I have recently encountered the following error on several Lenovo VX systems, which prevents vLCM from initiating the upgrade from ESXi 7 to ESXi 8:

Error: Version iavmd-3.0.0.1038 of the manually added Component Intel VMD driver with VROC support is an unsupported downgrade from version iavmd-3.5.1.1002 on the host.
Replace the Component in the image with one of the same or higher version.

It appears that an earlier Lenovo VX recipe included “iavmd-3.5.1.1002,” but in version 8 of the recipe, the required version is lower (“iavmd-3.0.0.1038”). The simplest solution to resolve this issue is to remove the “iavmd” (Intel VMD driver) just before performing the upgrade. This can be done using either ESXCLI (via SSH) or PowerCLI with the following commands:

With ESXCLI (remember to put the host in maintenance mode, first!):

esxcli software vib remove -n iavmd -f

With PowerCli (remember to put the host in maintenance mode, first!)

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost <insert hostname>
$esxcli.software.vib.remove($false,$true,$false,$true,"iavmd")

The expected output should be this:

Message : The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

RebootRequired : true
VIBsInstalled :
VIBsRemoved : {INT_bootbank_iavmd_3.5.1.1002-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807}
VIBsSkipped :

After the reboot, click “Check Compliance” in vLCM again, and then you should be able to resume the upgrade!