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vSphere 6 Upgrade Fails – “The Upgrade contains the following set of conflicting VIBs:”

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I was upgrading an ESXi 5.5 host for a client and ran into some “Incompatibility” errors. They had a mix of Dell server hosts, but three of them were Dell R715’s and all three were getting upgrade errors. I first tried the update using VMware Update Manager (VUM), and made sure I was using the Dell Customized ISO, which includes Dell specific drivers. (You can download the ISO here: http://goo.gl/3UOeNV ).

After adding the ISO to a new upgrade baseline and scanning the host for updates, I was the following errors:
Compliance State: Incompatible
The upgrade contains the following set of conflicting VIBs:
Mellanox_bootbank_net-mlx4-en_1.9.9.0-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820
Remove the conflicting VIBs or use Image Builder to create a custom upgrade ISO image that contains the newer versions of the conflicting VIBs, and try to upgrade again.

Attempt to continue the upgrade and dismiss the errors, resulted in upgrade failure. Any attempt to upgrade via the CLI also failed.

So what is the problem and how do you fix it?

The problem is with incompatible drivers that are currently on the host. Drivers that aren’t supported by ESXi 6, and drivers that aren’t included in either VMware’s or Dell’s ISO.
This particular VIB is a Mellanox Infiniband HBA, which probably most of us seeing this error do not use.

To remedy this issue and proceed, we need to remove those drivers from the host.

– First, enable SSH on the host that has the issue
– Next, SSH into the host and run the following commands:

~ # esxcli software vib list | grep Mel
~ # esxcli software vib remove -n net-mlx4-en
~ # esxcli software vib remove -n net-mlx4-core
~ # reboot

It may take a min or so after running commands two and three, but it should complete successfully. After rebooting the host, proceed to upgrade via Update Manager or CLI.

After I completed the above instructions and scanned my host again with Update Manager, it found one more incompatible VIB that I had to remove on all three servers.

Compliance State: Incompatible
The upgrade contains the following set of conflicting VIBs:
VMware_bootbank_xhci-xhci_1.0-3vmw.550.3.78.3248547
Remove the conflicting VIBs or use Image Builder to create a custom upgrade ISO image that contains the newer versions of the conflicting VIBs, and try to upgrade again.

I was able to fix this in the same manner I did the previous VIB:

~ # esxcli software vib list | grep Mel
~ # esxcli software vib remove -n xhci-xhci
~ # reboot

VMware Update Manager (VUM) Repositories – HP, Dell, IBM, Lenovo

VMware’s Update Manager is a pretty convenient tool that allows you to patch your ESXi hosts with the latest security, feature, drivers and bug patches. By default, VMware Update Manager downloads these patches from its own repository, but sometimes (usually) doesn’t have the latest drivers and patches for host servers from their actual manufactures (Dell, HP, Cisco, IBM). Most these vendors offer a repository that VUM can use to download drivers from those manufactures. Here is how you do it.

Assuming you have Update Manager installed, in the Windows vSphere Client (Web Client can’t use VUM yet)
1. Go to the “Home” screen.
2. Toward the bottom of the screen, click “Update Manager”

3. Then click on “Configuration” on the Top Tab
4. “Download Settings” on the left side,
5. And finally, click “Add Download Source” above the repository window.

Here you can add URL’s that the manufactures have provided to download the latest drivers and patches. VMware Update Manager will periodically check for new updates from these URLs, and download them automatically. Not every manufacture provides this feature, but here are the ones I could find.

HPE Repository 1
HPE Repository 2
HP Management Tools
Dell
Brocade 1
Brocade 2
Lenovo

VMware Update Manager – Setup failed with an unknown error. vCenter credentials could not be validated

I was installing a new VUM (Vmware Update Manager) environment like I have numerous times in the past, and came upon this error I have never seen before.

“Setup failed with an unknown error. vCenter credentials could not be validated.”

While researching the error, I found one solution that has helped some, but did NOT help me.

– “Update Manager does not like passwords with weird characters. Try using a password with letter and numbers only”

So I continued to play around with Update Manager and found a fix for me. I had to give vCenter permissions for the user I was trying to use with Update Manager. To do this, I did the following:

– Login to vsphere using username: administrator@vpshere.local with your SSO Password

– Select the Root vCenter Object and then click on the “Permissions” tab. Right click in the white space and select “Add Permissions”

– Click on “Add” in the left box and search for “Domain Admins” under your domain (As well as any other users you want to give permissions to. Then give Administrator privileges on the right hand side box and click OK.

– Now finish installing Update Manager, using an account you just gave permissions to.

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