Resolve third-party VIB preventing vSphere HA agent updates

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Provide information on how to resolve vSphere HA agent problems due to third-party VIBs.

• Unable to install or update the vCenter Server vSphere High Availability (vSphere HA) agent service.
• Powering on virtual machines fails with error:
  
  The host is reporting errors in its attempts to provide vSphere HA support

• In the VMware vCenter Server summary, the below vSphere HA service error may be seen:
  
  vSphere HA agent for this host has an error: vSphere HA agent cannot be correctly installed or configured
   
• Manually removing the FDM agent by running the esxcli software vib remove -n vmware-fdm command may fail with an error similar to:
  
  [DependencyError]
VIB Acronis_bootbank_active_drive_1.0-28 violates extensibility rule checks: [u'(line 48: col 0) Element vib failed to validate content']
Please refer to the log file for more details.
  
  Note: The exact name of the third-party VIB may differ from these messages.

• In the ESXi - /var/run/log/esxupdate.log file, entries similar to may be seen:
  
  bootbank_qlogic_hcli_2.2.60.7.0.0vmw.500.0.0.472560 violates extensibility rule: Installing the VIB
fdm-installer: [24683] 2013-07-18 18:41:45: Result of esxcli software vib install -v=/tmp/vmware-root/ha-agentmgr/vpx-upgrade-installer/vmware-fdm.vib: [DependencyError]
fdm-installer: VIB QLogic_bootbank_qlogic_hcli_2.2.60.7.0.0vmw.500.0.0.472560 violates extensibility rule checks: [u'(line 31: col 0) Element vib failed to validate content']
fdm-installer: Please refer to the log file for more details.

Environment

Cause

A third-party VIB has created a dependency for the vSphere HA agent VIB preventing the ESXi OS from deleting the HA VIB.

Resolution

To identify the third-party VIB causing the problem:

• Review the log file for messages related to third-party VIBs:

cat /var/run/log/esxupdate.log |less

To remove the third-party VIB from the ESXi host:

• Place the ESXi host in Maintenance Mode.
• Disable Lockdown Mode on all hosts in the cluster, if applicable.
• Connect to the ESXi host with SSH session.
• Run this command to find the list of VIBs installed on the ESXi host:
  
  esxcli software vib list

Note: The exact name of the third-party VIB from the "name" column.

• Run this command to remove the third-party VIB seen in the log messages. Replace <vibname> with the exact name of the third-party VIB:
  
  esxcli software vib remove -n vibname

To remove the vSphere HA agent VIB:

• Follow How to remove vSphere HA FDM agent vib from ESXi 

To reinstall the vSphere HA agent VIB:

• Reconfigure HA on a cluster level.
• Browse to the cluster in the vSphere Web Client object navigator.
• Click the Manage tab and click Settings.
• Under Services, click Edit.
• Uncheck the Turn ON vSphere HA option.
• Click OK.
• Click Settings and select Turn ON vSphere HA.
• Click OK.
• Restart management services. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents in ESXi.
• Disconnect and reconnect the host from the vCenter Server.

Note: Repeat all of the steps from this article on any other affected host.

Additional Information

Error: "vSphere HA agent cannot be correctly installed or configured"

Impact/Risks:
Removing third-party VIBs may impact the ability to manage the third-party product until that VIB is reinstalled.