Standalone ESXi 5 Host Upgrade
Have an ESXi host which is a standalone box? No VMware Update Manager? No vMA?
Well, they still require patches. Luckily enough, you can still use the stripped down version of the console which is included in ESXi to update it.
Start by heading out to the VMware Patches portal http://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/download.portal and download the neccessary patches for the server that needs patched.
Upload the patch zip file to a datastore that the server can talk to via either SCP or the datastore browser
Next, make sure the SSH service has been started.
To do this while in the vSphere Client, click on the desired host, and click on the "Configuration" tab followed by the "Security Profile" link in the "Software" box, then click on "Properties" in the top right side.
Highlight "SSH" and then click "Options", after the SSH Options screen pops up, click on "Start", then click "OK" twice to get back to the Configuration tab.
After getting connected to the ESXi host, run the command: esxcli software vib install -d *full path to uploaded zip*
Example: esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/VMO-01 Datastore/Temp/update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01.zip
There should be a message showing that the update was completed successfully and that the system needs to be rebooted.
If ready to reboot, type in "reboot" and the system will reboot. Just remember to check to make sure that the SSH service has been stopped when it boots back up.
One error that I ran into, if you don't give the full path to the zip file containing the update, the patching will fail with a "MetadataDownloadError" reading:
Could not download from depot at zip:/var/log/vmware/*update name*.zip?index.xml, skipping (('zip:/var/log/vmware/*update name*.zip?index.xml', '', "Error extracting index.xml from :/var/log/vmware/*update name*.zip: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/vmware/*update name*.zip?index.xml'"))
url = zip:/var/log/vmware/*update name*.zip?index.xml
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Once I put in the full path, it worked just fine.
Updating EqualLogic SANHQ Software
Dell has released an early production access release of SANHQ, the version is 2.2. It's been updated to include some new features such as Live View, RAID Evaluator, support for multiple SANHQ servers connections to the client, support for the new EqualLogic FS7500, temperature displays, drive firmware notifications, and the ability to increase the syslog file size.
Personally, the most exciting ones were these:
Live View allows the streaming of data from either an individual member or even volume.
RAID Evaluator (Requires Firmware v5.1) which takes the Group's current data and evaluates it as if it had a different RAID group applied.
To start the install, go to http://support.equallogic.com/ and go to the Downloads section and look for the SAN HeadQuarters section and download the latest version. Once downloaded, run the SANHQSetup32and64.exe
I was immediately greeted by a screen to install the .NET 4.0 client profile, so click "Yes" to install that.
Accept the license terms and click "Install" (Be patient, it did take some time in my case)
Verify that the installer will upgrade the current insstallation and click "Continue" to upgrade the current version of SANHQ, after that the service will be stopped to proceed
Enable the TCP/IP Communication, this is required for all of the advanced features such as Live View, and then the new version is installed
SAN HeadQuarters will then update, click "Finish"
The first time SANHQ opens, one of the other features what was included will greet you. That is the firewall detection update. You can tell the firewall to update automatically or you can create the rules on your own. Personally, I use Group Policy to create my firewall rules, so I chose "No".
You'll then be asked for credentials to the SANHQ Server, and after that you're in
Everything went quite well for me except for one thing... An email was sent out that all of the controllers failed and that the Firmware was upgraded on them. All very odd, and after a quick screenshot, all the worries from those on the email list were put at ease.
Upgrading the Update Manager on an Existing vCenter
When upgrading to vSphere 5, if you're already using Update Manager (VUM) you should also upgrade Update Manager to version 5 as well. Some of the more notable updates to Update Manager include being able to upgrade directly to an ESXi image via ISO and the ability to upgrade virtual appliances, as well as the loss of the ability to update VMs.
Start off by opening the autorun application that was included with the vSphere 5 download, click on the "VMware vSphere Update Manager" and then click on "Install"
Select the preferred install language, and there should be a message regarding a previous install of Update Manager being already installed, click "OK" to that
Click "Next", click "Next" to agree to the Patent Agreement, accept the EULA and click "Next"
Check mark the box to "Delete the old host upgrade files from the repository" to remove patches that may not be applicable to the new version of VUM, and select whether VUM should download the new updates automatically or not. Personally, I'm not going to be using any ESX3 hosts, so I didn't select that option. After the install, I went in and deselected that patch repository.
Enter in the information for authentication to the vCenter Server
Verify the DSN for the VUM DB instance and choose to upgrade the Update Manager database
Configure the ports for VUM and click the "Install" button.
The Install takes a short amount of time and then a reboot is needed
Some of the new features, importing ESXi images:
Some new cluster settings, including parallel remediation for hosts in cluster, the migrating powered off and suspended virtual machines to other hosts in the cluster, if a host must enter maintenance mode, and PXE booted ESXi Host settings:
Some of the new Download Sources, including the repository for the virtual applications
Upgrading VMs to New Tools and New VM Version…
With my hosts at ESXi 5 and my vCenter at version 5, it's now time to start taking a look at the VMs themselves.
Once the VMs are running on ESXi 5 hosts, you'll start to see the warning triangle in the task bar of the Windows boxes indicating that the VMware Tools can be updated:
You can either address the update by right clicking on the icon, then going to "Open VMware Tools" and selecting the "Update Tools" box:
Or you could also right click the VM within the vSphere client, go to the "Guest" options, then selecting the "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools":
You can then select "Interactive Tools Upgrade" or the "Automatic Tools Upgrade", selecting the "Automatic Tools Upgrade" will reboot the system after it's done:
The task doesn't take long, roughly a minute, then the system is rebooted (if you chose the auto option)
Once that's done, we can now upgrade the Virtual Machine Version to version 8. A couple of the bigger improvements with the new VM Version are the ability to have VMs with up to 32 virtual CPUs, VMs with up to 1TB RAM, suppot of accelerated 3D graphics (including Windows Aero support), support of USB 3.0, and the use of UEFI virtual BIOS.
To do the upgrade, shut the system down. Once the vSphere client reflects that the system is turned off, right click the system and select "Upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware"
Confirm that you would like to upgrade the VM Version
The task completes pretty quickly, and your VM version has been upgraded.
Upgrading to ESXi 5 with Update Manager
So now with ESXi 5 and vSphere 5 dropping to the masses, it's time to get some hands on experience with it.
So first things first, upgrade your vSphere 4 server to vSphere 5 and make sure to update VMware Update Manager (VUM) as well. Personally, I did a new install, but will cover an upgrade at a later date. Next, you'll want to connect your ESXi 4 host to the vSphere 5 server's DC. You'll also want to download the ESXi ISO from VMware's website. Now that we're on the same page, here's how the upgrade process goes:
Here's an ESXi 4.1 host that I'll be upgrading.
Now you'll want to head over to the "Solutions and Applications" area, select "Update Manager" then click on the "ESXi Images" tab
You'll want to click on "Import ESXi Image", browse to where the ISO for ESXi 5 was downloaded and click "Next", the image will be uploaded and imported to the VUM repository, and once the upload is done it will display a success note.
Then check the "Create a baseline" and name it something appropriate, then click "Finish"
Here's how the ESXi Image looks once it's upgraded in VUM
Go back to the VUM tab for the individual host and attach the baseline, by clicking "Attach", then checkmark the Upgrade Baseline that was just created and click "Attach". The Baseline will now show up in the "Attached Baseline" along with having an upgrade notice in the bottom portion
Click on the "Scan" button and ensure that "Upgrades" is checkmarked then click "Scan"
In most cases, the host will show up as "Non-Compliant" however my host has an added plugin which won't work with ESXi 5 and will have to be removed during the VUM upgrade. The error I received in this case was: "Software modules oem-vmware-esx-drivers-net-vxge oem-vmware-esx-drives-scsi-3w-9xxx published by third party vendor(s) are installed on the host. Upgrading the host will remove these modules."
We're all set to proceed with the upgrade by clicking on "Remediate", selecting the "Upgrade Baselines" followed by the Baselines which was created (should show VMware ESXi 5.0.0 in the Upgrades column), accept the EULA, remove the software which will be incompatible with the upgrade, give the task a name and select a time to schedule the remediation, modify any maintenance mode options, verify the information and click "Finish"
Here's how the events went:
We have success!
My only problem with the whole process was after the host was upgraded, you have to physically push the "Enter" button to allow the machine to reboot. I was hoping for it to be a completely seamless and hands off experience, but a DRAC or iLO card makes up for it
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