Upgrade to ESXi 7.0: Missing dependencies VIBs Error

This error gets me from time to time, regardless which server vendor, mostly on hosts that were upgraded a couple of times. In this case it was a ESXi host currently running a pretty old build of ESXi 6.7 U3 and my job was the upgrade to 7.0 Update 3c.

If you add a upgrade baseline to the cluster or host, and you try to remediate the host, the task fails with a dependency error. When taking a closer look into the taks details, you were getting told that the task has failed because of a failed dependency, but not which VIB it caused.

You can find the name if the causing VIB on the update manager tab of the host which you tried to update. The status of the baseline is “incompatible”, and not “non-compliant”.

To resolve this issue you have to remove the causing VIB. This is no big deal and can be done with esxcli. Enable SSH and open a SSH connection to the host. Then remove the VIB.

[root@esx-01:~] esxcli software vib list | grep -i ssacli
ssacli                         4.17.6.0-6.7.0.7535516.hpe          HPE        PartnerSupported  2020-06-18
[root@esx-01:~] esxcli software vib remove -n ssacli
Removal Result
   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
   Reboot Required: true
   VIBs Installed:
   VIBs Removed: HPE_bootbank_ssacli_4.17.6.0-6.7.0.7535516.hpe
   VIBs Skipped:
[root@esx-01:~]

You need to reboot the host after the removal of the VIB. Then you can proceed with the update. The status of the upgrade baseline should be now “not-compliant”.