecycle: 1175679: imagemanagerctl:157 ERROR ModuleNotFoundError: spec not found for the module 'systemStorage.errors'

Environment

VMware vCenter 8.x
VMware ESXi 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when an unsupported upgrade path is used — specifically, attempting to upgrade directly from a later ESXi 7.x to early ESXi 8.0 releases (GA, 8.0a, 8.0b, or 8.0c).

Resolution

Upgrade the ESXi host to a supported build according to the documented upgrade paths.

Refer to the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix for valid upgrade paths:
https://interopmatrix.broadcom.com/Upgrade?productId=1&isHidePatch=false&isHideLegacyReleases=true