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.