Error 1603 when upgrading vCenter 6.0u1 to 6.0u2

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Recently ran across this one:

2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: Other process terminated with 0, exiting
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: Process exited with a '0' exit code; no status monitoring so assuming success
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: called parse callback 0 times
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: No need to wait for process to complete
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: Process's job tree still hasn't terminated, waiting
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: MonitorStatusFile: Wait on process's job tree has completed: 0
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: Leaving function: MonitorStatusFile
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| E: LaunchProcAndMonitorStatus: Job still alive, terminating
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: Leaving function: LaunchProcAndMonitorStatus
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: RunFirstLastUpdateboot: Successfully ran boot script: "C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /S /C ""D:\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\run-updatebootrb-scripts.bat"""
2016-06-22 10:23:19.878-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: Leaving function: VM_RunUpdateBoot
2016-06-22 10:23:20.065-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| E: wWinMain: MSI result of install of "D:\Temp\VMware-VIMSetup-all-6.0.0-3634788\vCenter-Server\Packages\vcsservicemanager.msi" may have failed: 1603 (0x00000643)
2016-06-22 10:23:20.065-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| E: LaunchPkgMgr: Operation on vcsservicemanager.msi appears to have failed: 1603 (0x00000643)
2016-06-22 10:23:20.065-07:00| vcsInstUtil-3634789| I: PitCA_MessageBox: Displaying message: "Installation of component VCSServiceManager failed with error code '1603'. Check the logs for more details."

 

The upgrade would get to the VCSServiceManager step, fail and back out. It then left our existing vCenter 6.0u1 installation unable to start.

I did all the standard things you’ll find on VMwares Support site (and recommended by the support rep I got a hold of):

2119768 Error code 1603 when upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0
2127519 Installing the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 fails with the vminst.log error: MSI result of install of “C:\vCenter-Server\Packages\vcsservicemanager.msi” may have failed : 1603
2137365 Upgrade of vCenter from 5.x to 6.0 fails with “Installation of component VCSServiceManager failed with error code ‘1603’. Check the logs for more details.”
2113068 Upgrading or installing VMware vCenter Server 6.0 fails with the vminst.log error: Error in accessing registry entry for DSN
2119169 Installing VMware vCenter Server 6.0 using a Microsoft SQL database fails with the error: An error occurred while starting service ‘invsvc’

None helped.

While waiting for my VMware Support rep to dig through the log files, on a hunch, I made the following changes:

  1. Checkmarked ‘IPv6’ in the network stack for the servers network card
  2. Re-ran the vCenter installer separately by right clicking it and ‘Running As Administrator’ (\VMware-VIMSetup-all-6.0.0-3634788\vCenter-Server\VMware-vCenter-Server.exe)

The installation then succeeded and we have a functioning vCenter again.

Two fun facts:

  1. The UAC is disabled on our server
  2. IPv6 was (and still is) disabled via the registry using these utilities even though I’ve now re-checked IPv6 in the network cards network stack

Our server is in a fairly unique configuration I suspect but hopefully this will help someone else.

18 thoughts on “Error 1603 when upgrading vCenter 6.0u1 to 6.0u2”

  1. I ran into this today as well, same source and destination versions.  We did not have UAC disabled, but did have IPv6 unchecked in the network bindings. The vCenter installer log had no info other than the 1603.

    Honestly I kind of blew off this solution at first. Tried really hard to find something else… when I didn’t, I figured I’d give it a shot before I started a ticket. Totally shocked when it worked.

     

    So you did help at least one other person, Thanks for posting it!

    Reply

  2. Make that two other people. Going round in circles for half a day before I came across this post and blow me down turning on IPv6 in my network stack works.

    Thanks Eric.

    Reply

  3. VMware just released KB: 2138957 to address the 1603 upgrade error. 10/3/2016

    “Installation of component VCSServiceManager failed” error in vCenter Server (2138957)
    Installation of component VCSServiceManager failed with error code ‘1603’. Check the logs for more details

    This fixed our error and allowed us to successfully upgrade to 6.0 Update 2.

    Reply

  5. I was attempting to upgrade from 5.5 to 6.0 and the upgrade failing with “install.vmafd.get_trusted_root_failed”. I enabled ipv6 and performed the upgrade and it worked! Thanks for the info.

    Reply

  6. I’ve been struggling with this issue for two weeks when upgrading to U2A, and finally support came through with a solution.

    The cause was vCenter JRE not being updated correctly.

    To workaround the issue, remove the contents of the jre and then perform the upgrade.

    Steps:

    Stop all vCenter services.
    Take a backup of jre folder located at C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\
    Empty the contents of  jre folder except for the below files :

    C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\libvecsjni.dll

    C:\Program Files\VMware\\vCenter Server\jre\lib\ext\vmware-endpoint-certificate-store.jar

    Perform an upgrade to vCenter Server Update 2a.

    Reply

    • Thank you skeetneet, this really did the trick for me, worked for me trying to upgrade form 2a to 3a.

      Reply

  7. Why on Earth this fixes the install issue, I will never know.

    For those of you stumbling here like the rest of us after hours/days of debugging, please give this a try.

    I’d also like to verify that the exact same issue occurs when going from 6.0u2 to 6.5.

    Thank you very much Eric!

    Reply

  8. This one saved my a lot of time

    Stop all vCenter services.
    Take a backup of jre folder located at C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\
    Empty the contents of  jre folder except for the below files :

    C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\libvecsjni.dll

    C:\Program Files\VMware\\vCenter Server\jre\lib\ext\vmware-endpoint-certificate-store.jar

    Perform an upgrade to vCenter Server Update 3a from 2.

    Many thanks,

    Gildo

     

    Reply

  9. guys, having the same problem, trying to follow the instructions but when i remove the contents in JRE folder vcenter services wont restart, when i restore the files back it starts…

     

     

    Reply

  10. martyn – I just had the same issue going from 6.0 u2 to 6.0 u3, just stop all services, delete the jre files (as stated above) and start the update again, no need to start vcenter, and  – thanks for this post – everyone

    Reply

    • I had exactly the same issue when upgrading to 6.0u2 to 6.0u3 and the jre workaround allowed me to perform the update. Was stacked for almost 2 days, still don’t understand why that fixes the issue but it worked for me.

      Reply

  11. After encountering this issue with the installation rolling back, did you restore your VCDB before trying to re-run the setup? I am encountering this upgrading from 6.0 u2 to 6.5 u2.

    Reply

    • I believe in our case the install would roll back properly and we could try again. That being said, always take a Snapshot of your VM and the database before trying to upgrade :)

      Reply

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