How to uninstall an update installed with esxupdate

[bvi1998]

Using esxupdate to install patches is simple and straightforward. But how do uninstall an update installed with esxupdate? There does not seem to be an esxupdate option for uninstalling. Is there another esx specific tool or do you use the RPM command - and does that uninstall the current patch and reinstate, say the driver, that you updated? Thanks. -Gary

[ascari]

The esxupdate utility does not support rolling back or removing any type of updates. You cannot remove patches once they have been installed.

Look on page 7

Alberto

[bvi1998]

Ok. I just read the doc you pointed me to. Thank you! However, there has to be another way to rollback or uninstall a patch - maybe esxupdate cannot do it but there has to be a command to do so. If a patch is bad or adversely affects your system I cannot believe there is no option for rollback or uninstall. That would mean if you get a bad patch and it ruins your server you would have to reinstall the server from scratch? -Gary

[espi3030]

I just read something about this, did you by chance take a snapshot you can revert to?

[Chamon · Accepted solution]

Check oth this post

http://communities.vmware.com/message/856789

[bvi1998]

Since we are talking esx host and not an actual VM snapshots do not apply.

[bvi1998]

Yikes. So I guess there is no rolling back - at least not a VMWare supported one anyway! Thanks everyone. -Gary

[Chamon]

If you have one then the best thig to do is to test it in a lab. They do need to change this though. I can't remember are you running 3.5? If so you get a trial period license. Hope that helps some.

[kristiane]

Even though I have tested it on several hosts, I still have trouble with one. I deployed the patches from Feb and March to all my hosts, and now one is crashing and giving the Purple Screen of Death. I am running ESX 3.0.2 and would like to remove the recent patches applied and see if that helps, but so far I have had no luck finding a way to roll back. Since there doesn't seem to be a supported option, has anybody else found other ways to remove a patch?

[Chamon]

You would have to remove the rpm(s) that was installed by the patch using

the rpm command. But this is not supported at all!!! I don't know how it

would affect the system. It might just be easier to reinstall the host and

then add it back to the cluster.

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 12:24 PM, kristiane <communities-emailer@vmware.com