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ESX 3.0.2, ESX-1001903, bnx2 Driver Upgrade, Support for Broadcom 5709 Based Network Card (NIC)

Details

Release Date: 10/29/07
Document Last Updated: 10/29/07

Download Now
Download Size:
8.5 MB
Download Filename:
ESX-1001903.tgz
md5sum:
46c991dbb03fd73e31a066d97a5a4374


Product Versions
ESX Server 3.0.2*
Patch Classification
General
Supersedes
None
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required
Yes
ESX Server Host Reboot Required
Yes
PRs Fixed
 
Affected Hardware
N/A
Affected Software
Unknown
RPMs Updated

VMware-esx-drivers-net-bnx2 , kernel-vmnix

Related CVE numbers

 

 

Summary

This patch fixes the following issues:

  • This patch upgrades the bnx2 driver from version 1.4.51b to version 1.5.10b.
  • The bnx2 1.5.10b driver  enables support for Broadcom 5709 based network cards.

*This patch is already included in ESX Server 3.0.2 Update 1 release. For more information about this update, see the ESX Server 3.0.2 Update 1 release notes at http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/releasenotes_esx302_update1.html .

 
 

Solution

Symptoms

There are no symptoms available for the updates provided by this patch.

Deployment Considerations

Broadcom Driver Interferes with BMC Networking Connectivity on IBM Systems
When the bnx2 driver is loaded on IBM Systems using Broadcom 5706, 5708, or 5709 devices, communication to the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) from an external source is not possible. This prevents system management applications from getting NIC monitoring information for the system.

Workaround: Use the IBM Remote Supervisor II (RSA II) interface for the functions that it provides. If BMC capability is required for your product network, please wait for the ESX Server update patch from VMware.

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

1. Download patch ESX-1001903 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-1001903.tgz

The md5 checksum output should match the following:

46c991dbb03fd73e31a066d97a5a4374 ESX-1001903.tgz

7. Extract the compressed tar archive:

 # tar -xvzf ESX-1001903.tgz

 8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1001903 :

 # cd ESX-1001903

Installation Instructions

After you download and extract the archive, and if you are in the directory that you previously created, use the following command to install the update:
 
# esxupdate update
 
To run esxupdate from a different directory, you must specify the bundle path in the command:
 
 # esxupdate -r file://ESX-1001903 update
 
For example, if the host is called depot:
 
# esxupdate -r file://depot/var/updates/ESX-1001903 update
 
During the update process, logs appear on the terminal. You can specify the verbosity of esxupdate logs by using the -v option as shown below.
 
# esxupdate -v 10 file://<directory>/ESX-1001903 update
 
For more information how to use esxupdate, see the Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf .

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1001903
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x