Patching of VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x (with vCenter High Availability) enabled fails

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to follow before patching vCenter HA enabled vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 systems to different update lines.

Symptoms:
Patching of VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x (with vCenter High Availability) enabled fails.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to a DB schema change while patching of vCenter HA enabled on VCSA 6.7.x.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3b, available at VMware Downloads.

Note: Before proceeding with the patching, ensure that the vCenter Server FQDN is properly resolvable and there are no duplicate DNS entries for the FQDN in the DNS Server due to a known issue. For more information, see Clean up duplicate DNS records of vCenter (76406) .

This is a known issue affecting patching of vCenter HA enabled on vCenter Server 6.7.U3a and earlier patches of 6.7, please refer the below table for more information.
 

Path (vCenter HA enabled)	Behavior (Patching Support)
VCSA67GA to VCSA 67U1x,67U2x,67U3x	Not Supported
VCSA67U1x to VCSA 67U2x,67U3x	Not Supported
VCSA67U2x to VCSA 67U3x	Not Supported
VCSA67U3 to VCSA 67U3a	Not Supported
VCSA67U3 to VCSA 67PU3b	Supported
VCSA67U3a to VCSA 67U3b	Supported

Workaround:
To work around this issue for unsupported paths:

vSphere Client

1. Select the vCenter Server object.
2. Navigate to Configure > vCenter HA.
3. Select the option Remove vCenter HA. This automatically shutdown and delete the passive and witness node.
4. Patch the vCenter Server.

vSphere Web Client

1. Select the vCenter Server object.
2. Navigate to Configure > vCenter HA.
3. Click Edit.
4. Select the option Remove vCenter HA. This automatically shutdown and delete the passive and witness nodes if using the Basic Deployment. If using an Advanced deployment, you need to manually power off and delete the passive and witness nodes.
5. Patch the vCenter Server.

For more information see:

• Patch a vCenter High Availability Environment
• Patching the vCenter Server Appliance by Using the Appliance Management Interface