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ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003524: Updates to VMware-esx-vmkernel, VMware-esx-vmx, and VMware-esx-apps

Details

Release Date: 04/10/08
Document Last Updated: 04/10/08
 
405231c470b0ca518663cdd9437b734f

Product Versions
ESX Server 3.0.2
Patch Classification
Security
Supersedes
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required
Yes
ESX Server Host Reboot Required
Yes
PRs Fixed

226583, 234118, 229474, 170927, 199595, 188549, 236204, 237991, 232694, 193774, 242982
Affected Hardware
Systems with dual-core Intel Xeon 7200-series processors, HDS Modular Storage arrays
Affected Software
Unknown
RPMs Included
VMware-esx-vmkernel, VMware-esx-vmx, VMware-esx-apps
Related CVE numbers
N/A

Summary

This patch fixes the following issues:
 
  • This fix changes the default multipath policy of HDS modular storage arrays to FIXED mode since most of these arrays are either Active/Active or Pseudo Active/Active and using FIXED mode results in better performance on a Active/Active Array. For more more information on Multipathing and Failover Policy, refer http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_design_deploy.pdf.
     
  • Some Windows OEM CDs may fail to install due to an incorrect formating of the Virtual System Locked Pre-installation (SLP) certificate in the OEM System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) string. 
     
  • Virtual machines running Microsoft Windows 2003 Server do not respond while rebooting. This issue occurs due to the virtual machine monitor (VMM) ignoring lock prefixes in some situations. This issue is resolved by properly emulating lock prefixes in the VMM.
     
  • Taking a snapshot of a powered-on or suspended virtual machine with raw device mappings (RDMs) failed and powered off the virtual machine. The user interface now prevents this type of unsupported snapshot.
     

  • ESX Server might stop responding if it ran out of heap memory for copy-on-write (COW) disk metadata. COW disks are used by several ESX Server facilities such as snapshots, VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), and VMware Lab Manager. The COW heap might get exhausted when the total theoretical size of COW disks being managed approaches 20 terabytes. This issue has been resolved.

  • ESX servers accessing NFS shares occasionally report errors. These errors occur because NFS lock update timeout fires more often than expected. This patch resolves this issue by changing the timeout value.
     
  • Network packet storm might cause ESX Server hosts to stop responding. This was a spinlock timeout issue and has been fixed.
     
  • Removes the SysAlert warning message when the processor implements less than eight variable range Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR). ESX Server does not require a specific number of variable MTRRs. The test which produced the warning was incorrect.

  • Fixes the issue of guest operating system not responding, when rebooted to support Ubuntu 7.10. To complete the support for Ubuntu 7.10, install ESX-1003524 and ESX-1003527.

  • VirtualCenter does not properly record the number of processors on ESX Server hosts with dual-core Intel Xeon 7200-series processors.
     

  • Windows virtual machines might not respond when a virtual machine is updated with Symantec virus definition from 213 to 220.

    • Solution

    Symptoms

    This patch fixes the following issues:
     
  • For all Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) modular storage arrays that are either Active/Active or Pseudo Active/Active, the present default multipath policy is MRU (Most Recently Used) mode.
     

  • Virtual machines installed on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server do not respond while rebooting.  

  • Taking a snapshot of a suspended virtual machine that is powered on and has virtual disks configured as independent, non-persistent disks fails with the following error.
    Failed to resume virtual disk scsi0:0:The disk has been modified since you took a snapshot or suspended the virtual machine. Error encountered while restarting virtual machine after taking snapshot. The virtual machine will be powered off.
     
  • ESX Servers accessing NFS shares report The virtual disk is either corrupted or not a supported format error.
     
  • A SysAlert warning message is generated when the processor implements less than eight variable range Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR).
     
  • Incorrect number of packages or cores per package are displayed in the VI Client when ESX Server 3.0.x is run on partially disabled multi-core processors machine.
     
  • Windows virtual machines stop responding when the driver in VMKernel is replaced. 
    •  
    Deployment Considerations
     
    For dual-core Intel Xeon 7200-series processors:
     
    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.
    Note: Please ensure that your license server has sufficient ESX Server licenses available before installing this patch.

    Download Instructions

    Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

    1.      Download patch ESX-1003524 and ESX-1003527 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-1003524.tgz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    405231c470b0ca518663cdd9437b734f ESX-1003524.tgz
     

    7.      Extract the compressed tar archive:

    # tar -xvzf ESX-1003524.tgz

    8.      Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1003524:

    # cd ESX-1003524

    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-1003524 update

    For example, if the host is called depot:

    # esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1003524 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-1003524 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;alertz;urlz

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    Actions
    • KB Article: 1003524
    • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
    • Products:
      VMware ESX
    • Product Versions:
      VMware ESX 3.0.x