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jasonboche
Immortal
Immortal

VI 3.5 Update 1 upgrade experiences

I upgraded VirtualCenter 2.5.0 to 2.5 Update 1 today (using SQL Server 2005 SP2 back end).

Observations:

1. The license server installation/upgrade is still not called as part of the autorun.exe as all other VI components are (VC server, VC client, VC Update Manager, VMware Converter for VC). The license server installation/upgrade must still be performed as a separate step at the very beginning.

2. SQL back end users are no longer allowed to use the SQL Server 2003 ODBC driver packaged with Windows Server. You must now download and use the SQL Native Client driver and rebuild your DSNs using this driver. Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=50b97994-8453-4998-8226-fa42ec403d17&Displa...

3. VMware took the feedback of all the database upgrade issues being had with the release of VC2.5.0. Helpful screens now guide us to the correct database upgrade permissions referencing the applicable VMware KB articles. Furthermore, if by chance you grant your VirtualCenter SQL account the sysadmin role to SQL server, the upgrade picks up on this and presents you with a warning message that a new parallel set of database tables will be created rather than upgrading the existing infrastructure. Failure to correct this situation will essentiall result in losing your datacenter after the upgrade is complete.

4. Database upgrade completed without any issues.

5. Once completed, Help|About reflects VIC and VirtualCenter versions 2.5.0 build 84767. Why not 2.5.1? Why is the incorrect build number of 84767 shown instead of what's listed on VMware's website build 84782






[i]Jason Boche[/i]

[VMware Communities User Moderator|http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2444][/i]

VCDX3 #34, VCDX4, VCDX5, VCAP4-DCA #14, VCAP4-DCD #35, VCAP5-DCD, VCPx4, vEXPERTx4, MCSEx3, MCSAx2, MCP, CCAx2, A+
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157 Replies
jasonboche
Immortal
Immortal

Is it now save to install the software from the ISO image?

If the MD5 key is the same as on the website!

Best Regards,

Geert

Geert, there was never an issue with the VirtualCenter .ISO image that I am aware of. It was the .ZIP file we were struggling with.

Jas






[i]Jason Boche[/i]

[VMware Communities User Moderator|http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2444][/i]

VCDX3 #34, VCDX4, VCDX5, VCAP4-DCA #14, VCAP4-DCD #35, VCAP5-DCD, VCPx4, vEXPERTx4, MCSEx3, MCSAx2, MCP, CCAx2, A+
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

We've confirmed that the download issues have been resolved. We've posted a longer statement on this new thread:

As this thread is getting long, let's take our discussion on the download over there.

Thanks again for all the help.

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beckhamk
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!

Since the begining of this ordeal on saturday we downloaded the zip and had all kinds of problems with our upgrade. We had the VIC crashing with various error dialogs and the infamous:

"the process cannot access the file "c:\documents and settings\administrator\local settings\application data\vmware\xpx\viclient-0.log because it is being used by another process" error.

Well even uninstalling the VIC and installing the good MD5 hash DID NOT fix these issues. We also have two other machines that we installed the VIC on and have no problems. But the only difference was that those machines do not have plugins installed. So this got me thinking about someone else here that had uninstalled the plugins.

So I just uninstalled the update manager and the converter plugin and VIC and did a reinstall (using existing db) then installed the plugins again. WOW so far I can move around like i should and nothing crashes or popups and no more viclient.log files in use. I can click all around and select different servers and vm's without crashes....

I think the update doesnt like it when the update manger and converter plugins where installed. I am going to keep playing around to see if this holds true. Its been good for 10minutes, before I couldnt last more than a minute!

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chicagom
Contributor
Contributor

Yep, you are 100% right, We also had problem when the plugin where installed.

1) unistall everything except Virtualcenter server

2) Install update + client + plugins

Ps. what are your versions of the plugins after the upgrade?

- VMware Converter Enterprise: 4.0.0

- VMware Update Manager Extention 1.0

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beckhamk
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Same versions as you just mentioned.....

  • VMware Converter Enterprise: 4.0.0

  • VMware Update Manager Extention 1.0

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cryptonym
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

bq.

Yep, you are 100% right, We also had problem when the plugin where installed.
1) unistall everything except Virtualcenter server
2) Install update + client + plugins

bq. Ps. what are your versions of the plugins after the upgrade?

  • VMware Converter Enterprise: 4.0.0* VMware Update Manager Extention 1.0

You'd think the installer app would catch this itself and uninstall the bits beforehand, but clearly it is very important to do a clean install this time around.

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forbes
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just to let everyone know, I updated one of my ESX hosts through Update Manager to 3.5.0 - 82663, without any problems. This is without updating the VC (its still at 2.5.0 - 64192). I like to live on the edge ]:).

By my reckoning, if VMware thought that upgrading the ESX hosts to this level without upgrading VC was incompatible, then they wouldn't suggest it through the Update Manager. Or am I giving them too much credit? With the release notes and everyones comments here (thanks everyone), it doesn't sound like the update to VC is very compelling.

Its a bit of a disappointment that the VC upgrade is still a full uninstall/re-install. Who would have thought that upgrading a whole ESX OS would be so much easier (now that we have UM), than a mere windows app upgrade???

Hopefully VMware have realized that a server component like this, shouldn't be written in .NET; and are in the process of rebuilding it in something more cross-platform, more stable and more maintainable Smiley Wink Guess I should keep that rant for another blog post.

However, I won't be updating the rest of my host servers until the problem that jasonboche highlighted, with dead templates, gets resolved.

I love the ESX platform, however in my opinion, VC still isn't a great enterprise solution.

Forbes Guthrie

Forbes Guthrie http://www.vReference.com vExpert
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arthurvino1
Contributor
Contributor

Jason, few questions.

I have experienced most of the issues people complaining about.

Regarding your installation installations

1) If my VC server is the same server as my license server, should I install license server part first, then reboot and proceed with VC install?

2) I am using SQL2000 backend, still need to download this MS patch?

3) Install all the clients/converters/plug-ins last after reboot?

Thanks in advance

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jasonboche
Immortal
Immortal

1. Install/upgrade the license server first. A reboot should not be necessary.

2. I doubt it. VirtualCenter will tell you though durig the istallation process if you need the new ODBC driver or not.

3. Yes.






[i]Jason Boche[/i]

[VMware Communities User Moderator|http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2444][/i]

VCDX3 #34, VCDX4, VCDX5, VCAP4-DCA #14, VCAP4-DCD #35, VCAP5-DCD, VCPx4, vEXPERTx4, MCSEx3, MCSAx2, MCP, CCAx2, A+
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beckhamk
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I want to verify something here.... Do we really need to install and update manuall for the license server?

Because we installed the VC update just running the main install and have not had any problems at all. We assumed it was automatically upgraded.

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jasonboche
Immortal
Immortal

I want to verify something here.... Do we really need to install and update manuall for the license server?

Because we installed the VC update just running the main install and have not had any problems at all. We assumed it was automatically upgraded.

Use the VIM Installer on a test box. See if it installs the license server. In my experience, it does not. That is why I always install the license server manually as the first step.

Jas






[i]Jason Boche[/i]

[VMware Communities User Moderator|http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2444][/i]

VCDX3 #34, VCDX4, VCDX5, VCAP4-DCA #14, VCAP4-DCD #35, VCAP5-DCD, VCPx4, vEXPERTx4, MCSEx3, MCSAx2, MCP, CCAx2, A+
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arthurvino1
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Jason!

After few time with tech support, got everything back to normal more or less.

Left while trying to upgrade one esx server via Updates feature to update1, it was sitting hung @72%, will check tomorrow..

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BenConrad
Expert
Expert

My license server versions went from 10.1 to 10.8 after the manual update.

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beckhamk
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

intesting as ours reads 10.13 currently. We did not do a manual install specifically for the license server. So it would appear the VC install handles this. But it is interesting to see you have 10.8 and we have 10.13.

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cryptonym
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I believe 10.13 means you are on the old code still. .8 == .80 and .80 > .13, right? Now if it were .08, then .13 would be newer. I'm sure there are developers doing it both ways, but in this case, as I did a clean install, 10.8 is the correct version. They would make it clearer if they wrote it as 10.80 however.

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java_cat33
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Well I downloaded VC 2.5 U1 and ESX 3.5 U1 last night. I uninstalled my license server and installed the new license server. My old version was 10.8, my new one from the latest VC 2.5 U1 package is 2.5.0.64207

I haven't upgraded the ESX server yet - will do it this morning.

Who else has a license server version of 2.5.0.64207?

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Dthomsen
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Did anyone else update from 2.0.2 to 2.5 and have a firewall between VC and ESX? I'm not able to connect my hosts (3.0.2 or 3.5) to VC and the firewall indicates 443 is being dropped. See my other thread .

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Badsah
Expert
Expert

Locking this thread. Please continue discussion in the other thread referenced by JohnTroyer. Thanks.




---

Badsah Mukherji

Senior Community Manager, VMware Communities

--- Badsah Mukherji VMware Web Communities Team
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