VMware ESX Server 3.5, Patch ESX350-200802412-BG: Updates to the VMkernel to Fix Networking and Hardware Issues

Symptoms

1. While running performance and benchmarking applications like IOzone or MemHog, and while performing snapshot consolidate operations, virtual machines stop responding, with a blue screen that reports KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR or SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (77).
   
   
2. Incorrect CPU information is reported for Intel Penryn family processors.
   
   
3. ESX Server stops responding when it loads and unloads storage device drivers. Incorrect output might appear when you run vdf –h /vmfs/devices to determine the current space.
   
   
4. The skb_copy() function of the vmklinux module does not work as expected. In rare cases, the transmit packets are corrupted.
   
   
5. A malformed REPORT LUNS command (for example, possibly created by a faulty application or SCSI utility in the guest) might sometimes return incorrect status.
   
   
6. When implementing a VLAN trunking configuration on an ESX Server system that utilizes the igb driver for Intel Zoar NICs, connectivity is lost.
   
   
7. On systems with mixed stepping CPUs, /var/log/vmkwarning displays messages that look like the following:
   
   vmkernel: 0:00:00:00.XXX cpuX:XXX)WARNING: Cpu: SaveAndCheckCPUID:518: version 000006fb but BSP 000006f7
   
   These messages are harmless and can be ignored. This patch version moves the messages from warnings in /var/log/vmkwarning to informational messages in /var/log/vmkernel.
   
   
8. The status of failed and rebuilding drives is not displayed correctly in Dell OMSS.
   
   
9. While performing simultaneous rescans and the hot addition or deletion of RDMs (or other such operations that involve RDM creation, RDM open, or RDM deletion), the procedure might sometimes fail. The system reports the exceptions "concurrent modification" and "file not found" in /var/vmware/log/hostd.log. After applying the patch, the system might still report the "concurrent modification" exception. If this occurs, retry the operation. You should not see the "file not found" exception after applying the patch.
   
   
10. When connecting to an ESX Server host running with one or more dual-core Intel Xeon 7200-series processors installed, VirtualCenter under-reports the number of processor sockets available. Due to the under-reported number of sockets, some sockets that are operating on the ESX Server host are unlicensed.

Deployment Considerations

• ESX Server is licensed on a per-CPU-package basis. ESX Server previously recognized certain dual-core CPUs as half of a quad-core CPU package. ESX Server hosts with these CPUs recognized one license for each two CPU packages. This fix enables such ESX Server hosts to require one license for each CPU package.
• Make sure your license server has sufficient ESX Server licenses available before installing this patch.
  

Patch Download and Installation

To automatically download and install patches on your ESX Server 3.5 hosts, use the VMware Update Manager. For more information, see the Update Manager Administration Guide at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vum_10_admin_guide.pdf.

To update ESX Server 3.5 hosts from the command line of the service console, download the most recent patch bundle from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches_35.html and install it using the esxupdate utility. For more information about using esxupdate, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_esxupdate.pdf.