Host profile version check failure during vCenter upgrade in VMware Cloud Foundation

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The upgrade of a workload domain vCenter Server in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fails during the validation phase because it is interrupted by a version compatibility check for host profiles.
  
  
• The vCenter Reduced Downtime Upgrade (RDU) precheck returns the following error:
  
  "The host profiles are of version Host Profile-ESXi_Name which is lower than version 8.0.0. Cannot continue with upgrade process since the host profiles are incompatible with the target vCenter version."
  
  
  
  
• Log snippet from /var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-debug.log on the SDDC Manager shows the following error:
  
  

  {"severity":"ERROR","stage":"VCENTER_UPGRADE_PRECHECK","timestamp":##########,"message":{"id":"vcenter.deployment.migration_upgrade.vcdb_validations.invalid_host_profile_version.error","defaultMessage":"The host profiles are of version Host Profile - <vCenter_Name> which is lower than version 8.0.0. Cannot continue with upgrade process since the host profiles are incompatible with the target vCenter version.","messageAttributes":{"0":"[]"},"localizedMessage":"The host profiles are of version Host Profile - <vCenter_name> which is lower than version 8.0.0. Cannot continue with upgrade process since the host profiles are incompatible with the target vCenter version."},"originator":"VCENTER","errorType":"RECOVERABLE","remediationActions":[{"id":"vcenter.deployment.migration_upgrade.vcdb_validations.invalid_host_profile_version.resolution","defaultMessage":"Remove the incompatible host profiles or upgrade the host profiles with version Host Profile - <vCenter_name> on the source vCenter to version 8.0.0 or later.","messageAttributes":{"0":"[]"},"localizedMessage":"Remove the incompatible host profiles or upgrade the host profiles with version Host Profile - <vCenter_name> on the source vCenter to version 8.0.0 or later."}],"referenceToken":"#####"},{"severity":"WARNING","stage":"VCENTER_UPGRADE_PRECHECK","timestamp":##########,,"message":{"id":"upgrade.vcIntegrity.warning.description","defaultMessage":"Files that cannot be used with Lifecycle Manager  will not be copied from the source. These files include VM guest OS patch baselines, host upgrade baselines and files, and ESXi 7.0 and lower version host patches baselines.","messageAttributes":{"0":"[]"},"localizedMessage":"Files that cannot be used with Lifecycle Manager  will not be copied from the source. These files include VM guest OS patch baselines, host upgrade baselines and files, and ESXi 7.0 and lower version host patches baselines.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x
• VMware vCenter 9.x

Cause

 vCenter 9.x Reduced Downtime Upgrade (RDU) validations strictly require a minimum baseline of version 8.0.0 for all host profile objects. Profiles created in vSphere 7.x utilize an incompatible metadata schema that cannot be processed by the vCenter 9.x lifecycle manager.

Resolution

To resolve the precheck failure, remove the legacy host profiles from the source vCenter inventory:

1. Log in to the vSphere Client.
2. Navigate to Policies and Profiles > Host Profiles.
3. Select the affected vCenter Server.
4. Identify profiles with versions lower than 8.0.0.
5. Click Actions and select Delete.
6. Restart the upgrade workflow from the SDDC Manager or VCF Operations UI.