Vsphere VCENTER Server virtual appliance installation Stuck at 80% (and/or RPM installation failed)

I tried to install an old ISO image of the Vcenter virtual appliance from the 2017 and I discovered it was not installable anymore.

The installation progress stuck at 80% and in the end it failed with RPM installation failed.

Reading around it seems a bug in the image itself, the setup process cannot change the root password and so cannot continue and it fails.

Solution (in my case) :

Simply download the latest VCSA .ISO from VmWare site
(I just installed this succesfully: VMware-VCSA-all-6.5.0-7119157.iso )

NOTE: also this version seems to stuck at 80%, it will take a long time to move from 80% but in the end it will be able to pass it and finish the installation

Digger

Vsphere 6.5 setup from USB Key - "Not a COM32R image" error

To install VSphere 6.5 Hypervisor from a bootable USB key let's proceed like this:

1. from VmWare download the ISO file
2. download RUFUS
3. start it
4. open the ISO file form poin 1
5. be sure to set RUFUS with:

- MBR for BIOS or UEFI computers
- FAT32
- cluster size 4096 (default)
- quick format (default)
- create bootable disk using iso (default)
- create extended label and icon (default)

6. insert the USB key in the server and start it , set it to boot from USB or press the boot menu key
7. if you get the error message "Not a COM32R image" then press TAB key, you will see a suggestion like "install hddboot", well...
8. digit the command suggested install hddboot and press Return

The installation begin