I read the pre-announcement last week and then completely forgot to blog it this week… vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1b was just released. A couple of minor fixes in there, but one bigger fix around the deletion of virtual machines using the Datastore Browse functionality. For the details around these fixes make sure to read the release notes.
There is a gotcha with the 1b vCenter ISO. When you upgrade Update Manager, the installer fails due to a missing file.
Its looking for updateManager\program files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\docroot\vci\downloads\vumclient.zip
This folder and file exists fine in the Update 1a ISO. In the 1b ISO the folder “downloads” is actually an empty file.
You will find a folder in the root of the ISO called rr_moved. Inside this there is a folder “DOWNLOAD” and inside this you’ll find the vumclient.zip.
Simply delete the empty file “downloads”, create a folder called “downloads” and copy/move the vumclient.zip file inside there. This will allow the installer to continue and finish.
It kinda looks like whoever has repackaged the 1b ISO has made a small mistake here.
That was the only issue we encountered with the 1b update.
As an update, looks like this is something to do with ISO handling and trees deeper than 8 levels, having downloaded the ISO on my PC it looks fine. Something to be aware of then depending on what you use to open/extract the ISO !
Why would a “b” release include the exclusion of incompatible CPUs? Seems more suitable to a platform upgrade or at least a dot release. A gotcha for those who haven’t been trained by past gotchas to read the release notes. I hope those shops with large server farms have sharp admins when this one gets implemented.
Maybe the impact is smaller than I would expect.
I see home labs dying all over the world. 🙁
According to Wikipedia…
Early AMD64 and Intel 64 CPUs lacked LAHF and SAHF instructions. AMD introduced the instructions with their Athlon 64, Opteron and Turion 64 revision D processors in March 2005[38][39][40] while Intel introduced the instructions with the Pentium 4 G1 stepping in December 2005.
So no, it shouldn’t affect anyone.
But is that a good enough reason to put the change in a “b” release? Because it may not effect anyone? I have seen stranger things. Not everyone can upgrade gear at the same rate VMware pumps out infrastructure changes. I am just asking for a major release, where your more apt to be buying new gear as it is. And who doesn’t have a lab of the old gear that’s dropped into their test dev environment. These machines run great still. I was still using Blades from VMworld 2005 until earlier this year. They run great and have a ton of ram slots. DDR2 mem is pretty cheap these days as well. I can always run Ubuntu or CentOS on them, but then I couldn’t manage them with VMware products in the new Virtualize Everything datacenter could I?
-randy
Looking at another site apparently VMware didn’t support for them in ESX5.0 It seems strange that they are dropping them again.
See here – http://www.electricmonk.org.uk/2012/03/13/
There are no changes with CPU in support in this update. These notes were just copy/pasted from the initial 5.1 U1 and 5.1U1a release notes, no change here.
See:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-vcenter-server-51u1-release-notes.html
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-vcenter-server-51u1a-release-notes.html
Also this is something that matters for ESXi installations only and has nothing to do with vCenter, so the notes are kind of misplaced in the first place. The exact same note is already present in the ESXi 5.1 GA and 5.1U1 release notes:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-51-release-notes.html
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-51u1-release-notes.html
Lee – had no issue performing and upgrade on all vCenter components. However, I don’t extract I mount the iso.
Duncan, not yelling at you but I know you have a huge VMware influence. This is the 6th release of vCenter since September – 5.1, 5.1a, 5.1b, 5.11, 5.11a and now 5.11b. Makes it very tough on VMware partners trying to service our mutual customers. Impossible to keep up with the changes! QA must improve.
Please. Thanks for reading.
Tom
Hi – Running this update now. For vCenter Update Manager I dont get a option to upgrade, it only wants to remove the old version. Is there no updates for Update Manager in U1b ?
I have run the upgrade from 5.1 to both U1a and U1b – in both scenarios there was indeed an upgrade for Update Manager. I have not tested an upgrade from U1a to U1b and looking at the filesize of vumclient.zip I think there is no difference in UM between these releases.
Upgrading from U1a to U1b breaks Update Manager. I even removed it (the only option you have in the installer) and reinstalled it. The services are running but the plugin will not start.
We continue to see issues with Update Manager and the Plug In now. There are errors about licensing for some odd reason and you cannot actually view the VUM tab with compliance charts. The only way to stop the error is by disabling the Plug In (thereby not using VUM). We were told by VMW Support these will be resolved in Update 2.
Duncan, any word on Update 2 being released? Or should we wait for 5.5, esp if Single Sign on no longer needs a SQL DB? Problem is, compliance is key for customers serviced by partners (to the earlier point about several releases) so, evidence from VUM is crucial. So time wise, any thoughts? Thanks much.
Sejali, just happen to be working with VMware on a issue which is due to added in Update 2 for 5.1 according to the support guys which will be released sometime in Q1 2014…