Access Appliance Precheck 8.1 upgrade fails to run due to uninstalled python packages.

Problem

Access Appliance Precheck 8.1 upgrade fails to run due to uninstalled python packages.

Error Message

7.4.3 ADDON precheck for upgrade to 8.1 fails - ADDON does not include necessary python modules/scripts needed.

va743a-02.Software> Precheck VRTSaccess-app-update-8.1-1.x86_64.rpm
The preupgrade checks will take a few minutes to complete

V-409-776-30059: Status of the preupgrade tests is currently unavailable. No preupgrade test result to display. Wait for some time and try again.

Cause

The first time the precheck is run, it extracts the contents of the Precheck RPM which contains the precheck scripts.  There is a necessary python package that is included in the Precheck RPM, but it is not installed automatically and causes the python precheck to fail when it can't locate the necessary modules.

Attempting to run the precheck manually reveals the issue:
 

va743a-01:/home/maintenance # cd  /inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/
va743a-01:/inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query # ./bin/python /inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/preflight_check_control.py --patch /inst/patch/appliance/available/VRTSaccess-app-update-8.1-1.x86_64.rpm --node_list va743a-01 va743a-02
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/preflight_check_control.py", line 4, in <module>
    from future import standard_library
ImportError: No module named future

Solution

To resolve this, we can install the python future RPM with the included script.  This script will only be accessible once the precheck for 8.1 has already been run once (and failed), as the 8.1 upgrade RPM will need to be extracted before we can install the python2-future RPM.

1. Run the precheck first to extract the precheck RPM contents, which will show the failure.  If this was already run and the above error was noted, you can skip to step #2.
 

va743a-02.Software> Precheck VRTSaccess-app-update-8.1-1.x86_64.rpm

The preupgrade checks will take a few minutes to complete.

V-409-776-30059: Status of the preupgrade tests is currently unavailable. No preupgrade test result to display. Wait for some time and try again.

2. From an elevated maintenance (bash) prompt, use hacli to install the python2-future rpm on both cluster nodes simultaneously: 

# hacli -cmd "/inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/future_install.sh"

va743a-02: package python2-future is not installed warning: /inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/python2-future-0.18.2-2.el7.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 352c64e5: NOKEY

Install python2-future on system successfuly.

va743a-01: package python2-future is not installed warning: /inst/patch/appliance/installed/8.1/preflight_check_query/python2-future-0.18.2-2.el7.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 352c64e5: NOKEY

Install python2-future on system successfuly.

Verify that the package is installed:

# hacli -cmd "rpm -qa | grep future"

va743a-01:

python2-futures-3.1.1-5.el7.noarch

python2-future-0.18.2-2.el7.noarch >>>>> new rpm

va743a-02:

python2-futures-3.1.1-5.el7.noarch

python2-future-0.18.2-2.el7.noarch >>>>> new rpm

3. Connect back to the Appliance CLISH menu and re-run the precheck for 8.1.  This should succeed now.

va743a-01.Software> Precheck VRTSaccess-app-update-8.1-1.x86_64.rpm

The preupgrade checks will take a few minutes to complete

Started preupgrade check on host va743a-01 at Tue Mar 21 13:58:50 2023   

     Check the status of the appliance software components...                     [PASS]   

     Check whether all service groups are online...                               [PASS]

...