vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image Compliance check fails with "Incompatible" error when trying to upgrade the vSAN witness node via LCM

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to remediate host (vSAN Witness) with the 8.x baseline 
• Error message under the Image Compliance shows as: "Incompatible "
  
  

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

Direct update from ESXi  version : 7.0.3, 24784741 to  ESXi 8.0 Update 3  24022510 is not compatible

Below is the compatibility Matrix for reference : https://interopmatrix.broadcom.com/Upgrade?productId=1&isHidePatch=false&isHideLegacyReleases=false

Resolution

1. Deploy a new witness  (using a free IP in the same subnet as that of existing witness node) through OVA with version VMware-VirtualSAN-Witness-7.0U3c-19193900.ova or a version which is compatible to be upgraded to 8.0.3 24859861
   (If we do not have a free IP we need to shutdown the existing witness and deploy new witness with version 7.0U3c)
2. Change the vSAN cluster to use new witness on version 7.0U3c-19193900
3. Upgrade the witness appliance to VMware ESXi, 8.0.3, 24859861 through LCM 
4. Once all the Nodes including witness gets upgraded to version VMware ESXi, 8.0.3, 24859861
5. Upgraded the disk format version referring VMware vSAN Upgrade Best Practices