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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

Details

Release Date: 02/20/08

Document Last Updated: 02/20/08

Download Size:
41.0 MB
Download Filename:
ESX-1003179.tgz
md5sum:
77256b3bd26f450d8ccafebbf4a0feba

Product Versions	ESX Server 3.0.2
Patch Classification	General
Supersedes	ESX-1002974
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required	Yes
ESX Server Host Reboot Required	Yes
PRs Fixed	217688, 216980, 151459, 170848, 222365
Affected Hardware	N/A
Affected Software	Unknown
RPMs Included	VMware-esx-apps, VMware-esx-vmx, VMware-esx-vmkernel
Related CVE numbers	N/A

Summary

This patch fixes the following issues:

Fixes an issue where a virtual machine using a e1000 NIC stops responding under heavy Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) network load, when the IBM Tivoli driver attempts to write to the e1000 register.
Fixes an issue where OpenSolaris virtual machines might take a long time to boot due to SCSI errors.
Enables virtual machines on the same ESX Server host to share generic SCSI devices.
Fixes an issue where a virtual machine's remote console appears blacked out, when the virtual machine is accessed from a computer via a network that has a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to the virtual machine's ESX Server host.
Fixes an issue where broadcast/multicast packets are duplicated when two or more virtual machines are connected to a vSwitch using NIC teaming.

Solution

Symptoms

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

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

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

Download patch ESX-1003179 from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches.html.
Log in to the ESX Server service console as root .
Create a local depot directory.

# mkdir -p /var/updates

Note: VMware recommends that you use the updates directory.
Change your working directory to /var/updates .

# cd /var/updates
Download the tar file into the /var/updates directory.
Verify the integrity of the downloaded tar file:

# md5sum ESX-1003179.tgz

The md5 checksum output should match the following:

77256b3bd26f450d8ccafebbf4a0feba ESX-1003179.tgz
Extract the compressed tar archive:

# tar -xvzf ESX-1003179.tgz
Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1003179 :

# cd ESX-1003179

Installation Instructions

Note: All virtual machines on the host must be either shut down or migrated using VMotion before applying the patch. A reboot of the ESX Server host is required after applying this 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-1003179 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1003179 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-1003179 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;esx302

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KB Article: 1003179
Updated: Aug 14, 2009

Products:
VMware ESX
Product Versions:
VMware ESX 3.0.x

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