"The supplied System Name <vCenter Server Appliance FQDN> is not valid" error upgrading or deploying vCenter Server Appliance

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Upgrading vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 fails.
• Deploying vCenter Server Appliance 7.x
• In the firstbootStatus.jason file, you the error:

"failedSteps": "visl-support-firstboot"

 

• In the visl-support-firstboot.py_####_stderr.log file, you see the error:

The supplied System Name <vCenter Server Appliance FQDN> is not valid

GUI Error: Firstboot script execution Error. The supplied System Name vCenter_Server_FQDN is not valid.

Note: Firstboot logs are located at /var/log/firstboot directory.

For more information on:

• Firstboot issues, see Firstboot Failed during Install/Deployment, Upgrade or Migration in vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 (55746​).
• Collecting a log bundle or review log files for vCenter Server Appliance install, upgrade, or migration issues, see Triaging a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 installation, upgrade, or migration (6.0 U2m) failure (2106760). 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the DNS record for the vCenter Server Appliance is incorrect or does not exist.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, verify that the FQDN has a valid (internal) domain name system (DNS) registration before upgrading vCenter Server Appliance.  

For more information about DNS requirements see: DNS Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance.

1. Open the console to the vCenter Server Appliance and press F2 and log in with root credentials.
2. To enable shell, run this command.
   
   shell.set --enabled true
    
3. Enter shell with this command:
   
   shell
    
4. Ping the DNS servers to confirm communication with this command:
   
   ping dns.dns_server.com
    
5. Use nslookup to make sure the vCenter Server Appliance and DNS Server can be resolved:
   nslookup vCenter_Server_Appliance_FQDN
   nslookup DNS_Server_FQDN [Note: Run this against all DNS Servers configured in VCSA]
6. Use the nslookup command to resolve the shortname.
7. Check the hosts file for invalid dns names
   • cat /etc/hosts
8. After underlying networking issue is resolved, deploy/upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance.

Additional Information

Related Information: VMware vCenter failed firstboot