Pre Upgrade errors during vCenter upgrade and ERROR: "service name "wcp" is invalid" when starting wcp service

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When upgrading vCenter Server to version 8.0.3i, the process fails during the precheck or service startup phase specifically at the WCP (vSphere Cluster Services) service.

The following error is observed in the update logs - /var/log/vmware/applmgmp/update_microservice.log:

ERROR - Can't read JSON file /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json Expecting ',' delimiter: line 4 column 5 (char 53)

Additionally, attempting to manually start the service using service-control --start --wcpsvc may report an invalid JSON format or missing service.

Cause

The wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json file contains a formatting error. This invalid JSON structure prevents the vmware-vmon service from parsing the configuration, causing the WCP service to fail and halting the upgrade.

Resolution

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must restore the wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json file to its correct JSON format by removing the invalid entries or reverting to a known good backup.

Procedure

1. Access the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH or the appliance shell.
2. Navigate to the service configuration directory:
   cd /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/
3. Identify and back up the current file:
   cp wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json /root/wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json.bak
4. Review the file content to identify the invalid line (identified as line 4 in the error in the introduction):
   • For our Format error it was missing the ',' on line 4.
   • This caused the file to be in an invalid JSON format.
5. Restore or correct the file:
   • If a clean backup exists (e.g., wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json-backup, wcpsvc-vmonconfig.json.bak, etc..), compare the two and remove the invalid line from the active configuration.
   • Note: Ensure all backup files with invalid formats are moved out of the /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/ directory, as the upgrade precheck may attempt to read them.
6. Verify and restart services:
   service-control --start wcpsvc
7. Retrigger the upgrade to 8.0U3i.

Additional Information

Also See: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/367329/error-service-name-wcp-is-invalid.html