Upgrade to vCenter 8 - Stage 2 failed with empty error message

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

vCenter Server upgrade from 7.x to 8.x fails at the second stage.

• In the VAMI, you see an error: Stage 2 failed 
• In the upgrade runner logs, you see NTP issues as shown:

   

  Error upgrade commands { 'test' : { url ': 'url.precheck.ntp.servers.not.reacheable.error.text', 'translatable': The source vcenter server cannot access the configured NTP servers.

  You can check the appliance NTP configuration in the etc/ntp.config. Make sure that there no connectivity issues between the appliance and the NTP servers

  
  

  Pre-upgrade checks failed on the source host. Check upgrade-source requirements.log.

 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

NTP configuration issues on the source vCenter server and the ESXI host it is running on.

Resolution

• Correct any connectivity issues to the NTP servers.
• Ensure the NTP server is working properly
• Use the ntpq-p command via SSH on the source vCenter Server to confirm it is receiving time and try the upgrade again.