VMware ESX Server 2.0.1 VMware Tools Hotfix (for 2.0.x systems)

Released 2/2/05 TAR File

The version of VMware Tools included in Build 6403 of ESX Server 2.0.1 contains a memory allocation error that may impact performance or cause system failures in certain Windows virtual machines. The guest operating systems affected by this error are:

• Windows XP
• Windows Server 2003

This hotfix updates VMware Tools to repair the error. You can safely update all supported Windows virtual machines with this version of VMware Tools, but only virtual machines with the listed guest operating systems installed need to be updated. See Knowledge Base Article 1549 for the latest details.

This hotfix replaces the installation image included in ESX Server 2.0.1 to install VMware Tools in virtual machines that use Windows guest operating systems. The VMware Tools installation image is included with ESX Server 2.0.1 as an ISO disk image. This hotfix contains a new ISO image with an updated version of VMware Tools.

Note: This hotfix applies only to ESX Server 2.0.1. To use it with ESX Server 2.0, you will first need to upgrade your system to version 2.0.1. You can upgrade any 2.0 system to ESX Server 2.0.1 by applying the VMware ESX Server 2.0.1 Patch 1 Security Update.

Installing the Update

This update does not require you to restart ESX server. However, you are required to reboot your system when applying the VMware ESX Server 2.0.1 Patch 1 Security Update to upgrade your system to ESX Server 2.0.1.

It is always a good idea to recheck your system backups before installing any updates to ESX Server.

1. Log in as root into the ESX Server 2.0.1 service console.
2. Your path variable should contain /usr/bin:/bin.
3. Download the tar file into the temporary directory /tmp, on your ESX service console.
4. Change directory to /tmp.
5. Extract the compressed tar archive:
   # tar -xvzf esx-2.0.1-200501a-hotfix.tar.gz
6. Change directories to the newly created directory /tmp/esx-2.0.1-200501a-hotfix:
   # cd esx-2.0.1-200501a-hotfix
7. Verify the integrity of ISO disk image:
   # md5sum windows.iso

   The md5 checksum output should match the following:
   79a9fed139d9e4f4b900b45a533a623a windows.iso

8. Save the current VMware Tools ISO image by renaming it:
   # cd /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages
   # mv windows.iso windows-prev.iso
9. Install the new VMware Tools ISO image by copying it into the ISO images directory:
   # cp /tmp/esx-2.0.1-200501a-hotfix/windows.iso windows.iso

Note: This hotfix is not an upgrade and does not change the build number of your installation of ESX Server 2.0.1.