My Experience Upgrading vCenter to 5.5 Update 3b

• Ben Liebowitz
• March 15, 2016March 15, 2016
• 0
• 1392

I recently upgraded my vCenter from 5.5 Update 2, to 5.5 Update 3b.  As this is a fairly straightforward process, I didn’t expect anything to go wrong.  I proceeded through all the main components and once completed, attempted to connect to vCenter…  I found I couldn’t connect.  Further investigation found that the service would not start!

Attempting to start the VMware Virtual Center service gave me:

We also found that when we attempted to start VPXD manually from a command prompt, that we received this error:

“The procedure entry point ?CustomizerGuestType@GuestOSType@GuestCust@@….. could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\vpxd.exe”

Further investigation brought us to the following KB Article.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2134141

If you have not yet upgraded to vCenter 5.5 Update 3b, I recommend performing the steps below to prevent this issue from affecting you.

1. From the vCenter Server machine, navigate to C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\05550F1E83248734780F0115742A159D\5.5.0.
   Note: The above path is the default path and may vary depending on the installation.
2. Move the deployPkg.dll file from this location to a backup location.
3. Run the vCenter Server 5.5 Update 3 upgrade.

If you’ve already upgraded, you have two options.

1. Revert to the previous state by reverting the snapshot you took before upgrading & restoring the DB to the backup you took.  Then performing the steps above to prevent the issue from occurring.

or

1. From the vCenter Server machine, navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\
   Note: The above path is the default path and may vary depending on the installation.
2. Move the deployPkg.dll file from this location to a backup location.
3. Download the 2134141_deployPkg.zip file that is attached to the article.
4. Extract the deployPkg.dll into the C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\ directory on the vCenter Server.
5. Start the VMware vCenter Server service and VMware vCenter Management Web Services. For more information, seeStopping, starting, or restarting VMware vCenter Server services (1003895).
6. Uninstall Profile-Driven Storage Service by running this command from an elevated command prompt:
   msiexec.exe /x {7BC9E9D9-3DF6-4040-B4A1-B6A3A8AE75BA} SKIPVCCHECK=1 SUPPRESS_CONFIRM_UNINSTALL=”1″ /qr
7. Install the 5.5 Update 3 version of the Profile-Driven Storage Service by running this command from an elevated command prompt:
   msiexec.exe /L*V “%temp%\sps_vminst.log” /I “vCenter_installation_media_drive :\vCenter-Server\Profile-Driven Storage\VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage.msi” INSTALLDIR=”vCenter_installation_media_drive :\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\” COMPUTER_FQDN= vCenter.domain.com TOMCAT_MAX_MEMORY_OPTION=”S” VC_KEYSTORE_TYPE=PKCS12 VC_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=testpassword VC_SSL_DIR=”vCenter_installation_media_drive:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL\” VC_SPS_EXTENSION_DIR=”C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\extensions\com.vmware.vim.sps\” IS_URL=” https://vCenter.domain.com:10443″ ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1 SKIPVCCHECK=1 /qr

I hope this post helps someone avoid having the problems I did.

Ben Liebowitz, VCP, vExpert
NJ VMUG Leader