Upgrading ESX from 3.5U1 to 3.5U3 using update manager

[craigal]

I have almost finished upgrading all of our ESX servers from 3.02 to 3.5 update 1 plus some patches.

This was done by booting from the 3.5 Update 1 CD to perform the upgrade.

I had a basleine created in Update Manager which includes all patches releaed in June 2008 or earlier. This baseline was also applied to all of our ESX servers.

I now want to use update manager to upgrade all of the servers to 3.5.0 update 3 plus the latest patches.

If I have a baseline that includes all of the updates ever released, can I just remediate the hosts against that baseline? Will the upgrade process be 'smart' enough to just install the update 3 and newer patches or will all the patches be installed in sequence include the Update 2 which I assume is not required if Update 3 is also being installed?

Should I create a baseline containing the Update 3 and any update release since then. Does the update 3 include the other updates also released on the 6th November?

Note that I am running build 104215 of virtual centre but will be upgrading to update 3 before I upgrade the hosts.

Our update manager database was created when update manager was first released and includes all updates, including the ESX Server 3.5.0 Update 2 update with the 'time bomb' issue.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Craig

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to ESX 3.5 forum.

Yes VUM with esxupdate is smart enough not to install updates that are not required. Do not mark them as not to install, let esxupdate and VUM do that for you.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[craigal]

Thanks for your reply.

I built a test ESX to try this out on.

I installed 3.5 update 1 and applied the old baseline without problems.

I then tried to apply the baseline that contains all of the update in update manager. the first remediate would not start. I had to manually put the server into maintenance mode and then start again.

This time the remediation started. It was not smart enough to realise 3.5.0u3 was in the list and start with that update.

The update started with post U2 patches but failed on patch ESX350-200808405-SG because of a missing pre-requisite. I look at the patch list on the VMWare and saw that this patch is dependant on ESX-200808408 which was not installed.

I performed a remediate again and this time ESX350-200808405-SG installed correctly and other patches are being installed. I will check the result in the morning.

I think I will make a baseline with just update 3 and post update 3 patches to make the updates quicker to install.

Craig

[Texiwill · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I never went direct from 3.0.1 to U1 then to U3. I always fresh installed to 3.5 then upgraded from there. However your approach should work just fine as well. I would not get to frustrated with VUM as the starts and stops and remediation issue occur due to interesting dependency circles and downright bugs in the upgrade process for some of the upgrades. I often have to force ESX into Maintenance mode to install updates. This generally depends on whether VMware HA is enabled, or VMs need to be evacuated. I tend to evacuate all running VMs by hand then perform upgrades.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[gzulauf]

I too am attempting to upgrade from U1 to U3. I am experiencing the same problem described, with ESX350-100808405-SG failing to install.

After the remediation fails via VUM, a subsequent remediation finishes successsfullly.