VMware

VMware ESX Server 2.1.2 Upgrade Patch 5 (for 2.1.x Systems)

Released 10/27/05

TAR File

This patch for ESX Server 2.1.x addresses the following issues:

  • Loss of network connectivity in virtual machines running Windows NT 4.0 and using the vmxnet virtual network adapter. The virtual network failure happens a short while after starting the virtual machine. The problem is fixed in this patch release. See Knowledge Base Article 1854. If you cannot install the patch release, you can work around the problem by using a vlance virtual network adapter instead of a vmxnet virtual adapter in your virtual machine.
  • The vm-support script hangs when used on an ESX Server system with a MegaRAID controller. The problem is fixed in this patch release.
  • An assertion failure in the guest operating system's BusLogic SCSI driver at buslogicMdev.c:3174. The driver wrongly formatted a DMA request under some conditions and generated an invalid Scatter Gather list for GMA. The problem is fixed in this patch release. If you cannot install the patch release, you may be able to work around the problem by using an LSILogic driver instead of a BusLogic driver in your virtual machine.

There are separate patches available for ESX Server 2.0.1 and 2.5.2 available as VMware ESX Server 2.0.1 Upgrade Patch 5 and VMware ESX Server 2.5.2 Upgrade Patch 1.

Applicability

This update applies to ESX Server 2.1, 2.1.1 or 2.1.2. Please make sure that one of these versions is installed before applying the patch. The installer will log the name of this patch and information on the updated components in the file /var/log/vmkernel-version.

Important Notes

Please note the following:

  • After updating your system, you must update the version of VMware Tools installed in your virtual machines.

Installing the Update

This update requires you to boot your server into Linux mode to perform the upgrade. When you are prompted to reboot at the end of the upgrade, the installer will restart your system to run ESX Server.

  1. Power off all virtual machines and shut down your server.
  2. Restart your system.
  3. At the LILO Boot Menu, select the linux option. Allow the system start procedure to complete.
  4. Log in as root into the ESX Server service console, in Linux mode. Make sure your path variable contains /usr/bin:/bin.
  5. Download the tar file into the temporary directory /tmp on your ESX service console.
  6. Change directories to /tmp.
  7. Verify the integrity of the package:
    # md5sum esx-2.1.2-17158-upgrade.tar.gz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    5be728ab23899579809f90e4cdd39c3c esx-2.1.2-17158-upgrade.tar.gz

  8. Extract the compressed tar archive:
    # tar -xvzf esx-2.1.2-17158-upgrade.tar.gz
  9. Change directories to the newly created directory /tmp/esx-2.1.2-17158-upgrade:
    # cd esx-2.1.2-17158-upgrade
  10. Run the patch installer:
    # /usr/bin/perl ./upgrade.pl

    Note: Once you start the installation script, do not enter keyboard escape commands such as Control-C or Control-D. Using escape commands will interrupt the upgrade procedure and leave your system partially upgraded.

  11. The system updates have now been installed. A reboot prompt displays:
    Reboot the server now [y/n]?

    This update will not be complete until you reboot the ESX Server. If you enter N, to indicate that you will not reboot at this time, ESX Server displays the warning message "Please reboot the server manually for this update to take effect. Update has been terminated unexpectedly." If you see this message, you must manually reboot the server to complete the driver update.

  12. At the reboot prompt, enter Y to reboot the server.