Converting an ESXi cluster to be vLCM image managed fails in vCenter Server 7.0u3c with "The following host(s) have an ESXi version higher than ESXi 7.0 U2a and lower than ESXi 7.0 U3c"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• While transitioning an existing ESXi cluster from baseline managed to vLCM image managed, you see an error similar to the following:

The following host(s) have an ESXi version higher than ESXi 7.0 U2a and lower than ESXi 7.0 U3c:

These host(s) must be upgraded to ESXi 7.0U3c or higher version before managing the cluster with a single image

• The cluster being transitioned has hosts in it of any of the following versions (including hot-patched versions) :
  • ESXi 7.0 U2c
  • ESXi 7.0 U2d
  • ESXi 7.0 U3
  • ESXi 7.0 U3a

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.3

Cause

These host versions are known to be problematic when in an vLCM imaged-managed cluster, and can fail during vib deployment operations such as the configuration of vSphere HA or NSX. Due to this, vCenter preemptively blocks clusters with these host versions from being transitioned to image-managed.

Resolution

Ensure all of the hosts in the cluster are upgraded to ESXi 7.0 U3c or above using an upgrade baseline created from an ISO image or using the predefined Critical Host Patches baseline. Do not use the Non-critical Host Patches baseline.

Please refer to KB 318867 for more details

For more information on using baselines to upgrade ESXi, see Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Baselines and Baseline Groups