VMware Update Manager is the Enterprise tool for Patching your ESX Hosts and for some also the tool used to patch your Windows / Linux Guests as well.

This is all fine and dandy, but what is you do not have all of your ESXi hosts connected to your vCenter?

Why would you so that – you may ask? Well in my environment, we have several labs that are running their Environment on a ESXi Whitebox,with the free ESXi License. No vCenter, and central management is not that easy.

Now you could update all of these hosts with the VMware infrastructure Update Client and I showed in a previous post – how you can upgrade from ESX3i to ESX4i with this tool. To update the patches is more or less the same.

Today I was asked to automate this process for a number of ESX3i hosts that were all at
build 123629 (ESX3i U2) and update them to build 199239 (ESX3i U4).

I did this with the GUI client, but it was too cumbersome, so I looked for another method.

I downloaded the package from VMware. This contents of the zip file are below.

As you can see the contents of this bundle contain 3 separate Updates.

(The three ESXi patches for Firmware "I", VMware Tools "T," and the VI Client "C" are contained in a single offline "O" download file.)

After Unpacking the 3 patches I was left with this:

In each folder there is an exe file:

The Command Syntax:

C:\ESXe350-200910402-T-BG>remoteInstall.exe

Allowed options:
  -? [ --help ]         Display program usage

  -h [ --host ] arg     ESX host name
  -u [ --userName ] arg User name
  -p [ --password ] arg Password

So all you need to do is:

remoteInstall.exe –h <HOSTNAME> –u <USERNAME> –p <PASSWORD>

While the patch is installing the output on the screen is is the progress:

progress: 0
progress: 5
progress: 7
.
.
.
progress: 100

Run this for both 3 patches, reboot your ESXi Host, and you are done

To automate the process I created  a small batch file update.bat (I did not use Powershell – because not all the end-users have Powershell installed – YET!! )

echo off

set host=%1
set user=%2
set password=%3

if "%1" == "" goto error
if "%2" == "" goto error
if "%3" == "" goto error

for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('dir *. /b') do (
cd %%i
echo Installing patch %%i .....
remoteinstall.exe -h %host% -u %user% -p %password%
cd ..
)
echo Patching Complete !!

:error
echo ==========================================================
echo = Missing command line parameter!
echo ==========================================================
echo =
echo = Command Line Parameters:
echo =         update.bat hostname/ip username password
echo =
echo = Example:
echo =         update.bat 1.1.1.1 root 123456
echo ==========================================================
goto end

:end

The script accepts 3 parameters: user host password, for example:

update.bat myesxhost root 123456

Reboot your host – and yep you are upgraded.

And thanks to Dave Mishchenko for the information.

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while so hear it is.

One of the features I used in ESX3i was the option to export a VM once it was powered off. This made the option of moving a VM off a stand-alone host to different Storage on different hosts a very easy process.

In ESXi 3.5

And save it anywhere on your local Drive

But for some reason this has disappeared from ESX4i.

The option is grayed out.

The only way to export a VM from a standalone host is to use VMware Converter.

This was done on a stand-alone host - without vCenter, virtual machine was powered off using a free license.

Anyone know why this was removed?

Jeff Woolsey posted a comparison of disk footprint of ESXi and Windows 2008 Hyper-V server. Not getting into what I think of it yet, just a few facts and misconceptions before I start.

Since then these patches have been released for Windows 2008. I could not find a list of specific patches for Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R1 - because it is not listed as a product under Microsoft's Security site - not under Microsoft Hyper-v Server, Hyper-V, Windows Hyper-V, the only thing that I could find which was remotely was for Windows Server 2008.

I assume that the security patches that Jeff spoke about here in this paragraph were patches that were released for Windows 2008, seeing the lack of anything else that Microsoft defines as a product called Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R1 I looked for patches that released for Windows Server 2008 and that were applicable to Core Edition (because as I understand, Hyper-v runs on a version of Core edition). So if Hyper-V server is a product - then define it as such, if not then it is still windows and need to be patched like windows

It is very nice that Jeff started to compare all patches from January 1, 2008 for both Systems but he forgot to mention that Hyper-V RTM'ed on June 26, 2008. Seeing that So I think it should be fair that you should start comparing from July 1, 2008 for both products.

Below is a list of patches that were released for Windows 2008 and were applicable to core Edition.

MS08-040 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 39.8 MB - 82.3 MB

MS08-038 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 7.1 MB

MS08-037 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 428 KB

MS08-047 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 447 KB

MS08-049 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update. 330 KB

MS08-067 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 417 KB

MS08-061 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 1.2 MB

MS08-062 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 475 KB

MS08-063 - This update does not require a restart. 375 KB

MS08-064 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 2.4 MB

MS08-068 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 327 KB

MS09-001- Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 371 KB

MS09-004 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 39.8 MB

MS09-006 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 1.2 MB

MS09-007 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 363 KB

MS09-013 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 427 KB

MS09-012 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 3.7 MB

MS09-015 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 1.9 MB

MS09-022 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 612 KB

MS09-026 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 768 KB

MS09-025 - Yes, you must restart your system after you apply this security update 1.2 MB

And let us not forget Windows Server 2008 SP2 with the size of 577.4 MB

Below on are the Patches released for ESX3i Starting from February 2008 (Yes I gave ESX and extra month)

ESXe350-200904401-O-SG   Download Size: 221M    System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200904201-O-SG     Download Size: 221M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200901401-O-SG -Download Size: 212M    System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200811401-O-SG - Download Size: 213M   System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200810401-O-UG - Download Size: 211M   System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200809401-O-SG - Download Size: 203M   System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200808501-O-SG - Download Size: 203M   System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200805501-O-SG - Download Size: 192MB System Impact :  VM Shutdown & Host Reboot

ESXe350-200907401-O-SG Download Size: 223M     System Impact :  VM Shutdown & Host Reboot

ESXe350-200906401-O-BG - Download Size: 222M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown & Host Reboot

ESXe350-200905401-O-BG - Download Size: 221M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200903201-O-UG - Download Size: 221M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200903411-O-BG - Download Size: 212M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown &  Host Reboot

ESXe350-200807812-O-BG - Download Size: 209M  System Impact :  VM Shutdown & Host Reboot

So here is what I found:

• 22 Patches for Windows 2008 (including Service Pack 2) - totaling a size of 0.722 GB
• 14 patches VMware ESXi 3.5 - totaling a size of  2.984 GB

According to my math - ESXi 3.5 has a 4.13 greater patch footprint - nowhere near anything you posted above

That could be but it does not change the fact that the size of the installation base is still practically the same and has not grown by 3.3 GB, as it is replaced each time with the patch that is installed.

Hmm. Why did you neglect to mention the reboots needed for the Hyper-v patches. Ah! I know why!

If you look at the list above you will see that out of the 22 Microsoft patches that were released - 21 of them needed a reboot.

So according to my math Microsoft Hyper-v Server was rebooted 7 times more over the past 12 Months, a 50% increase in comparison to ESX3i

I am pretty sure that some of these could be consolidated into one reboot, but for arguments sake, let us say each one was installed separately

And yes, until now Hyper-V did not have this functionality - it is only available in R2 which is not completely publicly available yet (we have to wait until October 22, 2009)

And yes muck-ups happen - even with Microsoft as you can see here 

Enough with details. Microsoft has developed a strategy. Since Hyper-v cannot compare with ESX regarding maturity, Market Share, complimentary products and feature set, they are continuously trying to find small little points and Magnify them out of all proportion.

Patches, Core Tax, Pricing, Extra Layer, VMware Myths

It is my personal opinion that they are succeeding in certain markets, because not everyone needs all these features, but that is a whole different post.

And Jeff, if you compare something - compare it correctly!

This was not posted on your blog as a comment, because they are moderated, and I did not know if this would show up as a comment on your blog.

I hope you enjoyed the ride, I am going on vacation!

Yes disconnected environments do exist! I mean completely and totally disconnected.
NO INTERNET!!!

Well I had one of those today. My customer has a network which is completely and physically disconnected from the corporate LAN and therefore also not connected to the internet. This because of the nature of the information that is on this secluded network, that no option for anything to go in or out over the wire.

All fine an Dandy! Installed an new ESX4i machine there today. I then wanted to install the new VI client on the users PC. Pretty straight forward - or so you would think..

Opened up the web browser and pointed it to https://ESX-HOST/client/VMware-viclient.exe and ran the exe file.

One of the new features that were added to ESX4 is Hot-Add. What this feature does it allows you to add additional RAM or vCPU to your VM (if the operating System supports it)

Like any good vAdmin - I have upgraded my personal ESX box to Version 4. This is a whitebox with ESX3i installed.

Upgrade process was pretty simple as you can see in this previous post.

So if you noticed in my previous post after installing your license is a 60-day Evaluation with all the bells and whistles like below

The option of ESX4i - Free version - is available for up to 999 CPU's all you have to do is just ask.

So I requested a license key and after receiving the mail from VMware I proceeded to enter my license. Now we all knew that when entering the free license key in ESX3i you lost some functionality - like VCB - Virtual Center Agent etc. But for ESX 4i when changing the license - You lose a lot more in comparison - and I was shocked to find out how much.

One of the wonderful things you can do with ESX VM's is resize the VMDK's - it is a simple

vmkfstools -X 30G /<…..path to …. >.vmdk

And voila your vmdk just grew to the size you asked it to. So now you boot up your VM (for arguments sake - let's say it is a Windows 2003 Server) and you now have the extra space but in this case this was the system volume which cannot be extended while the system is live.

So the solution to this one is :

• Extend the volume
• Add the vmdk to a running Windows 2003 Server (while it is powered on)
• diskpart
• rescan
• select disk 1 (of course the number may vary)
• select partition 1 (same as above)
• extend
• Power off of this VM
• Remove the disk
• Power on the first VM again and hey presto you have a full partition including the extended space you just created.

Now this is all fine and wonderful - and it all relies on the fact that we expect that we can add resources to a running machine (namely HD / NIC - those are the ones that I use the most). This can be used in a large amount of scenarios - such as the one I had today - I had a lock on a file that I just could not get rid of. So I tried to do the same thing:

• Power off the VM
• Add the VMDK to another running machine
• remove the lock
• but …. hold on I could not !

I ran into this error:

ESX claims that I am trying to hot add a resource - which in all honesty is completely true.
I was. A vmdk.

So i wanted to check was this connected to the serial number I just changed before hand. So of course changing the license back to evaluation version I could add the hard disk without any issue. So I changed the license back and tried the same with adding a network card.

And yep you guessed correctly - same error message.

1. The error message of course is not very well phrased - and I would love to know what "need have have" is?
2. Why in heaven's name would you take away the most basic functionality that has been in every single VMware product (besides Player) for the past 5 years? VMware? Please tell me that was a mistake?

Update 30/05/2009

I have started a thread on the VMTN forum with this question but have as yet to hear any concrete response from VMware. The only shocking thing I found that if this is a licensing issue - then we are all in for a bigger surprise! The minimum, license level that you use Hot-Add is Advanced.

How do you like them apples?

Released with the new version on Thursday was a upgrade package from ESX3i to ESX4i

Well I think my speculation was not far off. if you read my previous post I speculated that we would not get anything 

Unofficial Release Date - May 21, 2009. We got this from the day that you can start purchasing new licenses

Jason Boche posted a few noticeable items about the licensing changes.

Let me see I can make a bit of sense for what we are getting. All of this comes from the
VMware vSphere Pricing Packaging and Licensing Overview

I picked this one up on Twitter and Secunia. Another reason to to upgrade to VC 2.5 U4

NO! it is not the new ESX version! (there are other products that VMware sells besides ESX you know)

Besides Update 4 for ESX and ESX3i that were released last week:

VMware Player 2.5.2

VMware Workstation 6.5.2

VMware Server 2.0.1

What's New