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MarcosFJ
Contributor
Contributor

Unable to install Patch

Hello all.

First I'm very happy with VMWare ESXi 3.5 update4, now my motherboard (Intel DP35DP) SATA controller and NIC are recognized.

I run the VMWare Infrastructure Update tool, they show up to me 2 patchs, one for Firmware and another for Tools.

The Firmware update was applied fine.

But the Tools update is unable to install, the process stop at '14%' with the message: 'Failed to Install Tools update: Unable to copy install files to host'

Is this because the write protection imposed by free flavour of ESXi?

How can I perform the Tool update?

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pmatthaei
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

we have got exactly the same issue on three of five hosts (where on some hosts the HW is simmilar to the other ones).

We also tried it with vihostupdate.pl and remoteinstall.exe, no success.

We also tried to shut down all running VMs and put the whole ESXi in the maintenance mode..

Has anyone some ideas?

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

pmatthaei, are you running the free version as well?

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

You might want to try http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/esx_3i_rcli/vihostupdate.php or if you extract the ZIP files, you'll see a remoteinstall.exe in the package. http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Patch_3i_without_VC.php

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pmatthaei
Contributor
Contributor

Yes we are using ESXi (the free version) as I wrote and we also tried it with the remoteinstall.exe's.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Do you get any error messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/vmware/hostd.log. These are accessible with vifs.pl or at https://<esxi_ip/host/.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Do you get any error messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/vmware/hostd.log. These are accessible with vifs.pl or at https://<esxi_ip/host/.

MarcosFJ
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Dave.Mishchenko, is not possible apply your hint, the free version blocks any write to host by VI Client CLI, remoteinstall.exe do the same think (open a VI Connection and try copy files and run script) so, return an error too.

The "https://&lt;esxi_ip/host" shows to me some files, one of those are hostd.log.

Hostd.log have a lot of entries, most of then reporting a broken pipe. I'm sending the log in annex.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

What specific error do you get with remoteinstall?

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MarcosFJ
Contributor
Contributor

Exactly the same message as the VI Update tool: "Unable to copy install files to host", at "progress 14%"

%LocalAppData%\VMware\VMware Update Client\packages\2b93184b-0d2f-4fbd-bc63-ed30091ef6a8\ESXe350-200904402-T-BG

--

the package %LocalAppData%\VMware\VMware Update Client\packages\2b93184b-0d2f-4fbd-bc63-ed30091ef6a8\ESXe350-200904402-I-SG install without trouble

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Have you tried the VI client update zip (the .C-UP.zip file). It may be a problem with the /store partition on your host.

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MarcosFJ
Contributor
Contributor

There is no .C-UP.zip. I have these directories on "%LocalAppData%\VMware\VMware Update Client\packages\2b93184b-0d2f-4fbd-bc63-ed30091ef6a8":

ESXe350-200712401-I-BG

ESXe350-200802401-I-BG

ESXe350-200803201-I-UG

ESXe350-200803202-T-UG

ESXe350-200803203-C-UG

ESXe350-200804401-I-BG

ESXe350-200805501-I-SG

ESXe350-200805502-T-SG

ESXe350-200805503-C-BG

ESXe350-200807812-I-BG

ESXe350-200808201-I-UG

ESXe350-200808202-T-UG

ESXe350-200808203-C-UG

ESXe350-200808501-I-SG

ESXe350-200809401-I-SG

ESXe350-200810401-I-UG

ESXe350-200810402-T-UG

ESXe350-200810403-C-UG

ESXe350-200811401-I-SG

ESXe350-200811401-T-BG

ESXe350-200901401-I-SG

ESXe350-200901402-T-BG

ESXe350-200903201-I-UG

ESXe350-200903202-T-UG

ESXe350-200903203-C-UG

ESXe350-200903411-I-BG

ESXe350-200904201-I-SG

**ESXe350-200904401-I-SG

**ESXe350-200904402-T-BG

All are empty except the last two (marked with **). The last 2 have files inside, where 200904401-I-SG installs ok and 200904402-T-BG is failing to write.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

If you download the latest patch from here - http://download3.vmware.com/software/vi/ESXe350-200904401-O-SG.zip you can extract it and you'll see the client update zip that I refer to.

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MarcosFJ
Contributor
Contributor

I downloaded the ESXe350-200904401-O-SG.zip from the link. and Tried two updates modes:

1st. Opening VI Update tool, under "Package Cache", "Add File...", they only show the T-BG (tools) for update, the patch stops at 14% with with the same previous message.

2nd. Unpacked the ESXe350-200903203-C-UG.zip and executed RemoteInstall.exe, patch fail at 19% with the same message: "Unable to copy install files to host"

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

I'd backup the config - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/esx_3i_rcli/vicfg-cfgbackup.php and run a repair install. Then try to patch it and finially restore your config. A repair install is done with the install ISO and it won't overwrite your datastores (assuming you pick repair and not new install). That said, I'd also have a backup of all VMs handy. If the VMs aren't listed after a config restore, browse the datastore for VMX file and right click to add them back to inventory.

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pmatthaei
Contributor
Contributor

I think this isn't a good solution, especially if the servers are in production use.

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pmatthaei
Contributor
Contributor

I found this in the hostd.log: 
[2009-05-07 15:40:26.919 'BaseLibs' 147466 info] [NFC DEBUG] NfcFileRawRead: write error There is no space left on the device.
[2009-05-07 15:40:26.920 'BaseLibs' 147466 warning] [NFC ERROR] NfcFile_ContinueReceive: write failed. expected 262144, got -1
[2009-05-07 15:40:26.920 'BaseLibs' 147466 info] [NFC DEBUG] NfcFile_Delete: Deleting file '/tmp/445C4A49-535E-45B0-8A4B-BDCF7469EDB6/VMware-tools.tar.gz'
[2009-05-07 15:40:26.939 'BaseLibs' 147466 warning] [NFC ERROR] NfcServerLoop: failed to receive file data 
[2009-05-07 15:40:26.939 'Nfc' 147466 error] Nfc_AuthdServerLoop saw error: File error -- Failed to write to the target file: There is no space left on the device

But we still have got 500 gbyte on our primary storage free 😮 

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

What output do you get for df -h?

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pmatthaei
Contributor
Contributor

We haven't got enabled SSH, yet :&lt;

Any other way?

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

You can follow the first fet steps here if you have console access - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_enable_SSH.php

Otherwise you could use vifs.pl to see what is in /tmp - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/esx_3i_rcli/vifs.php

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