I have an ESXi host (Dell R630) which I can not patch. The patch process has failed TWICE (with a fresh install in between) and I'm at a loss as to how to upgrade to the latest version.
The first time, I tried patching:
running VMware ESXi, 7.0.3, 21930508
- Staged the patches in vCenter
- Shutdown VMs and put host in maintenance mode
- Rediated the host.
- After 30 minutes I got an error.
- Rebooted
- Tried again, same error.
- Decided I would just boot from the new ISO and do the updates from there, only to realize that there is not a newer ISO from what I already have.
- Did research and found that I could download patches from here: https://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatchByReleaseName.portal
- Download the patches VMware-ESXi-7.0U3o-22348816-depot.zip and copied to the datastore
- Ran this command: esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/Storage\ 0-1/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3o-22348816-depot.zip
- Nothing happened. I waited about an hour.
- At this time, I noticed I couldn't read any of the log files using cat or tail
- Rebooted
- The host would not connect to vCenter. Messed with this a while and determined the host was jacked.
Started over with a fresh install....
- Downloaded the ISO: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0U3n-21930508.x86_64.iso
the page I downloaded from by going here: vmware.com > customer connect > sign in > downloads > vSphere 7 Essentials > download the latest version 7 ISO - Rebooted with the ISO and installed from scratch. Applied all my settings, added to vcenter, added back VM's from datastore.
So after all that, I was back where I started. Here's the second attempt at patching:
Here's the filename of the patch: VMware-ESXi-7.0U3o-22348816-depot.zip
Downloaded from this page:
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/patch#search
I used the following commands to install the patch, but just like the first time, it failed.
[root@esx000:~] vim-cmd /hostsvc/hostsummary | grep inMaintenanceMode
inMaintenanceMode = false,
[root@esx000:~] vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
[root@esx000:~] vim-cmd /hostsvc/hostsummary | grep inMaintenanceMode
inMaintenanceMode = true,
[root@esx000:~] esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/Storage\ 0-1/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3o-22348816-depot.zip
after a bit of time (see the attached log file, this error was returned)
[InstallationError]
Error while waiting for untar process '['/bin/tar', 'xzf', '-', '-C', '/locker/packages/']': Timeout (30 seconds) expired waiting for output from command '['/bin/tar', 'xzf', '-', '-C', '/locker/packages/']', pid '2120727'.
cause = Error while waiting for untar process '['/bin/tar', 'xzf', '-', '-C', '/locker/packages/']': Timeout (30 seconds) expired waiting for output from command '['/bin/tar', 'xzf', '-', '-C', '/locker/packages/']', pid '2120727'.
vibs = ['VMware_locker_tools-light_12.2.6.22229486-22348808']
Please refer to the log file for more details.
I'm attaching the log file.
I can't understand why a simple default ESXi install using the latest ISO is failing with a simple patch? I thought that bypassing vCenter and doing a command line upgrade would certainly work, but I guess not.
