FYI: I tried adding my vCenter db user as db.owner to msdb but it failed saying the vCenter user was already listed. There is a kb article on vmware that recommends changing the compatibility level of the vCenter db to SQL Server 2005 (90) VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.x fails with the error: The DB user entered does not have the required perm…
The version list vCenter 5.1 but the same kb article links from a list of known issues when upgrading to vCenter Server 5.x VMware KB: Known issues when installing or upgrading to VMware vCenter Server 5.x
That didn't solve my problem either so attacked it from the db side and used this article from MSDN on MS SQL Server where my vCenter User isn't mapped to any login on the msdb database but there is an Orphan User with the same name there, that allowed the installer to continue Troubleshoot Orphaned Users (SQL Server) once I ran the code to identity the orphaned user and update msdb login's accordingly