Fresh VI3 Builds: Current Patch list won't fit in 2048 GB Partition?

[ncarde]

Hello,

How many of you build a new VI-3 Host and then apply all patches?

I just found out that a 2GB /tmp partition won't cut it if you want to apply all of them after initial build -- I had to temporarily tuck them in our 4GB '/' space.

Will this cause anyone to re-think their partition size scheme (discussed in this excellent thread here: http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=46345&start=100&tstart=0)

That 3 or 4 GB /tmp space that some of you chose is looking mighty nice now -- too bad I already built my hosts.

[conradsia]

Are you using the update script to run them or unpacking them and running them manually?

[ncarde]

Are you using the update script to run them or

unpacking them and running them manually?

I stage all of the update tar balls in:

/tmp/updates

Then I use the following against each individual update (by Month):

esxupdate --noreboot -r file:

When I look at /tmp/updates I'm seeing 2.1GB disk consumption

\[root@host root]# vdf -h /tmp/updates

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 4.0G 2.1G 1.8G 54% /tmp/updates

I suppose I could untar them to a different location or just use the / partition and make sure I rm -rf it afterward...

[conradsia]

You should look into using one of these scripts for your patches I prefer this one http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=343

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/downloads/esx_apply_patches.sh

But there is another one that I haven't tried here:

http://vmprofessional.com/material/esx-autopatch.html

For the first script, all that you do is download the patches into /var/updates and then run the perl script and it will extract the patches and run them in the correct order from oldest to newest. I put the patches on CD, copy them into the folder and just let it run, I have never had an issue with space because it delete them after they are run.

There is also a script on the forum somewhere that you can run on your ftp server as a task that will automatically go out and fetch new patches.

[ncarde]

Very cool - thank you.

If I'm reading the script correctly though it would still fail in my Scenario -- unless I'm missing something it doesn't remove the patches or extracted folders until the very end.

What I saw was that I am able to stage all of the patches to \tmp\updates and also extract them there in place but that through the course of updating via esxupdate it complained that:

"Error locking /var/run/esxupdate.pid \[Error 28] No space left on device"

Now - I fully believe I'm missing something because otherwise the script you mentioned would be failing for many people besides myself; however, in the event that the recently added June patches pushed something over the tipping point for 2GB /var partitions...

[conradsia]

The july patches added about another 100mb, so it probably wont fit nicely on a cd any more. I only have 2GB in /var and I have never run into this problem, I just ran some updates about an hour ago using these steps.

can you post your df -h when there are no patches in /var/?

Can you du -h /var as well? What is the total size of /var without the patches?

From my patch folder the patches were 686MB compressed, uncompressed that shouldn't fill up two gigs even if they were 50% compressed so I suspect there is some more data lingering around your /var partition.

Message was edited by:

conradsia

Message was edited by:

conradsia

[ncarde]

Thank you -- this what my /var looks like after a fresh build:

\[root@system root]# df -h /var

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 2.0G 155M 1.8G 9% /var

\[root@system root]# du -h /var

16K /var/lost+found

16M /var/lib/rpm

4.0K /var/lib/games

4.0K /var/lib/misc

4.0K /var/lib/alternatives

8.0K /var/lib/ntp

4.0K /var/lib/dhcp

4.0K /var/lib/nfs/statd

8.0K /var/lib/nfs

59M /var/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/client

4.0K /var/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/downloads

948K /var/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/sdk

60M /var/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot

4.0K /var/lib/vmware/hostd/journal

1.6M /var/lib/vmware/hostd/stats

62M /var/lib/vmware/hostd

62M /var/lib/vmware

77M /var/lib

4.0K /var/tmp

4.0K /var/log/vmware/webAccess

372K /var/log/vmware

160K /var/log/initrdlogs

4.0K /var/log/vmksummary.d

24K /var/log/oldconf

908K /var/log

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat1

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat2

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat3

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat4

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat5

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat6

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat7

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat8

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/cat9

4.0K /var/cache/man/X11R6/catn

44K /var/cache/man/X11R6

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat1

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat2

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat3

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat4

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat5

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat6

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat7

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat8

4.0K /var/cache/man/cat9

4.0K /var/cache/man/catn

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat1

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat2

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat3

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat4

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat5

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat6

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat7

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat8

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/cat9

4.0K /var/cache/man/local/catn

44K /var/cache/man/local

324K /var/cache/man

4.0K /var/cache/samba/winbindd_privileged

8.0K /var/cache/samba

4.0K /var/cache/yum

340K /var/cache

4.0K /var/db

4.0K /var/local

4.0K /var/lock/subsys

8.0K /var/lock

4.0K /var/nis

4.0K /var/opt

4.0K /var/preserve

4.0K /var/run/console

4.0K /var/run/sudo

4.0K /var/run/netreport

4.0K /var/run/saslauthd

4.0K /var/run/winbindd

4.0K /var/run/vmware/root_0/1184505652291137_101060

4.0K /var/run/vmware/root_0/1184505678143804_1261

4.0K /var/run/vmware/root_0/1184588815042812_6053

16K /var/run/vmware/root_0

36K /var/run/vmware

92K /var/run

4.0K /var/spool/lpd

4.0K /var/spool/mail

4.0K /var/spool/cron

4.0K /var/spool/repackage

20K /var/spool

4.0K /var/yp/binding

12K /var/yp

4.0K /var/core

4.0K /var/empty/sshd

8.0K /var/empty

5.7M /var/pegasus/bin

14M /var/pegasus/lib

4.0K /var/pegasus/repository/root/classes

4.0K /var/pegasus/repository/root/instances

4.0K /var/pegasus/repository/root/qualifiers

16K /var/pegasus/repository/root

1.8M /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_InterOp/classes

1.4M /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_InterOp/instances

252K /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_InterOp/qualifiers

3.4M /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_InterOp

40K /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_Internal/classes

4.0K /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_Internal/instances

252K /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_Internal/qualifiers

300K /var/pegasus/repository/root#PG_Internal

21M /var/pegasus/repository/vmware#esxv2/classes

20K /var/pegasus/repository/vmware#esxv2/instances

256K /var/pegasus/repository/vmware#esxv2/qualifiers

22M /var/pegasus/repository/vmware#esxv2

25M /var/pegasus/repository

120K /var/pegasus/mofs

4.0K /var/pegasus/vmware/install_queue

8.0K /var/pegasus/vmware

45M /var/pegasus

123M /var

[depping · Accepted solution]

http://vmprofessional.com/material/esx-autopatch.html

use the one above, it will: unpack / install / delete tar -> next patch. store you patches on a nfs share or a SAN-Based VMFS volume, this way you don't need an enormous amount of extra diskspace on you /var/updates.

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Duncan

[ncarde]

Thank you, all - for the replies.