Upgrade ESXi The request channel timed out while waiting for a reply after 00:05:00

[Vlad_Belo]

Hi,

So I'm making an automation for updating ESXi hosts.

and in the part of the arguments, its failing on time out

The request channel timed out while waiting for a reply after 00:05:00. Increase the timeout value passed to the call to Request or increase the SendTimeout value on the Binding. The time allotted to this operation may 
have been a portion of a longer timeout.

the part of the script is this:

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope Session -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds -1 -Confirm:$false

$esxcli = $hosts | Get-EsxCli -V2
$argsInstall = $esxcli.software.profile.install.createargs()
$argsInstall.depot = $InstallationPath
$argsInstall.profile = $profile
if($hosts.version -lt $version){
    $esxcli.software.profile.install.invoke($argsInstall)
}

what am I doing wrong? is it the position of the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration ?

am I suppose to place it right before the 'software.profile.isntall.invoke()' ?

or is it something completely different? tried few things also set it to 1800 or 3600 seconds, still failing after 5 minutes of no reply

Thanks in advance!

[LucD · Accepted solution]

Are you already connected when you do the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration?
Try doing the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration (with Scope Session) before the Connect-VIServer.

You could also try changing the Scope to AllUsers, stop/start the session and then do the Connect-VIServer.

[Vlad_Belo]

my bad

I actually set the wrong scope.

changed to set for AllUsers and all working great now

[Vlad_Belo]

actually now I'm having other issues, with the [MetadataDownload] looks like.

Message: EsxCLI.CLIFault.summary;
InnerText:  [MetadataDownloadError] Could not download from depot at https://mysite.com/folder/version/index.xml, skipping 
(('https://mysite.com/folder/version/index.xml', '', '<urlopen error [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution>'))        url = 
https://mysite.com/folder/version/index.xml Please refer to the log file for more details.EsxCLI.CLIFault.summary

also, is it possible to point the .depot to a local folder? or any shared folder instead of a server or datastore?

[LucD]

Yes and no.
You can do it from a local resource, but it involves setting up a web server. See How to host your own simple ESXi update depot?

So a no in just using a local folder.

[Vlad_Belo]

that also was my mistake, I used the .depot file trying to update 6.7 to 7+

which can't really be done without the .ISO file.

so I'm trying to continue and separate the script to few parts 

which will include if version is 6.7*

and another part if version is 7*

[Vlad_Belo]

I've seen people using this webserver 

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

 but looks like it does not contain ALL the versions.

also for some reason, when I'm testing, and trying to upgrade version 7.0.0 to any upper version like 7.0.2 or 7.0.2uD or 7.0.3u*

having issues like it can't find any source.

but if I'm testing on upgrade from version 7.0.3 to say 7.0.3uD or 7.0.3uE or uG its upgrading successfully. 

to your knowledge, do you know another webserver that does contain ALL versions since 7.0 ?

[LucD]

There are a number of depots listed in Types of Software Depots
Those are the ones I know of.

[Vlad_Belo]

Hi 

so I'm trying a different approach with Install-VMHostPatch

but it also gives me an error of: 500 (Internal Server Error) 

the Error:

Install-VMHostPatch : Install-VMHostPatch	Installation of patch 'path\metadata.zip' on host 'host' failed 
because one or more of the required files cannot be uploaded. Upload of file 
'path\vib20\tools-light\VMware_locker_tools-light_12.0.0.19345655-20036586.vib' failed. Error message: Response status code does not indicate success: 
500 (Internal Server Error)

couldn't find anything helpful about this error so far

Thanks in Advance

[LucD]

Can you check in the /var/log/esxupdate.log on that ESXi node if there is more information on what goes wrong?