VMware ESX Server 3.5, Patch ESX350-200804403-BG: Update to VMware-hostd-esx

Summaries and Symptoms

Issues fixed in this patch (and their relevant symptoms, if applicable) include:

• Prevent hostd from crashing due to incompatible entries in /etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml. (PR 230199)
  
  Symptoms: The command vmware-cmd -l results in the following error message:
  
  /usr/bin/vmware-cmd: Could not connect to server (VMControl error -3: Invalid arguments: Login failed.)

  The ESX Server host disconnects from VI Client.

• Allow spaces in a password while creating and editing local ESX Server users through the VI Client. (PR 193474)
  
  
• Set the executable bit for .vmx configuration files in newly-created virtual machines. (PR 215679)
  
  Symptoms: The virtual machine console session in VI Client becomes blank while hot migrating a virtual machine from ESX Server 3.5.0 to ESX Server 3.0.2. The following error message displays:
  
  You need execute access in order to connect with the VMware console. Access denied for config file: <path>/<file name>.vmx
  
  
  
• Fixed a vmware-vpxa crash caused by invalid UTF-8 in /var/log/messages and other log files. (PR 203413)
  
  Symptoms: An error message similar to the following is seen in the vpxa logs (under /var/log/vmware/vpx):
  
  [2008-01-24 11:55:08.218 'App' 5925808 error] [VpxVmomi] Unhandled Exception: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token).
  

Deployment Considerations

See Remediation Might Fail Through Update Manager (KB 1004966).

Patch Download and Installation

See the VMware Update Manager Administration Guide for instructions on using Update Manager to download and install patches to automatically update ESX Server 3.5 hosts.

To update ESX Server 3.5 hosts when not using Update Manager, download the most recent patch bundle from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches_35.html and install the bundle using esxupdate from the command line of the host. For more information, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide.