Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

update

Security updates for ESX 3.x

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Just a quick note that I wanted to get out… A security patch has been released. Please look at the following KB article and download, test and implement the patch.

VMware ESX 3.5, Patch ESX350-200904201-SG: Updates VMX RPM
Issues fixed in this patch (and their relevant symptoms, if applicable) include:

  • A critical vulnerability in the virtual machine display function might allow a guest operating system to run code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2009-1244 to this issue.

VMware Fusion 2.0.3

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I’ve been extremely busy last week and totally forgot to publish this article.

VMware has just release Fusion 2.0.3. You can find the release notes here. Here’s the what’s new section:

  • Resolves an issue where driverless printing stops working for users that run Mac OS X 10.5.6, and installed Apple Mac OS X Security Update 2009-001. The shared printers would disappear from Windows. If you configured your printer differently as a workaround, turn on driverless printing feature again by clicking Virtual Machine > Settings, selecting Printers, and selecting the Enabled check box.
  • Provides experimental support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system. You can now run the current Snow Leopard Server builds (32-bit kernel) in a virtual machine.
  • Resolves an issue with driverless printing, where the Enabled check box on Virtual Machine > Settings > Printers might get deselected automatically.

VMware Workstation 6.5.2 released

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VMware has just released VMware Workstation 6.5.2. You can find the release notes here.

What’s new:

Support for New Guest Operating Systems
VMware provides support for the following operating systems for Workstation 6.5.2:

  • Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2
  • Asianux Server 3.0 Service Pack 1
  • OpenSUSE 11.1
  • Ubuntu 8.10
  • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

VMware provides experimental support to the following operating systems for Workstation:

  • Fedora 11
  • FreeBSD 7.1
  • Mandriva Linux 2009
  • Microsoft Windows 7
  • Novell SLE11.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8
  • Sun Solaris 10 Update 6
  • Ubuntu 9.04

Support for Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem)
VMware provides support for Nehalem processors (Intel Microarchitecture) from this release.

Of course there are also a whole bunch of resolved issues. You can read all about it here.

VMware ESX(i) 3.5 U4 released!

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VMware has just released ESX Update 4. You can find the release notes here. I’ve picked a couple of bullets which I think are important, please read the release notes for the other improvements and known issues!

Be sure to also read the compatability matrix, ESX(i) 3.5 U4 requires vCenter 2.5 U2 or higher, and be sure to check if your Hardware Management Agent is still supported.

Newly supported features:

Newly supported Guest Operating Systems:

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (32-bit and 64-bit).
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (32-bit and 64-bit).
  • Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition and Server Edition (32-bit and 64-bit).
  • Windows Preinstallation Environment 2.0 (32-bit and 64-bit).

Newly supported SAS/SATA controllers:

  • PMC 8011 (for SAS and SATA drives)
  • Intel ICH9
  • Intel ICH10
  • CERC 6/I SATA/SAS Integrated RAID Controller (for SAS and SATA drivers)
  • HP Smart Array P700m Controller

Newly supported Storage Arrays:

  • Sun StorageTek 2530 SAS Array
  • Sun Storage 6580 Array
  • Sun Storage 6780 Array

Expanded support for the Enhanced VMXNET driver :

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32-bit)