Upgrading a sddc based vCenter from 7 to 8 fails with: Executing VMware License Service post upgrade actions Upgrade phase timed out

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to upgrade vCenter in a VCF environment the upgrade fails with Upgrade phase timed out.

Checking the workflow log located at /var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/venter/*** you see following:

DEBUG
Requesting deployment status from target VCSA REST API endpoint 'https://**.**.*.**:****/ ==VCSA Deployment Progress Report====
Task: Import data into appliance. (FAILED 53/100) -Executing VMware License Service post upgrade actions...
Error: Upgrade phase timed out. The time planned for the upgrade phase was 60 minutes. The upgrade phase has already been running Resolution: To extend the default timeout, set environment variable UPGRADE_EXPORT_TIMEOUT for export upgrade phase, UPGRADE_IMPOR T_TIMEOUT for import upgrade phase, and UPGRADE_POST_IMPORT_TIMEOUT for import historical data phase. The timeout is in minutes.
VCSACliInstallLogger
-
INFO
-
The VCSA deployment has failed

 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7x

VCF

Cause

The upgrade script of the licensing component failed because it tried to log some structure without properly formatting the log string and that caused the PostUpgrade phase to fail.

Resolution

Engineering is aware of this possible scenario occurring and will be implementing a permanent fix in a future release.

Workaround:

Perform an out of band upgrade of the vCenter.

After stage 1 of the upgrade (deploy appliance) completes do the following:

1. ssh into the target VCSA and edit the following file:
   /usr/lib/vmware/cis_upgrade_runner/payload/component-scripts/license/license_service_connector.py.
2. Remove line 149:
   logger.info("Successfully uploaded license:", res)
3. save the file, and then continue with stage 2 of the installer.
4. Upon completion perform an inventory sync in sddc