Like many, I make use of a virtual environment to look at new releases, learn new skills and applications, and for other testing purposes. I’m currently running VMware ESXi 4.1 (free license). Last year VMware released update 2 and I got around to applying it to my environment earlier this spring. Here are the steps I used to apply update 2 and a critical patch that came out in after update 2.
Since this is a non production, isolated, personal environment for myself only, I have Remote Tech Support Mode (SSH) enabled on the server. I used winscp to copy the update files to the ESXi server, putting the file on one of my data stores since the OS itself is installed onto a USB thumb drive and has limited space. Then I SSH into the server and put it in maintenance mode and get started.
# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
# vim-cmd hostsvc/hostsummary |grep inMaintenanceMode
Use the following 2 commands to apply the updates
esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle UPDATEFILE -a scan
esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle UPDATEFILE -b BULLETIN update
Here we run the real commands
# cd /vmfs/volumes/store2
# esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle update-from-esxi4.1-4.1_update02.zip -a scan
All of the bulletins are listed, including compliant ones and ones not applicable to this platform.
----Bulletin ID----- --------Date------- -------------Summary-------------
ESXi410-201110201-SG 2011-10-27T08:00:00 Updates ESXi 4.1 Firmware
ESXi410-201110202-UG 2011-10-27T08:00:00 Updates ESXi 4.1 VMware Tools
ESXi410-Update02 2011-10-27T08:00:00 VMware ESXi 4.1 Complete Update 2
Esxupdate local cache states:
Location: /tmp/updatecache
Available space: 316016 [MB]
# esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle update-from-esxi4.1-4.1_update02.zip -b ESXi410-Update02 update
Unpacking deb_vmware-esx-tool.. ######################################## [100%]
Unpacking deb_vmware-esx-firm.. ######################################## [100%]
Removing packages :vmware-esx.. ######################################## [100%]
Installing packages :deb_vmwa.. ######################################## [100%]
Installing packages :deb_vmwa.. ######################################## [100%]
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
Reboot the system and reconnect to apply the critical update ESXi410-201201001.zip with the same process.
# cd /vmfs/volumes/store2
# esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle ESXi410-201201001.zip -a scan
All of the bulletins are listed, including compliant ones and ones not applicable to this platform.
----Bulletin ID----- --------Date------- ------Summary-------
ESXi410-201201401-SG 2012-01-30T08:00:00 Updates Firmware
ESXi410-201201402-BG 2012-01-30T08:00:00 Updates VMware Tools
Esxupdate local cache states:
Location: /tmp/updatecache
Available space: 316478 [MB]
# esxupdate --loglevel=DEBUG --bundle ESXi410-201201001.zip -b ESXi410-201201401-SG -b ESXi410-201201402-BG update
Unpacking deb_vmware-esx-tool.. ######################################## [100%]
Unpacking deb_vmware-esx-firm.. ######################################## [100%]
Removing packages :vmware-esx.. ######################################## [100%]
Installing packages :deb_vmwa.. ######################################## [100%]
Installing packages :deb_vmwa.. ######################################## [100%]
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit
'vim.Task:haTask-ha-host-vim.HostSystem.exitMaintenanceMode-482566688'
# vim-cmd hostsvc/hostsummary |grep inMaintenanceMode
inMaintenanceMode = false,
# reboot
Reconnect again if you want and power up some VM’s. Here’s an example of how to do that.
# vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
160 TEST vm1 [store3] TEST vm1/TEST vm1.vmx ubuntu64Guest vmx-07
# vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate 160
Retrieved runtime info
Powered off
# vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 160
Powering on VM:
#
# vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate 160
Retrieved runtime info
Powered on
Install the new vSphere Client if your using it.
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