Upgrade from vSphere GA to U1 hanging with "rpmdb: unable to lock mutex: Invalid argument"

[Mackopes]

I'm having problems with one of my upgrades and it has hung.

I'm using esxupdate to update through the SC.

I let it sit overnight, but it hasn't gone anywhere.

I 'suspect' this may have happened to another server I tried to update with Update manager that never finished. After rebooting, the server did not come back...

each package says 100% installed but then has this warning afterwards

Installing vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-megaraid2 ############################################################################

rpmdb: unable to lock mutex: Invalid argument

Installing vmware-esx-drivers-ata-pata-serverworks ############################################################################

rpmdb: unable to lock mutex: Invalid argument

Thanks!

Aaron

[RParker]

try the host update utility, download the ISO (U1) from the website. The host update utility get's installed when you install the client (U1).

Use that to upgrade the host.... That works much better.

I had a couple I had to put the host in maintenance mode, THEN restart, THEN attempt upgrade.. that seemed to work...

[Mackopes]

The problem is, this is a patch upgrade from ESX 4.0 GA to U1. The host update utility ONLY upgrades an ESX 3.5 server to ESX 4.0 GA or U1...

Aaron

[Sreejesh_D · Accepted solution]

Do you have HP management agent installed on ESX4.0? if so this upgrade issue is expected.

See the thread http://communities.vmware.com/message/1422939#1422939 and KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016070

At this stage don't reboot your host, it may lead the host to a PSOD. Try this workaround http://communities.vmware.com/message/1423133#1423133

:+: VCP,RHCE,EMCPA.

[Mackopes]

Thanks yezdi!

That did it!

Here's the exact process I used:

1) Kill the existing esxupdate process

2) delete the /var/lib/rpm/__db* files

3) run 'rpm --rebuilddb'

4) run /usr/sbin/vmkmod-install.sh

5) run /usr/sbin/cim-install.sh

6) run esxcfg-boot -b

7) Stop the HP services as mentioned in the KB:

😎 then run esxupdate --bundle ./<ESX4.0U1 package>

update

9) reboot

Thanks!!!