VMware ESX Server 2.5.5 Release Notes

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

• What's New
• Compatibility with VMware VirtualCenter
• Previous Release Notes for ESX Server 2.5.x
• Before You Begin
• Installation Notes for This Release
• Known Issues
• Resolved Issues

What's New in the ESX Server 2.5.5 Release

This release of VMware ESX Server offers the following improvements:

• Support for the following network adapters:
  
  • Broadcom 5708C NIC
  • Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Server Adapter
• Support for the following backup agents:
  
  • CA BrightStor Release 11.5 SP1
  • Commvault Galaxy 6.1 SP4
  • Legato Networker 7.3.2 Jumbo Patch Update 1
  • Tivoli Storage Manager 5.3.3
  • Veritas Netbackup 6.0
• Support for the following management agents:
  
  • Dell Open Management 5.2
  • HP Insight Manager Agent 7.8.0
  • IBM Director 5.20 Update 1

  The VMware ESX Server 2.5.5 Installing Management Agents tech note is available at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx25_cfg_mgmt_tools.pdf.

• Support for the following guest operating system:
  
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 - AS, ES, WS Editions

  Only Buslogic driver is supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5. Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/esx25/doc/esx25-rhel4u5-dd-rpm.html for driver and installation instructions.

• Unified Fibre Channel Drivers for 4Gb/2Gb HBA:
  
  • QLogic 4Gb driver qla2200_707 or qla2300_707 is loaded by default, for either 2Gb or 4Gb HBA
  • Emulex 4Gb driver lpfcdd_732 is loaded by default, for either 2Gb or 4Gb HBA

  Note: Microsoft Cluster Service requires 2Gb Fibre Channel HBA and driver roll-back to 2Gb version. See KB 1002466 for further information.

Compatibility with VMware VirtualCenter

ESX Server 2.5.5 is compatible with VMware VirtualCenter releases 1.3.x, 1.4.x, and 2.0.x.

Previous Release Notes for ESX Server 2.5.x

Release Notes for ESX Server 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.3, and 2.5.4 are available at http://www.vmware.com/download/esx/.

Before You Begin

Refer to the following before you install or upgrade ESX Server:

• Configuring Your System to Install Boot-From-SAN
• Configuring System Partitions for Boot-From-SAN (KB 1506)
• Disk Controllers Default to Shared Mode on Boot From SAN (KB 1635)
• Installing the VMware Virtual SMP Product
• Installing on Systems Using an IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II Card or on a System with Baseboard Management Controller (KB 1636)
• Upgrading a Previous ESX Server Release to ESX Server 2.5.5.

Installation Notes for This Release

Configuring Your System to Install Boot-From-SAN

For general instructions on configuring ESX Server for boot-from-SAN operation, see the ESX Server SAN Configuration Guide.

For hardware compatibility with ESX Server, see the Compatibility Guides available at www.vmware.com/support/resources/esx_resources.html.

Note: If you are using a preboot execution environment (PXE), a boot-from-SAN operation will fail and is not supported for this version of ESX Server. Only a local disk PXE installation is supported.

Installing the VMware Virtual SMP Product

If you purchased the VMware Virtual SMP product, you can create Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) virtual machines, with single or dual virtual CPUs. You install the Virtual SMP product during your ESX Server installation by inserting its serial number during the licensing step of your ESX Server installation.

Upgrading a Previous ESX Server Release to ESX Server 2.5.5

If your VMware ESX Server host is running a release with an older patch level than shown in the upgrade list, you must first upgrade it to the given patch level before upgrading it to ESX Server 2.5.5. Direct upgrades from older patch levels than the listed releases have not been tested and are not supported.

ESX Server 2.5.5 supports upgrading from the following previous releases:

• ESX Server 2.5.4 with Upgrade patch 11
• ESX Server 2.5.3 with Upgrade patch 14
• ESX Server 2.5.2 with Upgrade patch 4
• ESX Server 2.5.1 with Upgrade patch 1
• ESX Server 2.5 with Upgrade patch 2
• ESX Server 2.1.3 with Upgrade patch 9
• ESX Server 2.1.2 with Upgrade patch 6
• ESX Server 2.1.1
• ESX Server 2.0.2 with Upgrade patch 9
• ESX Server 2.0.1 with Upgrade patch 6

During an upgrade from a previous ESX Server release to ESX Server 2.5.5, this upgrade installer reinstalls all default ESX Server RPMs. If you modified any of the default ESX Server RPMs, these modifications are overwritten during the upgrade.

To upgrade from previous versions of ESX Server to ESX Server 2.5.5, you can use either the installation CD-ROM or the tar archive.

Upgrading from a CD-ROM

This is the CD you received from VMware or the CD you created from the ISO image file you downloaded from the VMware site. See "Upgrading from a Previous Release of ESX Server" in the ESX Server Installation Guide, available from www.vmware.com/support/pubs/esx_pubs. html.

Upgrading from a tar Archive

Using the tar archive, upgrading directly from releases prior to ESX Server 2.0.1 upgrade patch 6 is not supported. To upgrade from ESX Server 1.5 or ESX Server 2.0.0 to ESX Server 2.5.5, upgrade first to ESX Server 2.0.1 with Upgrade Patch 6.

If you are using the downloaded tar archive, note the filename of the download file and make appropriate substitutions in the file and directory names shown below.

Note: To avoid a server reboot prompt, run /upgrade.pl -noreboot. For further details, refer to KB 1002381.

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. Make a directory called "download" (or use another name of your choice). This directory must be accessible to the service console on the server you want to upgrade.

6. Change to the download directory.

7. Verify the integrity of the package.

   # md5sum esx-2.5.5-57619-upgrade.tar.gz

   The md5 checksum output should match the following:

   0d17fe386b8814d72a2b746a0aafa104 esx-2.5.5-57619-upgrade.tar.gz

8. Extract the contents of the file.

   tar zxf esx-2.5.5-57619-upgrade.tar.gz

9. Change to the directory esx-2.5.5-57619-upgrade.

10. Run the upgrade script.
    ./upgrade.pl

11. The system updates have now been installed. A reboot prompt appears:
    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. 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.

After the installation, a file named "perllocal.pod" is created in the / directory. This is an unnecessary file created as a byproduct of the installation process. You can safely delete it.

Known Issues

• Guest Operating System
• Configuration
• Installation
• Operation
• Security

Guest Operating System

You can find the latest version of the Guest Operating System Installation Guide by following these links: HTML | PDF | Japanese PDF.

Configuration

• Build Number Mismatch When Installing VMware Tools on FreeBSD Guest Operating Systems (KB 1972)
• System with Mixed 4GB and 2GB HBAs Might Fail to Operate If Divided Inconsistently (KB 1000506)
• System with Mixed 4Gb and 2Gb QLogic HBAs Missing COS Device Files for SAN LUNs After Boot (KB 1001370)
• Unable to Boot IBM LS21 Blade into linux-up Mode (KB 1001286)
• The Command /proc/version Shows Linux OS Redhat 7.1 for ESX mode and 7.2 for UP and SMP mode. (KB 1002157)
• The VMware Management Interface May Become Inaccessible After Security Setting Changes (KB 5443122)

Installation

• Unable to Perform Scripted Installation Using Virtual Media (KB 1000764)
• Pegasus CIM Listener Does Not Operate Correctly on Some IBM Servers While IBM Director 5.20 U1 Installs (KB 1001151)
• IPMI Service Must be Started Manually After Installation of IBM Director 5.20 Update 1 (KB 1001152)
• Installation of IBM Director 5.20 Update 1 Displays Benign Warning Message Regarding libsysSp.so Driver (KB 1001153)
• Installation of IBM Director 5.20.1 Using ISO Fails (KB 1001287)
• Error Message Appears During Tools Installation (KB 1001642)
• Installation Stops on Sun Fire X4200 and X4100 Server Systems (KB 1001557)

Operation

• The Command vmware-cmd -H (remote-host) Does Not Work when Run From a ESX Server 2.x Host for a Remote ESX Server 3.x Remote-Host (KB 1001054)
• Proc Node Not Updated When QLE2460 HBA Speed Changes to 2Gbps in BIOS (KB 1000865)
• "kernel panic: Fatal Exception" After a Forced Reboot of RHEL4 U4 Virtual Machine (KB 1001187)
• Dell OpenManage 5.0 Reports Unexpected Sense Event Logs (KB 7365487)
• Unable to Restore Data Backed Up Using Commvault 6.1 SP4 Server in Windows Virtual Machine (KB 1001317)
• Benign Warning Message when Running vm-support (KB 1002105)
• The vmware-cmd -H remote-host Command Does Not Work from a ESX Server 2.x Host for a Remote ESX Server 3.x Remote Host (KB 1001054)

Security

Refer to KB 1107 for VMware product security alerts.

• Updated service console package UCD-SNMP to fix a denial of service bug. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2005-2177 to this issue.
• Updated service console package to fix an issue in the way ISC BIND processes certain DNS query responses. Servers with DNSSEC validation enabled, might allow a remote attacker to cause a Denial-of-Service attack. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-0494 to this issue.
• Updated service console package shadow-utils to address an issue in the useradd tool. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2006-1174 to this issue.

Resolved Issues

For a list of resolved issues in ESX Server 2.5.5, see the ESX Server 2.x Fixed Bugs list available at: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2x_fixed_bugs_list.pdf.