Unable to upgrade to ESXi 4.0

[Tomdarkness]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to upgrade to ESXi 4.0 with no success. The first time I attempted to upgrade the vSphere Host Update Utility complained that it could not deploy the upgrade agent and it turned out that there was no space on /tmp. I setup a link to redirect /tmp/ to /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/temp and I was able to pass the host compatibility check.

Now, when it comes to 10% on the installation it fails with the following error in the log:

2009-06-18 16:47:46 INFO Creating upgrade cache directory

2009-06-18 16:47:47 INFO Mounting 128MB ramdisk on /var/cache/upgrade

mount: Mounting upgrade on /var/cache/upgrade failed: No space left on device

2009-06-18 16:47:47 CRITICAL installation aborted Failed to mount visorfs with size 128MB

So, I tried setting up a link from /var/cache to point to /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/cache but I got the following error when retrying the upgrade:

2009-06-18 17:04:56 INFO Creating upgrade cache directory

2009-06-18 17:04:56 INFO Mounting 128MB ramdisk on /var/cache/upgrade

mount: Mounting upgrade on /var/cache/upgrade failed: Device or resource busy

2009-06-18 17:04:56 CRITICAL installation aborted Failed to mount visorfs with size 128MB

Heres the output of df -h

Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on

unknown 183.9M 126.4M 57.5M 69% /

unknown 293.3G 273.6G 19.7G 93% /vmfs/volumes/499ae1f9-3623091f-e435-0013723f7918

unknown 539.8M 175.0M 364.8M 32% /vmfs/volumes/3abb47ef-875ea67c-c948-7bf6ff8d3c38

unknown 47.8M 1.0k 47.8M 0% /vmfs/volumes/da2b2c73-084f0c1c-96b9-29e2018ffdbf

unknown 47.8M 36.6M 11.2M 77% /vmfs/volumes/62b67d79-e276351c-3eb4-81e5d40f4f1a

unknown 4.0G 1.0G 3.0G 25% /vmfs/volumes/499ae1f8-6b0ea3a1-fe29-0013723f7918

How can I fix this problem?

Thanks,

Tom Pryor

[RParker]

How long have you spent on this? You might find that the best thing to do is just install a FRESH ESXi. Migrate the VM's, install a new ESX, reconfigure the host, move VM's back. By the time a solution is rendered, you can probably have it up on ESX 4.0.

It's difficult to figure out reasons why an ESX doesn't upgrade, but the best practice has always been to install as NEW rather than upgrade.

[Tomdarkness]

Hello,

I've spent a good number of hours trying to get this to work. Currently this is the only ESXi machine in the setup and is a sort of in production trial if you get what I mean to see how ESXi performs in the real world but we do have plans to setup another ESXi host. Is there a way I can transfer the VM files off the host (The virtual machine files are around 200GB and are stored locally on the host), wipe the drive and install ESXi 4 on it? Can I add another hard drive and transfer the Virtual Machine files from the current drive as i'd prefer not to transfer it across the network?

Although, I still don't see why my upgrade does not work. Since it never gave me the option to set the size of the / partition then i'd really expect it to give it more than ~160mb to make sure I would be able to upgrade it. I've not messed around with the configuration of the disks/partitions on the host do I don't know why other people are able to upgrade fine but i'm unable to.

Thanks,

Tom

[DSTAVERT]

You can install 4 directly to a USB stick. Use a 1 GB minimum stick. You can do this right from the install CD. It should read your current VMKS datastore on the hardrives. It won't pick up any of your current configuration so you will need to use the datastore browser to import the inventory You will also need to recreate any switch/network configuration. It should only take a few minutes.

[RParker]

Although, I still don't see why my upgrade does not work.

Yes I see what you mean, and I feel your pain. It should work, I agree, but sometimes it does not. Unfortunately other than calling VM Ware and have them troubleshoot may be the only way to get this to work, because there are many variations depending on your setup. There shouldn't be, because it's just a CD and upgrade, it really should not be this complicated. And I hope you won't get a bad taste from ESX, because this isn't indicative in any way for what to expect, it's a good OS.

I was trying to save you some trouble, and since you only have 1 ESX, I can see where it's going to be difficult to make this go cleanly. The alternative to migrating the VM's is using VM Converter to convert the VM's, and save them as stand alone VM's elsewhere. Which would take a good bit of time as well.