Host update times out

[BillStirling]

Hi we have installed ESX3.5.0U4 on two hosts and vCenterv2.5.0U5 on a physical server. TheHosts are confgured as an HA DRS cluster.

The vCenter downloads the update repository OK and I can create a Baseline and apply it to the two servers and scan agains the baseline.

The problem occurs when I try to remediate. The Host to be remediated goes into Maintenance and the remediate task goes to39% and a task "Install" is started but it just sits there and after 15-20mins the update fails with a time out error.

After the failure I cannot take the Host out of maintenace mode or reboot from the VI client. I have to connect to the console and do a shutdown -r now. When the host reboots I can take it out of maintenance mode.

If I manually put the host in maintance I get the same result.

DNS appears OK as I can ping the VC from the hosts by name and vice-versa.

Any help appreciated

Bill

[petkom]

Hi Bill,

before the remediation you can try to turn off HA and DRS if it is not vital for you setup. If the remediation succeed you can turn them on manually.

What patches exactly do you try to apply to the host? If you cannot find anything in VIClient Tasks and Events you can try to check the remediated host itself during the remediation: tail -f vmkernel

You can check VUM logs as well

thanks,

Petko

[slmpptc]

I'm seeing the exact same behaviour. My vCenter is 2.5U4 though. Any ideas?

[krowczynski]

What kind and how many patches are you trying to install?

Perhaps you try only one or two patches at first and check if if the error still occurs.

[slmpptc]

I'm trying to install the 8 August 31st patches. I tried installing a single patch this morning and the same error occurred.

[krowczynski]

Have you checked out hr logfiles on the server?

Am I right that your VUm is on the same machien as your vcenter?

MCP, VCP

[slmpptc]

I had a look at hostd.log and esxupdate.log.

Here is the last line from esxupdate.log:

INFO: states: Downloading VMware-esx-tools-3.5.0-184236.i386.rpm

And here is the last line from the 2009_09_29.request.log located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Logs

127.0.0.1 - - "GET /vci/hostupdates/hostupdate/esx/esx-3.5.0/ESX350-200908404-BG/VMware-esx-vmkctl-3.5.0-184236.i386.rpm HTTP/1.1" 200 3219004 "-" "Python-urllib/2.0a1"

The strange thing is that these August patches installed properly on two other hosts in a different cluster about a month ago.

That's correct, VUM is on the same machine as Vcenter.

[krowczynski]

Hi,

I would try to install the update esx-3.5.0/ESX350-200908404-BG by esxupdate on the console.

If this went successfully try to use the VUM once again.

MCP, VCP

[slmpptc]

In my case the problem turned out to be caused by a wonky uplink port in a 2 port trunk. Once this was fixed UM started working properly again.