vCenter upgrade fails from 7.0u3 to 8.0u3, on Stage 2 with error - internal error occurs during pre-upgrade checks

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter 7.0 to 8.0 upgrade fails at stage 2 with below error

  internal error occurs during pre-upgrade checks

   

• In the vCenter var/log/vmware/upgrade/upgrade-post-import.log:  we see entries similar to below

  INFO __main__ Set root upgrade folder to: /tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dir5dm1X0B0nc/tmpmeffBaTAry/payload/component-scripts
  INFO sdk_utils Loading external install configuration from /tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dir5dm1X0B0nc/tmpmeffBaTAry/config/vcsa_install_config.json
  ERROR __main__ Upgrade Phase 'vcha:CollectRequirements' failed. Exception: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/vmware/vcha/vcha-scripts.log'
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dir5dm1X0B0nc/tmpmeffBaTAry/payload/componentPhaseLauncher.py", line 453, in main
  module = __import__(upgradeModuleName, globals(), locals())
  File "/tmp/vmware-upgrade-temp-dir5dm1X0B0nc/tmpmeffBaTAry/payload/component-scripts/vcha/__init__.py", line 15, in <module>

Environment

• vCenter Server 8.x
• vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the VCHA folder is missing from var/log/vmware 

Resolution

Since the VCHA folder is missing, it needs to be manually recreated under /var/log/vmware.

Steps to follow:

 

1. SSH into vCenter Server with root user
2. Navigate to the directory /var/log/vmware

   cd /var/log/vmware

3. Create the vcha directory

   mkdir vcha

4. Set the appropriate ownership

   chown vpxd:root vcha

5. Adjust the permissions

   chmod 644 vcha

6. Check if the below VCHA-related log files are generated automatically in the vcha directory
   is_patching_allowed.log
vmware-vcha.log
   
   

   ls -larth /var/log/vmware/vcha

7. Retry the upgrade