Tag Archives: 4.1

Upgrade ESX 3 to version 4.1.0

Posted on by
to upgrade ESXi to 4.1 Click here

KB ID 0000305 

Problem

I had to upgrade some ESX hosts from ESX 3.5 the other day, as they are a long way away, and version 4.1 is hot off the presses (at time of writing) that’s what I wanted to upgrade them to.

Lessons Learned

1. At first I tried with the “Host Update Utility”.

2. But no matter what version I gave it, it gave me this error,

Unsupported ESX version: esx-4.0.0 X.X-XXXXXX-release or Unsupported product ESXi Installer vx.x.x-x-x

3. That points you HERE, and the fix is “Download the latest Version of Host Update Utility” DONT BOTHER YOU WILL NOT FIND IT.

Solution

1. First I got the hosts updated to version 4.0.0 Update 2 – To do that I used the VMware Update Manager (Install on your Virtual Center it’s on the VIM setup CD).

2. Then found out I couldn’t upgrade to version 4.1 using the same method.

3. You need to download TWO update patches,

a. pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip b. upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip

4. Connect to your ESX box with an SCP client I prefer Veem Fast SCP because its free.

5. Create a folder on your ESX box and copy the two patches to this folder, with your SCP client.

6. Log onto the ESX console or connect via SSH.

7. Put the host into maintenance mode with the following command,

[box]vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter[/box]

8. The folder I created was called UPDATE change into that folder with the following command,

[box]cd /UPDATE[/box]

9. Run the “Pre-Update” package first with the following command, (that’s one command if its gets text wrapped).

[box]esxupdate update –bundle=pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip[/box]

It’s pretty quick don’t go anywhere

10. When it’s completed, run the following command, (that’s one command if its gets text wrapped).

[box]esxupdate update –bundle=upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip[/box]

11. That command takes a while, go and have a coffee, when finished it will ask for a reboot you can reboot the ESX with the following command,

[box]shutdown -r now[/box]

12 Post reboot you can either exit maintenance mode from the vi client or with the following command,

[box]vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit[/box]

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

VMware ESXi 5 – Applying Patches and Updates

Update VMware ESXi from 4.0 to 4.1

Posted on by
for ESX click here

KB ID 0000369

Problem

You have an ESXi server running 4.0 and you want to update to 4.1

Note: This procedure is carried out on a stand along ESXi 4.0 host, if you have 4.0 ESXi servers managed by Virtual Center you MUST update your Virtual Center to version 4.1 FIRST. If you don’t you cannot connect to the updated 4.1 ESXi host post upgrade, if you try you will see the following error,

Error: HA agent disabled on {hostname}

And for Virtual Center 4.1 the host server needs to be x64 bit (at time of writing Server 2008 R2 is NOT supported).

Solution

Steps

1. Download the update upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip

2. Copy the update to a datastore on your ESXi server.

3. Connect to the ESXi server via SSH.

4. Find the “simlink” for the datastore you put the update in with the following command.

[box]ls -l /vmfs/volumes/[/box]

5. Enter maintenance mode with the following command. (In a VCenter environment do this from the VCenter).

[box]vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter[/box]

6. Extract the update with the following command. (replace the simlink with your own).

[box]esxupdate –bundle=/vmfs/volumes/4c46df69-78c14cd1-7455-18a9053b3a5c/UPDATE/upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip stage[/box]

7. Install the update with the following command. (replace the simlink with your own).

[box]esxupdate –bundle=/vmfs/volumes/4c46df69-78c14cd1-7455-18a9053b3a5c/UPDATE/upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip update[/box]

8. Reboot the ESXi Server.

9. Exit maintenance mode either via the VI client or from command line with the follwing command.

[box]vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit[/box]

Note: If you are doing multiple ESXi hosts in a vCenter environment the simlinks will be the same on all the hosts.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

VMware ESXi 5 – Applying Patches and Updates

Is Virtual Center 4.1 Supported on Windows Server 2008 R2?

Posted on by

KB ID 0000379 

Problem

ES! it is, if in doubt see the compatibility matrix. But you have tried to install it and seen an error?

Error: This product can only be installed on the following 64-bit operating systems: Windows XP SP2 or above Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008

Solution

Essentially this just a bad error message that bears no resemblance the the actual problem!

The REAL REASON you are seeing this error is because you re trying to install vCenter on a domain controller.

This happens because, as part of the vCenter 4.1 setup the following takes place,

And if the server is a Domain controller, AD LDS cannot be installed. You will notice that if you watch the “Roles” section during the install of vCenter, that a role drops onto the list.

Final Thoughts

For anyone who thinks “Well Ill put vCenter on first then make the server a domain controller”. That won’t work either, if you try that you will see this error,

Error: The TCP ports shown below are required by Active Directory Domain Services, but are already in use on this computer. 389 ldap

To be honest a more descriptive error message would help. (Cheers VMware!). It’s not as if you cant do it…

Same thing on Server 2008

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

VMware – Datastore Browser shows “Searching Datastore….”

Posted on by

KB ID 0000401 

Problem

I did a VMware VI3 to vSphere (4.1 U1) upgrade today. While bringing all the guest machines across, suddenly I could no longer browse the datastore, I only had one more guest to “Add to the inventory”, and all the mission critical machines were already migrated. I tried rebooting the virtual center, I tried restarting the ESXi host machines, still it sat saying “Searching Datastore……”.

Solution

1. I found the solution by accident. I was adding virtual machines to the new VSphere inventory, so I went in search of a method of doing it from the console, I was just about to:

Command to add a VMware guest to the inventory

[box]vmware-cmd -s register {full path to virtual machine}MACHINE_NAME.vmx[/box]

But, while looking in the folder with the guest files, I saw thousands of log files, I guess the VI client is struggling to parse them all, and display them. A quick internet search and I found out I can safely delete the log files.

2. Log into the ESX/ESXi servers console, for ESXi servers (version 4.0 and below) see here, for newer versions you can simply enable SSH access from Troubleshooting Mode Options > Enable Remote Tech support (SSH).

3. Log on as root and issue the following command to find the symlink path to your shared storage:

[box]ls -l /vmfs/volumes/[/box]

4. Now you know your symlink, you can change to the folder that contains the affected guest OS.

[box]cd /vmfs/volumes/{your symlink}/{your vm folder}[/box]

5. To get rid of all the log files, simply issue the following command.

[box]rm -f vmware-*.log[/box]

6. Now retry and you should see the folder contents when you “Browse Datastore”.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Possible bug in VMware Client

Posted on by

KB ID 0000413

Problem

Unable to use multiple console sessions in Windows 7.

1. Seen on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, with and without aero enabled, on two separate machines.

2. Happens if connected to VCenter OR directly to ESXi (build 4.1.0, 260247)

3. Does NOT happen with the same software from Server 2003. (Same systems, same vesion of the VI client).

4. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

5. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 with Service Pack 1 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

6. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 aero Enabled with Service Pack 1 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

7. Does NOT happen on Windows 7 Enterprise (Service Pack 1) x86 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

Description

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA