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ESX Server 3.0.1, Patch ESX-1002082; Fix for Time Gain in Windows OS, Support for 64-bit Guest Libraries, PBMs for SLES 10 SP1

Details

Release Date: 10/8/07

Document Last Updated: 10/8/07

Download Now
Download Size:
56.0 MB
Download Filename:
ESX-1002082.tgz
md5sum:
25b4f58b3c2a522d52b79803099212c3

Product Versions	ESX Server 3.0.1
Patch Classification	General
Supersedes	ESX-8258730
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required	Yes
ESX Server Host Reboot Required	No
PRs Fixed	159587, 186639, 186682
Affected Hardware	N/A
Affected Software	Windows OS, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP1, SAP, Windows SMP Virtual Machine, Java or multimedia real-time software
RPMs Updated	VMware-esx-vmx, VMware-esx-tools
Related CVE numbers	N/A

Summary

This patch fixes the following issues:

A time gain issue for various Windows guest operating systems. Windows operating systems use multimedia timers that repeatedly switch the frequency of the CMOS periodic timer. This switch in the frequency interferes with correct time keeping in the virtual machine, resulting in potential time gain. This fix affects VMware-esx-vmx.rpm.
Adds support for 64-bit guest libraries. Existing 32-bit guest libraries will be unaffected. With this fix, GuestSDK will be installed along with the installation of VMware Tools. This fix affects VMware-esx-tools.rpm.
Provides prebuilt kernel module drivers (VMxnet and VMballoon) for virtual machines running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP1 guest operating systems. With this fix, it is no longer necessary to have development environments installed in these virtual machines in order to install these components of VMware Tools for Linux. This fix affects VMware-esx-tools.rpm.

Solution

Symptom

The following symptom might be seen in systems without this patch:

The time gain issue might happen in the following scenario: Windows multimedia timers are a service provided by Windows OS to applications that provides high resolution callbacks for applications. Enabling, disabling, or changing the rate of callbacks can cause Windows to change the rate of interrupts requested from the hardware timer. The act of changing the rate of the hardware timer can cause small amounts of time to be gained. If the rate is changed frequently, an appreciable amount of time can be gained in the virtual machine. Java applications commonly change the multimedia timer rate and might trigger the time gain issue. This issue has also been observed with the use of WebLogic.

Deployment Considerations

If you intend to run an SAP 64-bit application, you would need to install/upgrade VMware Tools in the guest operating system. The support for 64-bit guest libraries is available in Windows and Linux OS. The following resources provide information on using VMware Infrasturcture SDK: Getting Started Guide and Programming Guide.
If you intend to run SLES 10 SP1 32-bit and 64-bit, you would need to install/upgrade VMware Tools in the guest operating system.

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

1. Download patch ESX-1002082 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-1002082.tgz

The md5 checksum output should match the following:

25b4f58b3c2a522d52b79803099212c3 ESX-1002082.tgz

7. Extract the compressed tar archive:

# tar -xvzf ESX-1002082.tgz

8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1002082 :

# cd ESX-1002082

Installation Instructions
Note: All virtual machines on the host must be either shut down or migrated using VMotion before applying the patch.

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://<directory>/ESX-1002082 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1002082 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-1002082 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 .

Keywords

esxpatch;esx301

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