When installing an instance of a VMware vSphere vCenter Server virtual appliance, version 6.0 Update 1, I ran into an issue who's cause wasn't very apparent. While deploying the vCSA through Google Chrome, the process hung at the following step: Installed iPXE-1.0.0-1.2882051.vmw.i686.rpm.

The deployment log files are located at: C:\Users\vmwareUser\AppData\Local\VMware\CIP\vcsaInstaller\sessions\session_0004\logs. The logs gave no indication of the problem.

This was ultimately due to an incorrect configuration within DNS. The DNS entry was not setup for the vCSA. After creating the correct DNS entry and restarting the deployment, it completed successfully.

When trying to update a VMware vCenter Server Appliance to 6.0 Update 1 via SSH, I ran into an authentication problem.

I logged into a VMware vCenter Server Appliance via SSH and tried to update it to 6.0 Update 1 by entering the following command:

Command> software-packages install --iso --acceptEulas

I was then requested to enter a password for nobody

Command> software-packages install --iso --acceptEulas
nobody's password:

The problem was that I logged in with a VMware SSO account, Administrator@vsphere.local, and actually needed to login with the vCSA's root account.

What is the nobody account?
On Unix based systems like Linux, it is an account with limited permissions.