vCenter 5 Upgrade Error - SQL Server Agent Not Running

When upgrading our vCenter server from 4.1 to 5.0 I would get a SQL Server Agent error when going through the vCenter 5.0 installer.  The error said:

"Please make sure SQL Server Agent service is running on the database server"

Our vCenter environment is comprised of a dedicated vm for vCenter and a separate vm for SQL.

Obviously the first thing I checked was to ensure the SQL Server Agent server was running on our SQL server.  It was and I even restarted it for good measure.  But that did not seem to make the error go away.

Then I did a quick search of some VMware KB’s and I found KB1036518 which matched by symptoms, but did not resolve my issue.  It basically said make sure the SQL Agent is running and that you’ve got the correct media downloaded.  Helpful!  [sarcasm]

Next I turned to the install log

VMware VirtualCenter-build-455964: 10/12/11 22:25:52 SqlState: <42000>, NativeError: <14262>, msg: <[Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]The specified @job_name ('Past Day stats rollup') does not exist.>, msgLen: <119>
VMware VirtualCenter-build-455964: 10/12/11 22:25:52 ODBC Error: [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]The specified @job_name ('Past Day stats rollup') does not exist.
VMware VirtualCenter-build-455964: 10/12/11 22:25:52 SQL Server Agent is not running or query error.
VMware VirtualCenter-build-455964: 10/12/11 22:25:52 Getting Property DB_DSN_SERVER_REMOTE = 1
VMware VirtualCenter-build-455964: 10/12/11 22:25:52 errorMessage is <Please make sure SQL Server Agent service is running on the database server.

I noticed the installer was complaining about the job “Past Day stats rollup” saying it doesn’t exist.

That reminded me that we had to rebuild those jobs (VMwareKB 1004382).  We were having troubles with some of our update stat's jobs failing in the early days of vCenter 4.1

I checked with our DBA and the account the DSN uses (VMVCenter_App in screenshot above) did not have rights to that job.  He then updated the jobs to give the user in the DSN owner rights on the stats jobs.  The installer was then able to continue with the upgrade.

Long story short, make sure the account used in your DSN has rights to the SQL Agent jobs.