We ran into problems however with one system that would not run after the patch process. Booting normally led to kernel panic
kernel panic not syncing
VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0)
Booting into Debug mode or Service Console Only, the server worked fine. It checked the file system, and must have fixed the problem with the file system. It however complained on shutdown it could not save new initrds. The system now stopped as it attempted to load initrds when booting normally.
My choices were somewhat clear - call support or rebuild. I called VMware support, and this was apparently a common problem with the latest patches. Here was the fix:
Boot into ESX debug mode, and run the following commands.
esxcfg-boot -p - to reload the PCI data
esxcfg-boot -r - to refresh initrd information
esxcfg-boot -b - to setup boot information
I have definitely put these commands in the toolbox for next time since they didn't seem to be documented anyplace else.
thanks for sharing
Definitely good to know. What kind of hardware was this on?
This was on an IBM xSeries 3850.
Great to know. I've got a couple old x366 that don't have the full patch set yet.
Do you know which patch caused the issue?
A number of them affected the initrd configuration, so I am unsure which one broke the Ram disk configuration. (Nor did VMware offer any suggestion either.) These systems had not been patched since 3.0.1, so it could be any of th 16 patches.
Thanks again bowulf!
We had some power isssues here and lost the data center. On reboot of one of my esx servers it could not mount the vmfs. I was able to boot up in the debug mode. I ran the three commands and I am back running. Saved a phone call and a rebuild...well I will upgrade to the 3.2 here shortly after getting back from VMWorld
HP BL40p
12 Gig RAM
Qad 3.0 Gig Proc
Qlogic HBA's
Lightning 9980 SAN
ESX 3.01 Build 44686