vCenter installation fails with an error "Timed-out waiting for IP from Virtual Machine"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Attempting to install vCenter may fail at the OVF deployment stage with an error "Timed-out waiting for IP from Virtual Machine"
• We may see the below log entries in the C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsa-Ui-Installer-xxxx-xx-xx\installer.log: 
  

  xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - INFO -  [START] Start executing Task: Validate the provided ip/fqdn is available to use at #:#:#
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - INFO - Pinging IPv4 address x.x.x.x
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - DEBUG - Ping Result error 1:
Pinging #.#.#.# with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out. 
Request timed out.

  Ping statistics for #.#.#.#:
    Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),
)
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - INFO - Time-out pinging  x.x.x.x.
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - INFO - Pinging IPv4 address vCenter.example.com
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx - vCSACliInstallLogger - DEBUG - Ping Result error 1:
Pinging  #.#.#.# with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

  Ping statistics for  #.#.#.#:
    Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),
)

  
  xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx  - vCSACliInstallLogger - ERROR - Error: OVF Tool:Completed with errors
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx  - vCSACliInstallLogger - INFO - OVF Tool:

   

• C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsa-Ui-Installer-xxxx-xx-xx\workflow_xxxxxxxxxx\embedded_vCSA_on_ESXi\ovftool.log might report error as shown below: 
  
  xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx verbose OVFTool[39280] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Parsed product version2: 4.1 -> 4.1.0
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx info OVFTool[39280] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] WaitForIp for: 'vim.VirtualMachine:xx'
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx verbose OVFTool[28772] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Keeping VI session alive
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx error OVFTool[39280] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Timed-out waiting [15 minutes] for IP
xxxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx verbose OVFTool[39280] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Exception thrown: class boost::exception_detail::clone_impl<struct boost::exception_detail::error_info_injector<class OvfToolException> >(Timed-out waiting for IP from Virtual Machine)

Cause

This could be due to environmental network issues like firewall blocks, DNS resolution failures etc.,

Resolution

It is advised to check the internal network and ensure the assigned IP address is reachable by the machine where vCenter is being deployed.