Download Selected Patches with Update Signature Task

[rohansharma78]

Is there anyway I can download selected patches in vmware update manager repository? I use just ESX 3.5 hosts in my environment and most of them are already patched at certain level so now I just want only required patches to be downloaded. I recently installed update manager and noticed that update signature task is at 50% for last several hours and its downloading all the patches including related to ESX 3.0.x hosts... please help.

[jitendrakmr · Accepted solution]

Try

vmware-umds -E --dest <repository_path> -s <from release date> -e <to release date>

Thanks,

Jitendra

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking)

Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com

[rohansharma78]

Thanks vmware-umds worked!

[Amnexi]

I'm in the proccess of configuring UMDS to share ESX patches for 4 different vCenters (sharing the download folder; no -E needed... I hope)

I haven't tested yet (I will), but I'm not sure this works for "NEW" patch releases. Just reading documentation (pasted below), it seems that -s and -t arguments works when you want to REdownload some patches between certain dates. In fact, I think those dates really mean when you downloaded certain patches, not the day they were released.

Anyway, I'm not sure... it's my interpretation of the documentation, so I will test it and let you know.

• From vmware-umds /? (command help):

Optional arguments for Export and Re-download:
+ --dest arg The destination directory for export operation+
+ (Overrides setting from initial configuration)+
+ -s arg For export and re-download, restrict selection to+
+* include updates downloaded* since this time+
+ (inclusive). Format is ISO-8601 YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[Z+
+ ]. Use 'Z' at the end to indicate UTC+
+ -t arg For export and re-download, restrict selection to+
* include updates downloaded* till this time
+ (inclusive). Format is ISO-8601 YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[Z+
+ ]. Use 'Z' at the end to indicate UTC+

• From "vi3_vum_10u2_admin_guide.pdf":

If you have already downloaded updates and want to download some of them again, include start and
+ end time, to restrict the updates to download. For example, if you want to download the updates released+
+ in May, 2008, enter the following command:+
+ vmware-umds --re-download -start-time 2008-05-01T00:00:00 --end-time 2008-05-31T23:59:59+

[Amnexi]

rohansharma, with "Is there anyway I can download selected patches " do you mean to download them from the internet, or to export them anywhere else?

You said that the command indicated by jitendrakmr works, but after some tests, I think that -s and -e arguments are ignored when used with -D (download) argument

-e and -s works with the -E (export) argument..., but after you downloaded everything again. In fact, I'm not sure how those dates work: I tried to export to another folder patches of ONLY one month (April 2008 I think), and I redownloaded 4 of 7 GB of ESX updates (???)

Regards