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gi-minni
Contributor
Contributor

Patch ESXe350-200808201-O-UG fails saying "Unable to copy install files to host" - SOLVED

First of all I tried to apply the ESX3i-U2 patch from build level 110180 to 110271 using the VIU Client without success.

I know to apply only the firmware and tools but even if I try to apply only the firmware I get

after 10% of progress the following string "Failed to Install tools update for U2 Release.: Unable to copy install files to host"

Afterwards I tried to use remoteinstall.exe, even this alternative patch method failed with the following string "Unable to copy files to host"

Can someone from dev tell me what is broken, even the firmware with 41MB cannot fit into the filesystem. I executed df -h and have 65,8MB free

in the root filesystem.

Must I enlarge the root filesystem for this? Or better how does the patch procedure works inside ESX3i?

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Solution: Before updating the ESX3i Server, put the ESX3i Server in maintenance mode or shutdown every running VM instance!

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Message was edited by: gi-minni (updated with solution)

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nick_couchman
Immortal
Immortal

I don't know for sure, but I believe it is probably a space problem. I was able to successfully apply this patch to my ESXi hosts that have larger, hard-drive-based installs, but had this error on the system that was installed on a USB stick. Could be something else, but I imagine that it probably doesn't have the space to extract the update.

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leofonic
Contributor
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How much RAM memory do you have installed? Could be a memory problem.

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nick_couchman
Immortal
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The host that I was on that was having a problem had 1GB of RAM. I know that's on the low end, but there were NO VMs running at the time that I tried to do the update and it failed.

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leofonic
Contributor
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I had the same error on a machine with 1GB RAM and no VMs running also. The firmware update went through, but tools upgrade (which is larger) failed. I upgraded the host to 1,5GB and freed up some reserved memory by setting Memory Reservation of the VIM object in Configuration/System Resource Allocation/Advanced to 256MB, then the upgrade worked flawlessly. So that's why i guess it may be a memory issue.

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gi-minni
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Hi Nick,

I guess i run out of space on my USB disk. But if I build the USB disk from scratch it allocate less than 1GB (ca. 600MB). Now my question is, if this

is a standard size, why I run out of space? Do you know how can I enlarge the root filesystem to gain more space. Please consider that I have 4GB

RAM enabled and memory cannot be responsible for this.

BTW I recognized the scratch directory under /vmfs/volumes another image without a symbolic link with 1GB from 3GB space used.

It has a downloads directory a uwswap (I guess user world swap file) and a var directory. Indeed my USB disk with 4GB is completely formatted.

Here my allocated space on the USB disk:

Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on

unknown 183.1M 117.3M 65.7M 64% /

unknown 4.0G 1.0G 3.0G 25% /vmfs/volumes/48652430-a87917cf-6cbf-0015f2a59133 (is /scratch and /locker)

unknown 539.8M 172.6M 367.2M 32% /vmfs/volumes/Hypervisor3 (is /store)

unknown 47.8M 38.9M 8.9M 81% /vmfs/volumes/Hypervisor2 (is /bootbank)

unknown 47.8M 36.2M 11.5M 76% /vmfs/volumes/Hypervisor1 (is /altbootbank)

Is there a way to free some unused space and

If I am right how could it be that I have more than 4GB allocated having only a 4GB USB disk?

Message was edited by: gi-minni (bootbank, altbootbank, store & scratch info updated)

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gi-minni
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Hi leofonic,

is hard to believe that the memory is causing this failure. I have 4GB of RAM installed. The last time bomb update with VIU was

executed without errors.

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gi-minni
Contributor
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Hi leofonic,

ok I admit that the tools update is big, but why I cannot update the firmware too?

Do I need 2x 41MB (1x download image and 1x extracted image)? Even if I

extract the image into an external datastore, I get stuck around 10% of progress time.

Is this a software glitch from the last timebomb countermeasure?

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gi-minni
Contributor
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Hi Nick,

here an exerpt from host-0.log

-'TaskManager' 131081 info Task Created : haTaskvim.NfcService.systemManagement-51

-'TaskManager' 131081 info Task Completed : haTaskvim.NfcService.systemManagement-51

-'Nfc' 98311 info --PROXY connection to NFC(useSSL=0): found session ticket:[N9VimShared15NfcSystemTicketE:0xa47a24c]

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcNetTcpGetSockFd: sockFd = 0, sSockFd = 45

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcServerLoop: sockFd ready for READ

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] File create directory msg values: size=43 count=1

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] now attempting to copy 1 files

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFileLocalizePath: Translated /tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C -> /tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] Created directory: '/tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C'

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFileOpMsg:errorsize 0 failed 0, datasize 0 succeeded 1

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcServerLoop: sockFd ready for READ

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcServerLoop: Receving file of type 0

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFileLocalizePath: Translated /tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C/VMware-image.tar.gz -> /tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C/VMware-image.tar.gz

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFile_Open: Local filename = '/tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C/VMware-image.tar.gz'

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFileGetOps: using raw fns

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcServerLoop: sockFd ready for READ

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcServerLoop: Received file data

-'BaseLibs' 98311 warning -[NFC ERROR] NfcNetTcpRead: EOF should not be reached

-'BaseLibs' 98311 warning -[NFC ERROR] NfcNet_Recv: requested 262144, recevied only 0 bytes

-'BaseLibs' 98311 warning -[NFC ERROR] NfcFileRecvMessage: data recv failed. retval = 3, expected 262144

-'BaseLibs' 98311 warning -[NFC ERROR] NfcFile_ContinueReceive: failed to Recv message

-'BaseLibs' 98311 info -[NFC DEBUG] NfcFile_Delete: Deleting file '/tmp/1A508E6D-8ED3-45D9-88A0-E6644EEBFC8C/VMware-image.tar.gz'

-'BaseLibs' 98311 warning -[NFC ERROR] NfcServerLoop: failed to receive file data

-'Nfc' 98311 error -Nfc_AuthdServerLoop saw error: Network error -- Failed to receive data

I guess my /tmp directory is too small to hold the images, can I delete the user world swap?

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leofonic
Contributor
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is hard to believe that the memory is causing this failure. I have 4GB of RAM installed. The last time bomb update with VIU was

executed without errors.

Hi gi-minni,

even with 4GB installed it's possible to run out of "Unreserved Memory" if you have running VMs. I just tried to install the update on a host with 2GB, and set the reservation for a single VM to 400MB. This left only 13MB left for "Memory Unreserved" in the "Resource Allocation"-tab of the host after starting up the VM. The Update failed with the same error message. After removing the Reservation (with the VM still running) thus having 500MB "Memory Unreserved" the Update went through without errors.

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nick_couchman
Immortal
Immortal

Yep - does seem to be a memory problem. On my whitebox machine with 1GB of RAM I just removed the VIM reservation of 512MB and was able to successfully install both the Tools and Firmware updates.

Thanks!

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gi-minni
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Nick,

yeah the problem is solved. Thx for helping

Solution: Before updating the ESX3i Server, put the ESX3i Server in maintenance mode or shutdown every running VM instance!

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