ESX 3.5U2 Patch experiences?

[admin]

Just posted:

• KB with a description of what happened: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006716

• ESX Express Patches: http://www.vmware.com/go/esxexpresspatches

Let's close down the other thread, as it's getting really long and hard to navigate.

• Letter from Paul Maritz: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/162713. Please post non-technical commentary here.

• Please post further technical commentary about the patches in this thread.

Thanks. Rest assured that many people inside VMware are reading your feedback and experiences here.

[captab]

I think your kb server is down. I was able to download the express patch but have been trying to get article KB1006721 and keep geeting "Page Load Error - Address Not Found." I've tried going through KB Home but it hangs and won't let me go any farther. I'm sure it's probably getting hammered right now. Before I install the patch, I'd like to know about any gotchas.

[admin]

captab, it looks like it's redirecting to a static page right now. Try again, or try this one:

http://kb2.vmware.com/kb/1006716.html

[captab]

Still no luck. Same error with the old links and the one you provided. Could be on my side, bur kb home doesn't work either, everything else does though.

Thanks

[wedelr]

Deleted

[Froste]

Updated all of our 24 servers using 3.5.0u2 patch using the Update manger. We weren't able to use a swing machine so we had to pick a handful of machines that we could do without for ~5 minutes. After the first machine was patched we did rolling upgrades and everything has been working smoothly since then. We're using IBM DS8100 SAN storage and IBM HS21 Blades for hosts.

[captab]

Those links don't work but I was finally able to get in through http://kb.vmware.com and link through Most Recent.

[alex555550]

Hy,

I don`t know if the Update Manager can also delet Updates?. But you can test if thei`re flushing out if you let the Update Manager Search again.

1. Open a cmd and change the directory to „C:\Programme\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager"

2. Use the vmware-umds.exe there shuld be an option to redownload Updates.

[admin]

Glad you got through. Sounds like it could be problem with Akamai, which helps cache web content around the world, since I can see it fine here in Palo Alto. I will report it internally.

[dpomeroy]

Can someone please explain to me why a "FREE" product has a friggin expiration date? It just does NOT MAKE SENSE!

Even worse, is a Licensed version one has paid for has this expiration "BUG".

YES IT IS A BUG!

QA missed the big fat cock roach in their process.

Here's what I want. I want install Enterprise binaries that has NO expiration. If our agency paid in excess of $15,000.00 to license our servers (Enterprise version) the friggin thing should never ever expire.

I feel like VMware does not trust it's customers eventhough they have already spent their thousands of dollars on their product. MS 2003 Server does not expire does it? NO.

Enough with this garbage about software piracy and protecting your product, the same old boring played out song. If we paid for it it should never expire. VMWare's method is basically saying "you're all pirates and eventhough you paid up the a(insert letters here), I still don't trust you worth doodoo".

That's why this issue is here.

Hmmmm....

This scenario should sound familiar to VMware, remember the "FREE" vmware server release?....tick....tick....tick.... Edit

Just to clarify becuase there seems to be some confusion on this. The license expiration issue has nothing to do with how VMware sells or licenses its products and the reason this happened on a "Free" product is because the time expiration was left in from the Update 2 beta code. VMware puts a hard expiration date into their beta products, this has nothing to do with preventing people from stealing the product, but to ensure beta products that have bugs and different features don't stick around and end up in production. So again, this was a huge mistake on their part to not take that code out, and we all have a right to be mad about it, but lets be mad for the right reasons. That being said, lets try to keep this thread to a technical discussion of the patch.

So far our experiance has been mixed, we have a large environment with a variety of different hardware as well as ESX and ESXi embedded and installable all running. Most of the issues we have seen involve ESXi, standard ESX patching with UpdateManager appear to be working fine. I believe there is a problem with this patch and ESXi and UpdateManager, more info to follow.

Don Pomeroy

VMware Communities User Moderator

[THP]

The patching was smooth thru update manager - only had to shut down a handful of guests on the first host and then round robin'd the rest.

It would have been better if not for the VI Clients recent tendency to die every 5 minutes!

[COS]

Well....

My test servers are patched and running. Used command line method not update mgr. My previous posts were obviously out of anger and frustration on money not well spent.

For all ESXi users GOOD LUCK! It's a free product.

If you have never researched any info on how VMWare looks at fixing anything on their free product, look up "network just stopped working" in the vmware server forum. The users basically identified the issue and did VMWare listen or have they done anything? Nope. http://communities.vmware.com/thread/91454?tstart=0&start=405

So, sisnce our servers are running fine, it's time to go have a big fat BEER!

[Jorgie1]

I just started using ESXi when it became free...and then this.

I just now applied the patch successfully after unsuccessfully attempting to do so from 2 different Windows XP installs in 2 different VMs (1 in VirtualBox 1.6.4 on Solaris the other on VMware Server 1.0.6 in openSUSE 11.0). It only worked after trying it in a native install of Windows. Maybe it's just not me RTFM'ing, but just in case anyone else tries this, it apparently doesn't work!

...Pete

[bryanard]

I don't seem to be able to apply the patch. MD5SUMs are good, but when I run esxupdate I get "ERROR: Integrity Error!". Can the rpms be applied directly without using esxupdate?

[superflit]

Good Work,

Just to simplify the process for the beginners as me in the ESXi.

As I am starting to use the free ESXi this bug happened, and this was my first update.

What I recommend and what I did:

1- Install the remote client called VMware-VIRemoteCLI-3.5.0-104314.exe.

2- Go to start -> vmware -> VMware VI Remote CLI -> command prompt

this was my process:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -i -b c:\downloads\ESXe350-200807812-O-BG.zip

Enter username: root

Enter password:

unpacking c:\downloads\ESXe350-200807812-O-BG.zip ...

( skipping verification : ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807812-I-BG.zip.si

g )

unpacking ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807812-I-BG.zip ...

( skipping verification : ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807402-T-UG.zip.si

g )

unpacking ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807402-T-UG.zip ...

( skipping verification : ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807403-C-UG.zip.si

g )

unpacking ESXe350-200807812-O-BG/ESXe350-200807403-C-UG.zip ...

Installing : ESXe350-200807812-I-BG

Copy to server : VMware-image.tar.gz ...

Copy to server : VMware-OEM-image.tar.gz ...

Copy to server : descriptor.xml ...

Copy to server : install.sh ...

Copy to server : contents.xml.sig ...

Copy to server : contents.xml ...

Removed ESXe350-200807812-I-BG SuccessNot applicable : ESXe350-200807402-T-U

G. Skipped.

Not applicable : ESXe350-200807403-C-UG. Skipped.

The host needs to be rebooted for the new firmware to take effect.

Type 'yes' to continue:

yes

Rebooting host ...

End Disconnect

That it...

the real deal is the command vihostupdate.pl --server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -i -b <zipped file with the update...>

And everything is ok now

Thanks

Carlos Henrique Cano

[bryanard]

esxupdate -d <path> update doesn't work for this, but esxupdate update did.

[kbenoit]

I installed ESXi about 2 days before the time license bug and was not to familiar with the product, it took me some time to figure out how to deal with the update, but I finally made it... To update, you, once again, need a windows machine and the patch (ESXe350-200807812-O-BG.zip). Instead of using the update manage like everyone else, you get a zip containing 3 zips files, an xml and the zips signatures, uncompress the inner zips, it will create a folder containing a patch per zip. Inside the folder created for each zip, there's a file named remoteInstall.exe. You need to run these executable in a command prompt beiing in the folder of the patch. You need to pass the adress of your host, your username and your password in clear on the command line. In unix terms it looks like this:

unzip ESXe350-20087812-O-BG.zip

cd ESXe350-20087812-O-BG.zip

unzip ESXe350-200807812-I-BG.zip

cd ESXe350-200807812-I-BG

./remoteInstall.exe -h <hostname> -u <username> -p <password>

Good luck

[ejward]

I finally patched my last host with update manager. :smileylaugh:

As much as I've been cursing Vmware for the last 2 days, if this had been Hyper-v, I'd still be scheduling meetings with dozens of business owners to discuss scheduled downtime. And I'd be coming in at 2:00am on a Sunday morning.

[TonyJK]

My supervisor prefers to use Update Manager to fix the bug in ESX 3.5 U2 (He believes that the new U2 should be better than the express patch).

We have tried for a number of time to download latest software via UM. Unfortunately, we keep on getting the "Metadata download failed" message. Is there any suggestion ?

Thanks

[ElmbrookDan]

Patched my 2 ESX hosts at around 1 today. I had 2 vms on one host and 5 or so on the other, we are a new install and migrating servers to ESX. I used the esxupdate method, shut down the two servers on host1 applied the patch and restarted the vm's. Total down time was about 5 minutes. After the patch was applied on host1 I vmotioned the VM's from host2 and applied the patch. Total down time was about 5 minutes when this was all said and done.

Sure this could of had far reaching negative ramifications but my guess is, for the most part, people were able to recover fairly quickly once the patch was released.

[ElmbrookDan]

I don't think it matters if you use Update Manager or esxupdate. The express patch is the express patch regardless of how its applied and I don't see the "new" update 2 on the site as of yet.