ESXi

Well to tell you the thruth it doesnt even start.....

I`m trying to install 1000v VIB via CLI directly on the host via SSH.

Here is what I get

[CODE]

esxcli software vib install /tmp/VEM500-201108271.zip

Error: Unknown command or namespace software vib install /tmp/VEM500-201108271.zip

[/CODE]

Even to list installed VIBs.

[CODE]

[/CODE]

What am I doing wrong ? This is a new ESXi 5 install (upgrade from 4.1)

Same issue here.  I'm just trying to patch the server.  I don't have update manager and I'm using the same CLI tools that I had from the 4.1 days.

If you're doing this at the console you'll want to use one of the options to specify a VIB file -  -n/--vibname or -v/--viburl.

Remotely, you'll want to update the version of the vCLI that you're using.  esxcli has been significantly enhanced in the 5.0 release.

check this blog....

http://virtualvm.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/patching-in-esxi-5-0/

I`m really not sure what I did last time, but I`m trying to upgrade to a VIB on my ESXi and its still not working, from vCLI or shell

Error: Unknown command or namespace software vib list

PLease help, as I need to update ASAP.

Can you try running

esxcli software vib list

and if it fails look through /var/log especially esxcli.log and hostd.log and post any related messages?

What does

grep -r ERROR /var/log

give you?

Also can you post the output of

esxcli --help

it should list the available namespaces

See below, I remmber it was something where I had to specify something like, esxcli IMAGE_or_something software that was for vem-cmd, never mind

Ok, somehow the esxcli infrastructure doesn't find the namespace plugins. Can you run this command

find /usr/lib/vmware/ | grep -i esxcli

and post the result?

REALLY THANK YOU for helping me...

Hmm that looks all correct. Just to verify my assumption you are running in a root shell right? Can you type

who

and post the output?

I`m on the root shell, I also tried from vCLI and get exactly same results

Not sure what to do, or how it cant find the plugins.... is it something with the paths ? I need to patch this to the ESXi500-201112001.zip, is there anyother way to do it ?

Let me think this through a bit. I'll try to get back to you soon.

Thanks, I`m really stuck here, I have been searching all day and cant find anything regarding this at all... I`m alsmost thinking I have to reinstall the ESXi, but I have to avoid that at all costs.....

[Edit] In case that wasn't clear you have to run the below command from a Linux box not on the ESX server [/Edit]

Let's try and debug this a bit more. You need to verify that the plugins are healthy. The easiest way to do that is to run readelf -h on them from a Linux system. If you run this in a bash shell

MYSRV="root@<your server IP>"; for f in $(ssh $MYSRV "find /usr/lib/vmware/ -type f | grep esxcli"); do scp $MYSRV:$f /tmp; readelf -h /tmp/$(basename $f); rm -f /tmp/$(basename $f); done 2> /dev/null

that should do the trick. It helps your wrist if you have ssh keys setup so that you don't have to type your password for every ssh access. Once you are done, can you post the output?

I spent all day searching I dont see anything regarding my issue anywhere... How is that possible ? Originaly I went from 4.1 to 5 as an upgrade, I`m assuming something went wrong there..... I was never able to use that command esxcli

Is this proper ?

I agree, I was trying to help you figure out what went wrong. At this point this seems beyond typing in some easy commands it's probably best if you file a SR.

ok, thanks for the help, we will try a full reinstall tonight and then an SR it is...

This is waaaaay after the fact on this issue, but hopefully this will help others who have run into this problem:

If you are lazy like me, you cut-and-paste the command for the update, for instance:

esxcli software vib install –d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/patch/update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update02.zip

For some bizarre reason, the dash in front of the "-d" command is not interpreted correctly when you cut and paste to an SSH session with an ESXi host.

So either type it all out manually, or replace the dash after you've cut and pasted the command.

It won't look any different, but it's solved the problem for me every time.

In fact, the resaon I'm submitting this is so that it's out there the next time I forget and do a search for "Unknown command or namespace".

Here's the solution for me :smileyhappy:

Apply this syntax:

esxcli software vib install --depot=/path/to/package.zip

For example:

esxcli software vib install --depot=/tmp/dell/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-7.1.0-5304.VIB-ESX50i_A00.zip

To install Dell Open Manage.

Regards.

That did it for me!!! Stupid little fix! thanks for all the help!!!

That "replace dash" trick worked for me, thank you ggathagan‌ !

Replacing the dash resolved my issue. It was copy-pasted from Notepad and still didn't work

THANK YOU!

4 years later and you're still saving lives.

ggathagan's fix worked for me. Pesky little dash. I had cut and paste from our internal wiki that I created when updating one standalone host. Tried another host and it failed. Was really puzzled until I used the same command but this time replacing the pasted dash with a manually entered dash.

First, unpack the archive, then add -v, so it should look like esxcli software vib install -v /path_to_vib_file. For best effect, put the binaries on shared vmfs, it will be available for every esx box in the cluster.

Here is the KB with installing patches from CLI

VMware KB: Installing patches on an ESXi 5.x host from the command line

Try:

esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/VEM500-201108271.zip

and make sure you have full acess to the folder, seeing as your probably logged in as Root you should be good to go.

In my humble contribution to this post, this is what I did to solve the installation of vxlan vib on each host,

1.-Download the vib file vxlan.zip from vcns, if blocked check ports or IE settings

2.-copy with SCP to each host in cluster in tmp the .zip file

3.-Intall the vib with this command esxcli software vib install –depot=\tmp\vxlan.zip

4.- run refresh on virtual networking vcenter vcns

5.- if APIPA ip addres on recently created vmkenel port, just go to vds and change it

6.-run resolve in case, or just will see green check mark

7.-end

regards

ray