Tag: upgrade

vCenter 7 Upgrade Error Due to Expired Password

If you are attempting to upgrade your vCenter Server and are getting stuck in stage one while connecting to the source appliance, a simple password change may get you going again. In my case, I was upgrading from vCenter 6.7 U2 to 7.0 but this could certainly occur with other upgrade paths as well. I got the following error:

“A problem occurred while getting data from the source vCenter Server.”

vs7-upgfail

The error message is pretty non-descript, but we do get the option to download some logging. In the log file downloaded, it seems pretty clear that this is an authentication problem:

2020-04-12T20:13:55.435Z - info: VM Identifier for Source VC: vm-16
2020-04-12T20:13:55.568Z - debug: initiateFileTransferFromGuest error: ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
2020-04-12T20:13:55.568Z - debug: Failed to get fileTransferInfo:ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
2020-04-12T20:13:55.568Z - debug: Failed to get url of file in guest vm:ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
<snip>
2020-04-12T20:13:55.569Z - error: Failed to read the nodetype, Error: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.
2020-04-12T20:13:55.569Z - info: Checking if password expired
<snip>
2020-04-12T20:13:58.915Z - info: Stream :: close
2020-04-12T20:13:58.915Z - info: Password not expired
2020-04-12T20:13:58.917Z - error: sourcePrecheck: error in getting source Info: ServerFaultCode: Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.

Despite double checking that my credentials were correct, the logging insisted that there was something wrong with them. The logging also states that the password was not expired. Despite this, I decided to check anyway:

root@vc [ ~ ]# chage -l root
You are required to change your password immediately (root enforced)
chage: PAM: Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required

Well, that’ll do it. Looks like the root password was expired after all. I found it odd that it allowed me to login via SSH without any kind of password expiry warning. I changed the password using the ‘passwd’ root shell command.

root@vc [ ~ ]# passwd
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: it is based on a dictionary word
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@vc [ ~ ]# chage -l root
Last password change                                    : Apr 12, 2020
Password expires                                        : Jul 11, 2020
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 90
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

After changing the password from the CLI, the upgrade progressed normally! Hopefully this tip may help others that get stuck on this step as well.

Ten Tips for a Successful NSX Upgrade

As you’ve probably noticed, VMware is regularly releasing new NSX versions and updates to introduce new features and to improve stability and scalability. Eventually, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’ll either want or need to upgrade. Maybe you want to take advantage of some new features, encountered a problem or your version isn’t supported any more. Whatever the reason, and whatever the version, here are ten tips that will help to ensure your upgrade is successful!

Tip 1 – Check The Compatibility Matrix

Before getting started, you’ll want to thoroughly check the compatibility of your target NSX version. That doesn’t just mean checking if you can upgrade from version X to version Y, but rather to check everything that interacts with NSX in the environment.

Start with the NSX Upgrade Path found at the VMware Interoperability Matrices page. There you may be surprised to find that there are several versions of NSX that are not a feasible upgrade path. For example, you can’t upgrade from NSX 6.2.8 to 6.3.2, nor can you upgrade from 6.2.6 to 6.3.1.

nsxupgtips-1
Taken from the NSX Upgrade Path on VMware’s website.

Once you’ve confirmed that your target version is supported in the upgrade path, you’ll want to look at the Interoperability Matrix to ensure products like vSphere and Cloud Director are compatible. Again, there are several incompatible releases that you may not expect. For example, NSX 6.3.3 and later releases aren’t compatible with vCenter Server 6.0 U1 and older, but are compatible with all releases of 5.5. Another example is the initial release of vSphere 6.5. Only 6.5a or later can be used with any version of NSX 6.3.x.

Continue reading “Ten Tips for a Successful NSX Upgrade”

VUM Challenges During vCenter 6.5 Upgrade

After procrastinating for a while, I finally started the upgrade process in my home lab to go from vSphere 6.0 to 6.5. The PSC upgrade was smooth, but I hit a roadblock when I started the upgrade process on the vCenter Server appliance.

After going through some of the first steps in the process, I ran into the following error when trying to connect to the source appliance.

vumupgrade-1

The exact text of the error reads:

“Unable to retrieve the migration assistant extension on source vCenter Server. Make sure migration assistant is running on the VUM server.”

I had forgotten that I even had Update Manager deployed. Because my lab is small, I generally applied updates manually to my hosts via the CLI. What I do remember, however, is being frustrated that I had to deploy a full-scale Windows VM to run the Update Manager service.

Continue reading “VUM Challenges During vCenter 6.5 Upgrade”