ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003179: Fixes for Remote Console Blackout, OpenSolaris Boot Delay, Duplicate Packet Issue; Support for Virtual Machines to Share Generic SCSI Devices

Symptoms

• A virtual machine using a e1000 NIC might stop responding under heavy PXE network load when the IBM Tivoli driver attempts to write to the e1000 register.
• When OpenSolaris virtual machines take a long time to boot, messages similar to the following might be logged in /vmfs/volume/storage/solaris/vmware.log :
  
  LSI: VMK call completed with bad status, 0xbad000e CCB 0x0 targ 0xe0 lun 0x0 cmd 0x0 with target 0x20, 0x40, 0x60, 0x80, 0xa0, 0xc0, and 0xe0
  

  
  
• Access to shared generic SCSI device by virtual machines on the same ESX server host, at the same time, might fail with an error message similar to the following:
  
  Unable to open SCSI device '/vmfs/devices/generic/vml.020c00000050001fe1500cf430485356323030' (scsi1:0): @&!*@*@(msg.fileio.generic)Generic error..
  
  
• The remote console blackout issue might occur in the following scenario:
  
  1. Set up a GRE tunnel between two Linux virtual machines sharing a vSwitch on a ESX Server host, esx1.
  2. On esx1, create another virtual machine and install VirtualCenter and Virtual Infrastructure Client on the virtual machine, VCVM.
  3. On a private network with esx1, connect another ESX Server host, esx2.
  4. Open the remote console of a virtual machine on esx2 from the VCVM.  The remote console displays a black screen.
  
  

• Packet duplication causes network congestion. Duplication of packets might also cause issues with VMotion RARP broadcast. To confirm if packets are getting duplicated, use a network tool such as Arping to send broadcast/multicast packets. Check the destination virtual machine using a network traffic analyzer such as tcpdump or Ethereal.
  

Deployment Considerations

For the remote console black-out issue, see KB 1003563 for a workaround. 

Download Instructions

1. Download patch ESX-1003179 from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches.html.
   
2. Log in to the ESX Server service console as root .
   
3. Create a local depot directory.
   
   # mkdir -p /var/updates
   
   Note: VMware recommends that you use the updates directory.
   
4. Change your working directory to /var/updates .
   
   # cd /var/updates
   
5. Download the tar file into the /var/updates directory.
   
6. Verify the integrity of the downloaded tar file:
   
   # md5sum ESX-1003179.tgz
   
   The md5 checksum output should match the following:
   
   77256b3bd26f450d8ccafebbf4a0feba ESX-1003179.tgz
   
7. Extract the compressed tar archive:
   
   # tar -xvzf ESX-1003179.tgz
   
8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1003179 :
   
   # cd ESX-1003179

Installation Instructions