Cisco UCS vsphere esxi upgrade 6.5U2 => 7.0U3 - MISSING_DEPENDENCY_VIB

[fpiccinin]

Hi guys,
we are experencing a MISSING_DEPENDENCY_VIBS_ERROR issue while performing a vmware esxi vsphere upgrade (6.5U2 => 7.0U3).
Please take a look to the attached snapshots

The esxi is running on a Cisco UCS C240 M4S
BIOS rel: C240M4.4.1.2c.0.0202211902
FW rel: 4.1(2g)

In order to perform the upgrade, we are using this VMware ESXI 7.0 custom iso: VMware-ESXi-7.0.3-Custom-Cisco-4.2.1-a.

Do you have any info about the correct procedure?

Do we need to perform an intermediate upgrade?

Thanks

Francesco

[b.winter]

First: Why are you upgrading to 7 U3? Only U1 would be supported for Collab VM's of version 14: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-unified-communications-manager.html

Second: According to the VMware upgrade matrix, a direct upgrade from 6.5 U2 to 7.0.x is not supported, so you need to make a pre-step to 6.7.x.
https://interopmatrix.vmware.com/Upgrade?productId=1

What's the exact file name, that you got?
If I download the current ISO, I have: "VMware-ESXi-7.0.3d-19482537-Custom-Cisco-4.2.2-a.iso", but I never use the ISO, I always use the Offline Bundle, which is a ZIP file.
I then upload it to the datastore and perform the upgrade via CLI commands:

esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastorex/<directory>/<file-name> (case sensitive)

reboot

[Roger Kallberg]

The documentation actually says that later versions are supported. The U1 version is the lowest version of ESXi 7 that is supported, this does not mean that newer are not supported.

”ESXi maintenance releases within a supported ESXi major/minor (e.g. within "6.7", "6.7 U2"): all are supported unless otherwise indicated. Application versions with known incompatibilities will specify in their technical documentation if they do not support certain ESXi maintenance releases, or if they require a minimum maintenance release, or if they only support "up to" a certain maintenance release.”

[Mark.Doney]

This is wrong Upgrading from 6.5U2 to 7.0U3 is supported.  You just need to uncheck the 'Hide Legacy Releases' checkbox in your link.

[b.winter]

@fpiccinin any update here?

[fpiccinin]

Hi guys,

we were able to solve the issue just removing the "conflicting vibs" before upgrading to vpshere 7.x.

In order to uninstall the vibs, you must enable ssh on the host and use the vsphere power shell commands.

Here you are some usefull links:

https://community.cisco.com/t5/unified-computing-system-discussions/cisco-custom-iso-upgrade-to-esxi-6-5-conflicting-vibs-error/m-p/3817680

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-7FFEBD91-5D82-4E32-93AB-F10D8BFFECAA.html

In response to @b.winter:

- vpshere 6.5 an 6.7 have been declared EOS on 15/10/2022 (https://core.vmware.com/blog/reminder-vsphere-6567-end-general-support)

- from the vmware compatibility upgrade matrix I can't see any limitation or warning in the path 6.5U2 => 7.0U3 as direct upgrade is supported without warning.

Thanks

BR

Francesco