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khughes
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Can't Remidate Baselines

I've been trying to self teach myself update manager, it really isn't that hard but I can't seem to get it to see any baselines when I want to remediate the server. Update manager has downloaded all the ESX host updates, I have created a fixed baseline that has just the updates I selected which I want installed and it shows up on the baseline window. When I got to the host and click remediate, no baselines show up to compare the host to, just a blank area where I assume the baselines should be displayed. Was hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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....also, did you "scan for updates"?

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NYSDHCR
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In the 'Attached Baselines' window, did you right-click and choose 'Attach Baseline'? It should presemt all baselines.

Troy_Clavell
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....also, did you "scan for updates"?

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khughes
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No... and No

So when I create a baseline I need to attach it to something like the Cluster the hosts are sitting in? I scanned and then attached the baseline I created to the cluster which allowed me to click the remediate to the host. Is it going to install each update one at a time, if it needs a reboot, will it reboot at the end of all updates or after each one that needs a reboot?

Thanks

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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yeah, you need to attach that baseline to something. Either the Host or the cluster. Probably easier to attach it to the cluster.

So, highlight your cluster, go to the UM tab, and on the right side choose attach baseline.

Yes, the process on remidiation is to put the host in maitenance mode, patch it, reboot it, then exit maintenace mode. So you need to have DRS setup to automate the process

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NYSDHCR
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You need to choose th eesx host or the ESX cluster. They will appear in the 'All Groups and Independant Baselines' pane. You need to choose the ESX that you want to remediate. If the host is in a cluster and you have HA enabled, it should put the host in maintenance mode and evacuate the vms to another ESX host in the cluster. It will apply the chosen patches and then reboot the host.

khughes
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I was able to attach it and see it now on the hosts, but when I go to the remediate process on a empty host, it just sits in the "in progress" state for a while then errors out. I would assume that I don't need to put it into maint mode before I start the process, that update manager would do that for me. The boxes are nothing special (ibm x346 w/ 2 single-core xeons) but I would assume they would be able to update.

Trying to understand the actual process of it all, when I click the remediate, and go through the little gui process and click flinish, when it starts up the process, is the first step it copying the files from the UM location to the host?

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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I don't know they exact steps, so don't quote me. I believe the 1st step would be to put the host into maintenance mode, then copy the patches, install the patches, reboot and finally exit maintenance mode.

You need to have DRS set to fully automated. Also, I believe there was a bug somewhere with the remediation process and DRS... let me find the KB

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khughes
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Ok it just took like 10 minutes to kick off but its going now. Thanks for both of your help.

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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here's the KB I was referring to, but it looks like you got it working anyway

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007156

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khughes
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Ya just needed a good kick in the right direction :smileygrin: Appreciate it.

So it has to be in full automation for scheduled tasks to do it? I doubt we'll go that route but just used a fixed baseline so I can just select the updates I want to apply and run it instead of me manually downloading them, uploading them and running the cmd line for each one. Even though it is for only 4 hosts would save me some time. Do you guys run the MSDE sql for your update manager, or do you attach it to a SQL / Oracle DB?

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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it doesn't have to be fully automated, you can enter maintenance mode manually and then remediate.

We use SQL 2005 Standard x64 for all our DB's. We have a dedicated server just for us, since we now have 8 vCenter instances

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khughes
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Thanks Troy, we're going to have to upgrade our SQL server at some point before we can move to vSphere 4, we're running SQL 2000 on the VC right now. I'm hoping to demonstrate we should move to a stand alone SQL server, and maybe I'll look into going to a x64 of 2008/SQL x64 2008 as well. Baby steps first though!

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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Troy_Clavell
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a good push is that SQL 2000 is no longer supported in vCenter4 as a backend DB, maybe that will push management a little harder.

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NYSDHCR
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This happened a few times to me, too. I had to disable HA 1st.

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khughes
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Troy, when I heard SQL 2000 wasn't supported, I was 1/2 happy and 1/2 worried. Happy in the fact that we would have a reason to upgrade and maybe move the SQL database off the physical VC server and create a VM for it which would be better, but also worried because I knew that could totally kill any movement to 4.0 due to funding. Mainly the worried part won through so far because I got the question, well why do we really need to upgrade to vSphere 4? Besides the small, faster, a little more reliable, and new features (which would probably wouldn't use) I didn't have much to offer so we'll see about that. We shall see.

I did have difficulty connecting UM to my remote SQL server in my R/D lab but I'm not sure if that was due to a bad install on my part of SQL / configuration or something to do with SQL 2000 or what. Obviously it works attached to a remote sql server but I broke down and re-installed it using the MSDE version it installs on the local machine for you.

  • Kyle

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
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