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VMware ESX Server 3.0.1, Patch ESX-5874303: Update to the esxupdate Utility

Details

Release Date: 09/06/07
Document Last Updated: 02/13/08

 

Download Size:
367 KB
Download Filename:
ESX-5874303.tgz
md5sum:
bbe03a43fd5a93f6b9209097f4027d3e
Product Versions ESX Server 3.0.1
Patch Classification Critical
Superseded By None
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required No
ESX Server Host Reboot Required No
Affected Hardware N/A
Affected Software Third-party patch management or custom patch managements scripts might be affected.
RPMs Updated
VMware-esx-scripts
yum-2.0.7-4vmw.noarch.rpm
Related CVE numbers N/A


Summary

This patch supplies an update to the esxupdate utility in the ESX Server service console. The utility is used to manage updates and patches to the ESX Server host.

  • A fix that allows esxupdate to skip the installation of older RPMs in a bundle that overlap with the content of a newer bundle and to continue to install the other RPMs that the older bundle contains. For more information on this issue, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/10230.
  • A fix that enables esxupdate to check for sufficient disk space before installing a patch.
  • Fixes to enable esxupdate to use patches located in FTP depots and improve error reporting when using FTP depots. Without this patch, confusing and unnecessary error codes are reported when an FTP connection is lost while running the esxupdate -r ftp://... command. With the patch in place, the utility reports the error ERROR: Invalid repository at ftp://<depot address>: [Errno FTP error] (111, 'Connection refused').

The Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf has been updated to reflect these changes to esxupdate and to provide answers to some FAQs.

For the related patch for ESX Server 3.0.0, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000074.

Symptoms

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

  • Using esxupdate to upgrade the ESX Server installation from an earlier version to 3.0.x results in error messages stating that file /usr/src/linux-2.4.21-37.0.2.EL/mm/oom_kill.c from install of kernel-source-2.4.21-37.0.2.EL.31425 conflicts with file from package kernel-source-2.4.21-37.0.2.EL.27701 and yum upgrade failed for... with a list of packages that are not upgraded.
  • FTP depots could not be used when making updates using the command esxupdate -r ftp://... Requiring Content-Length headers can cause problems in downloads from IIS and can also cause problems for FTP. With this patch, the esxupdate -r ftp://... command no longer requires these headers and updates using FTP depots will work properly.

Solution

Impact

This patch resolves the symptoms previously discussed and improves patch management activities on all ESX Server hosts. Command-line usage of the utility has not changed, but the change might affect custom scripts and third-party utilities.

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

  1. Download patch ESX-5874303 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-5874303.tgz

  7. The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    bbe03a43fd5a93f6b9209097f4027d3e ESX-5874303.tgz

  8. Extract the compressed tar archive:

    # tar -xvzf ESX-5874303.tgz

  9. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-5874303:

    # cd ESX-5874303

Installation Instructions

After you download and extract the archive, and if you are in the directory that you previously created, using 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-5874303 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-5874303 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-5874303 update

For more information on 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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Actions
  • KB Article: 5874303
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x