Cannot upgrade to 4.1 - No VIB provides 'vmkapi_1_1_0_0'

[steffenoezcan]

Hi there,

I am trying to upgrade my hosts with Nexus to 4.1, but the installation got stuck.

Situation:

vCenter 4.1, build 258902

Hosts 4.0, build 164009

Nexus 1000V, dual-VSM-configuration, all parts running version 1.3a

I need to patch my hosts to 4.1, including the corresponding VEM-bits. This is what happens (running from the vMA):

[vi-admin@vma tmp][esx1.xxx.xxx]$ vihostupdate -i -b pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip
Enter username: root
Enter password:
Please wait patch installation is in progress ...
Host updated successfully.

------> this part is ok, now comes the strange thing:

[vi-admin@vma tmp][esx1.xxx.xxx]$ vihostupdate -i -b upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip, -b VEM410-201007311.zip
Enter username: root
Enter password:
Please wait patch installation is in progress ...
There was an error resolving dependencies.
   No VIB provides 'vmkapi_1_1_0_0' (required by cross_cisco-vem-v121-esx_4.0.4.1.3.1.0-2.0.3)

I searched the esxupdate.log, but couldnt find anything useful. Dr. Google cant help either. Hope someone over here can.

Best Regards

Steffen

[Robert Burns]

Steffen,

The issue you're hitting is due to some changes VMware made with their APIs that affect our vib integration.

Have a look at this KB article for the workaround.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1024641

If you get back an error that looks like:

The format of the metadata is invalid.Duplicate definitions of bulletin ESX410-GA-esxupdate with unequal attributes.

Rename /etc/vmware/esupdate/bulletins.zip to /etc/vmware/esxupdate/bulletins.old and try the esxupdate again.

Regards,

Robert

[steffenoezcan]

Hi Robert,

thanks for your quick response! You were even faster than me... late in the night i discovered your KB article. But before this happened, i removed the host from the nexus through vCenter and uninstalled the VEM, but this ended with an error, though the VEM was uninstalled after that:

[root@esx1 ~]# vem-remove s -r
Removing CIsco VEM VIB from COS system
Removing VIB cross_cisco-vem-v121-esx_4.0.4.1.3.1.0-0.4.2
Removing cisco-vem-v121-esx     ######################################## [100%]
Running [/usr/sbin/vmkmod-install.sh]...
Encountered error PostScriptError:
The error data is:
   Script      - /usr/sbin/vmkmod-install.sh
   Exitcode    - 255
   Errno       - 19
   Description - A post-transaction script failed with a nonzero exit code.
                 Examine esxupdate logs for more details

The logs told me, that the script was unable to regenerate the initrd image for the host, a file was missing (/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8i). I rebooted and the VEM was uninstalled.

Right after this, i discovered the KB article and deleted the bulletins.zip. I then was able to upgrade the host to 4.1, and afterwards i was able to install the VEM 1.3a. The host is now running fine with 4.1 and 1.3a. But if i now want to add this host to my vCenter 4.1 / Nexus 1000V, the connection to the Update Manager fails and the vCenter service crashes and stops. I need to restart the vCenter service, to connect back to it using the vSphere client. May i was a little bit to quick when disconnecting the host from vCenter and uninstalling the old VEM 1.1 from the host... seems i cant bring that host back online to the Nexus. Logs arent showing something interesting yet.

The error message starts with this:

Call "PropertyCollector.CreateFilter" for object "propertyCollector" on vCenter server...

Any suggestions?

BR,

Steffen

PS: Update Manager is running version 4.1 too, the cluster has 3 hosts (4th is waiting to get installed), with Update Manager running i always had huge issues and tend to do Nexus upgrades and VMware patches the CLI way - Update Manager 4.1 even crashes when trying to add my old host to the nexus :/

[steffenoezcan]

If anyone else cant add a (or his old, to 4.1 upgraded) host to a upgraded vCenter 4.1 connected to a Nexus 1000V, then he (or she) might take a look at this pretty new KB article from VMware:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026009

I finally got my environment to 4.1 (vCenter and Hosts (manually upgraded)) and Nexus 1000V 1.3a, but with downtime due to the problems mentioned in the KB article. Found the KB article just while doing my workaorund :/. May I will try the script from VMware in a test environment, if I have some time. Everyone else, good luck upgrading!

BR

Steffen