error while upgrading VCSA 6.7 to 7.0 (Unknown host)

[makikato]

I am upgrading my VCSA 6.7 to 7.0 I downloaded an ISO image (licensed) and ran the executable file.

As there are 3 stages included in VCSA upgrade . First we need to deploy a new VCSA 7.0 at a different IP. 

Then in 2nd stage data will be migrated from old VCSA to new VCSA.

I have successfully deployed new VCSA 7.0 on a different IP but when I am trying to perform 2nd stage , I am getting below error:

Pre-upgrade check failed due the following problem: Error in method invocation [Errno 1] Unknown host

 

 

[virtual-power]

That seems like the  the new VCSA 7.0 (Stage1) cannot talk to Source(old) 6.7 VC . Make sure they can communicate  (Deploy stage 1 on same ESXi as source and same port group.).

[Andrew Brehm]

Same thing is happening to me.

But this is the only place where Google finds the error message.

Restarting the upgrade in the web browser, it turns out the new vCenter simply cannot connect to anything using the same accounts and passwords that work fine on web interfaces and ssh.

 

[virtual-power]

What is the source  6.7 build and   destination build u r trying

[Franz63]

hello, same issue.

Source vcenter appliance 6.7.0.40000

Destination appliance 7.0.2.00000

thank you for your help

[virtual-power]

Is the source VC services up ?   R u able to login to  HTML for 6.7 U3?   

[Franz63]

hello,

yes, http and ssh services running on both vcsa.

I'm logged in on both oh them.

thank you

[Andrew Brehm]

I don't know if this will help, but I eventually managed to upgrade.

There were lots and lots of issues though. It was less than smooth.

First, make really sure that you have easily-restorable backups of your vCenter VM. The update will go wrong  a few times!

Starting the upgrade using the installer application from Windows managed to set up the new vCenter appliance but failed to migrate the old.

Connecting to the web interface of the new appliance started the upgrade but the web interface eventually times out and there is apparently no way then to check on the status and/or the process will fail if the interface is timed out. When I got it to work it was wen I kept the interface busy so it wouldn't time out on me. This is particularly annoying.

Unfortunately I don't remember most of the things I did to make it work and how many of them were really necessary or useful and how many were rituals that I would now repeat forever without understanding if I could remember.

The key point here is, I guess, that it will eventually work. It just needs a few tries.

All-in-all VMware upgrade processes remain liquid and what is most annoying is the subtle changes in the user interface which makes it difficult to follow instructions to the letter.

Update: After I typed this and clicked "Post", the web site forwarded me to the login page. Luckily the text was then posted when I logged in. But I guess if the logon had failed, it would have been lost. Awful experience with the web forum, it really is.

[dnsnetworks]

What I had to do to resolve the issue:

 

source vcenter

1. Update local host file and add entries to all your ESX servers (IP to FQDN)

destination vcenter (use temp IP to SSH into it)

1. Update local host file and also do the same as the source vcenter)

 

You will need to get onto the UI console screen from your ESX server and enable SSH on the newly to be upgraded vcenter appliance before performing the following above. 

I fairly confident vcenter uses reverse lookup when performing this upgrade. 

[Ravi Shankar]

Are you able to ping/access the old VCSA IP from the newly deployed VCSA appliance(vice-versa)?

Also, what do you see in the "/var/log/vmware/upgrade/bootstrap.log"?

[Franz63]

Thank you for you answare,

yes a can ping fram the new to the old and vice-versa,

I can access both via https and ssh

the showlog command says No log file(s) found

 

[mszopiak]

Hello,
I have the same problem with upgrade my vcenter. Both vcenter apliainace are in the same network, and on both I have access by ssh and https. Someone have ide what can I do?
I have to add that my old vcenter works with orgniala ssl certificat, I didn't change native certiciat on own certificat. pehraps it is wrong, becouse native certificate isn't trusted in web brrows

[carter910]

I had this issue while trying to perform an "upgrade" to 7.0u2. Resolved it by replacing the IP Address with an FQDN for my vCenter and ESXi host in the first page of the upgrade wizard. 

[a.tinivelli]

I closed the wizard and restarted it by the vami, so I could change the IPs with the FQDNs and the process started.

[HesstonNeuf]

Did what you said and needed to enable SSH on both the new and old server before it would continue.

[mikewiltse]

Turn on SSH

I don't know why it doesn't just say this, but SSH must be enabled on your old VC.

[DPgoArmy]

Thanks for that Mike, it resolved my problem!!!

[Mike Gerolami]

Sometimes the simplest things fix the most problems. Just need to sit back and check for those simple things like SSH enable

[MasoodV]

i had same problem. I enabled SSH and that went away. 

 

Thank you

[bbrewerNGT]

Unknown Host typically implies a DNS resolution error. 

- Verify that vCenter's hostname is in DNS forward and reverse lookup zone.

-Verify that the ESXi host that hosts the new/old vCenter appliance is in DNS Forward and reverse lookup zone.

When I ran into this, the ESXi host was not in the forward or reverse lookup zone. Added to DNS and the verification continued.

**I'm aware this post is from earlier this year, however, my hope is it may help someone else with this issue. 

[widsy0]

I had the same problem. As suggested I reviewed PTR records for vcenter and esx hosts and found that many where missing. Once updated the upgrade went fine.

[Avon]

I had the same issue - in my case the windows DNS had all the vCenter & hosts registered OK.

However, no reverse lookup zone was present.

Adding the reverse zone for the IP range & simply refreshing the A records created the required PTR records & all proceeded normally after this.

[ProxyBot3]

this one worked for me.

[ProxyBot3]

this one worked for me like adding entry into reverse dns for the vcsa i am upgrading

make sure forward and reverse lookup have entries for the vcsa you are working on

[Mike Gerolami]

I am having the same issue and thanks for your notes

[JD_Virtustream]

Same problem here. Stage 2 won't install with IP or FQDN and gives the same error you are referencing. I have SSH'd to the Stage 1 vCenter Appliance and can access 443 on the host I'm installing to as well as the 6.7 vCenter I'm upgrading. No dice and nothing in the logs to indicate why the failure is being generated. 

[JD_Virtustream]

Hoping this helps someone else stumbling across this. I had to manually add a host entry in /etc/hosts for the NAT IP of the host I was deploying to. Then installation would progress. Look at the appliance management logs in /var/log/vmware/applmgmt 

That's what pointed me to name resolution. 

[D_G_Tal]

Turn on SSH

[Kejun Ping]

The Root Cause of this proble is because when you added esxi hosts to vcenter server in the beginning，you used esxi host's FQDN to add and you didn't configure Reverse DNS Lookup on your DNS server，so when you use host IP address in VCSA configuration，VCSA cannot recognize host IP address's corresponding FQDN in vcenter.  You only have to configure Reverse DNS Lookup of esxi host's FQDN and IP address，or just use host's FQDN when you configure VCSA.

[OptimumGroup]

It were 2 things in my case:

1: Use FQDN instead of IP address.

2: The NTP server and timezone was wrong on the source VCenter.

After correcting the 2 things above it worked for me.

[AndyB_EEBC]

We are carrying out the upgrade and ran into the same issue, even just using IP addresses for all the hosts from the beginning.

 

SSH was already enabled on the source vSphere appliance so to fix the problem I had to ensure both the source vSphere appliance and ESXi hosts had Reverse DNS entries.

Once these were added Stage 2 of the upgrade was able to continue.

Hope this helps and thanks to those that suggested adding in the Revers Lookup entries in DNS

[Amroafzal]

Make sure you do not have any orphaned or inaccessible vms in your inventory.

 

[JfinchNSD]

Hello,

Ran into this issue and this was the only forum I found that had anything about it. I was going crazy trying to figure it out and ended up having to update the DNS records for both the Vcenter server that was being upgraded and the esxi host it was on and then use the FQDN from the DNS entry on the updater IP/FQDN section.

 

Hope this helps anyone running into the same issues.

[libsu]

I just opened the DNS A-record of the old vcenter, checked "update associated pointer record" and hit apply. Works well after that. SSH was was always enabled for me.

[shoeb.md1312]

In my case 
1. Enable SSH on each appliance and ESXI Host
2. Use FQDN instead of IP address.