Upgrade ESX 3 to version 4.1.0

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

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