vCenter 7 patching

[jamesruffo]

Can I apply a patch twice?  I have patched my vCenter 7.0.3 to build 22357613 (.001700) but it is not working properly and I am unable to get to VAMI.  I was wondering if I could apply the patch again in the hopes that it would work correctly this time.  I tried getting to the shell to see what services were running but I have an error with the Python library environment variable that does not allow service-control to work.  I also tried chsh command but I get a permission error even though I am logged in as root.  Any help would be appreciated.  I have already updated my vSAN hosts to 7.0.3o, so reverting to the backed up version of my vCenter might cause issues.  

[pcgeek2009]

It is not going to accept the running of the patch a second time. When it checks the current system, it will see it is at the same version. Did you by chance take a snapshot of the vCenter server before performing the upgrade? This gives you a snapshot to rollback to in the event of a problem. The second option, which is part of the upgrade process, was to take a backup of vCenter to rollback to. This way, you can roll back to the previous version and try the upgrade again. 

[Camero]

Upgrade your vcenter to the latest Patch version 7.0.3.01800. This should be shown on the VAMI update page.

btw, ESX host patch level  has no bearing on vCenter patch - treat it as any appliance just running on the ESXi host.

[degvm]

HI, perhaps your installation is not finished correctly, doublecheck the software_update_state.conf

The software_update_state.conf also shows install in progress:
{
    "state": "INSTALL_IN_PROGRESS",
    "version": "7.0.3.01700",
    "latest_query_time": "sometime here _ Z",
    "operation_id": "/storage/core/software-update/install_operation"
}

In order to resolve the issue perform the following:

Login to the appliance using ssh
Create a backup copy of the file /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf in a different location, e.g. in /storage/core:

# cp /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf /storage/core/software_update_state.conf

Stop the VAMI service by running the command:

# service-control --stop applmgmt

Remove the file /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf:
# rm -i /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf

change into the folder /var/log/vmware/upgrade:
# cd /var/log/vmware/upgrade

verify that the following 3 files exist in this folder:

prechecks-succeeded
export-succeeded
import-succeeded

If these files do not exist, run the following 3 commands to create them:

# touch prechecks-succeeded
# touch export-succeeded
# touch import-succeeded

confirm that the files have been created:

# ls -l   

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Mar 11  2019 prechecks-succeeded
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Mar 11  2019 import-succeeded
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Mar 11  2019 export-succeeded

Start the VAMI service using the following command:

# service-control --start applmgmt
 
Login to the VAMI to validate the access

Retry the patching then again.