VMware

VMware ESX Server 2.5.4 Upgrade Patch 2 (for 2.5.4 Systems Only)

Released 11/30/06

TAR File

Resolved Issues

This patch addresses the following issues:

  • This update adds support for using Microsoft Clustering Server (MSCS) with Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
  • Customers using VMotion to hot migrate virtual machines among servers with AMD Opteron processors might experience a VMkernel crash on the source server after a virtual machine is migrated. All customers using AMD Opteron processors should apply this patch.
  • This update resolves issues that might be encountered during repeated speed and/or duplex changes on NICs which use the tg3 or bnx2 drivers.

Applicability

This patch is an ESX Server 2.5.4 patch. Please make sure that ESX Server 2.5.4 build 32233 or later is installed before applying the patch. Run vmware -v to display version and build information for your system.

Note: For IBM X460 server, please follow the instructions in KB 8949128 to boot the server into maintenance mode before applying the patch.

Installing the Update

Note: VMware recommends backing up your ESX Server installation before installing this patch. Also, a minimum of 350 MB of temporary free space on "/" filesystem is required for installing this patch.

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.
  2. Restart your system.
  3. At the LILO Boot Menu, select the option appropriate for your system.
    • For a boot-from-SAN installation, select esx-san-safe.
    • For all other installations, select linux-up.
  4. Log in as root into the ESX Server service console, in Linux mode.
  5. Download the tar file into the temporary directory under /root on your ESX Server service console.
  6. Change your working directory to that directory.
  7. Verify the integrity of the package:
    # md5sum esx-2.5.4-34513-upgrade.tar.gz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:
    e24a2b42f66d7302d9ed86ad0aa436c5 esx-2.5.4-34513-upgrade.tar.gz

  8. Extract the compressed tar archive:
    # tar -xvzf esx-2.5.4-34513-upgrade.tar.gz
  9. Change to the newly created directory:
    # cd esx-2.5.4-34513-upgrade
  10. Run the installer:
    # ./upgrade.pl
  11. The system updates have now been installed. A reboot prompt displays:
    Reboot the server now [y/n]?

    12. 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. Your virtual machines will not run properly until this is done." 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.