Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

upgrade

Updating an ESXi server with Vendor agents…

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I just received a very useful email on a VMware internal mailing list and thought I would share it with you guys.

Here’s the question:

I want to update ESXi U3 to U4. My ESXi contains specific vendor modules for monitoring. (HP for instance) When I do the updates will these modules be removed or will they be upgraded?

And the answer:

Source article, page 10 : http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ESXi_management.pdf

The core hypervisor code also can contain custom code provided by server vendors (OEMs) that provides additional functionality, such as hardware monitoring and support information. These customizations would be present, for example, if ESXi had been obtained in embedded form from the server manufacturer or if a custom version of ESXi was installed onto the hard drive. Any update to an existing ESXi installation automatically incorporates the proper update to this custom code. The process is described in greater detail in the following section.

In a doc that HP provides to its customers on updating ESXi, it states that the HP CIM providers are updated as well, provided they are installed before the Update. Does that mean that the Update that VUM pulls from our site includes newest versions of all CIM providers and the installer just upgrades any existing?

This is correct. VUM pulls a bundle with the latest customizations from all OEMs and will deploy that customization based on what is already on the user’s machine. As HP has stated, if the customer has a standard, VMware image, he will continue to get that image. However, if a customer has deployed a customized (by Dell, HP, IBM, etc.) image, then the update will also include any customization updates from the OEM. There is no additional dependence from the OEM.

Thanks Mr. Tom Vandenbosch. (My fav. inside SE – Benelux ;-))

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)