vihostupdate - how to specify Bundle path

[smokey71]

Hello,

Have a new ESXi 4.0 U1 cluster setup with vMA. Uploaded the U2 bundle to the local host's datastore but, I am unable to figure out how to specify the path to the bundle with the vihostupdate command. I can list the datastores(and hosts local) with vifs --listds to which, I see all of the attached datastores but, I am not sure how to specify the bundle path.

I understand that ESXi is not "file structure aware" but, there has to be a way to do this with remote hosts.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thank you for your time.

/r,

Smokey

[lamw · Accepted solution]

When using vihostudpate on vMA, the bundle needs to be local to vMA and not the ESX(i) host. The bundle will then be uploaded to your host and patched

Here's an example on how to use vihostupdate utility - http://vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/esx_3i_rcli/vihostupdate.php

You can also find more information in the vCLI guide - http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/

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[smokey71]

rCLI 3x doco:

Software updates might be patches for addressing critical security issues or urgent bug

fixes, or they might be general updates or maintenance releases. They might be located

on the local file system or on an NFS, FTP, or HTTP server. Each update consists of a

descriptor file and a set of packages. The descriptor controls the installation process and

checks that requirements are met. For example, you might be required to power off all

virtual machines running on the server you are about to update, or you might need to

reboot the server after the update.

I guess the statement about the patches being local was somewhat misleading. I understood the statement as meaning you could run the updates from the host. It doesnt make sense to push patches thru another source when you could run them from the host or a datastore - especially in a remote environment.

Thanks for the response.

[lamw]

I'm not sure about patches/bundle residing on the host.

What they meant, is you can patch using a local bundle also known as "offline bundle" OR point to a metadata file which describes the location of the package which does not have to be local to vihostupdate utility. This can be hosted on say ftp or webserver, but I'm not sure if vihostupdate can understand an ESX(i) local path.

Here is the documentation for vihostupdate - http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/vcli41/doc/reference/vihostupdate.html

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009,2010

VMware scripts and resources at:

Twitter: @lamw

Getting Started with the vMA (tips/tricks)

Getting Started with the vSphere SDK for Perl

VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators

VMware Developer Community

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[smokey71]

Yes. I am attempting to do an "offline" udpate since the option to use VUM is not allowed in U2's case and even if it were, having a remote site patched by VUM wouldn't be practical nor safe. I was hoping to run the bundle via vMA vihostupdate but, from what you have pointed out, that will not work. It seems like additional work having to install CLI on another machine just to patch ESXi. I guess you could add a disk to vMA but, that also seems to defeat the purpose.

Thanks again.