I am new to VMWare. I have 2 ESXi 5.5 hosts with 2 virtual machines(WS 2008R2) on one and 1 virtual machine(WS2008R2) on the other. I have VMWare VCenter Server installed on one of the windows vms that has the 2 vms. Update Manager is installed on that windows vm also. I do not have centralized storage. These windows vms are  production servers. I have never updated these host. They have over 200 updates.

Question: How do I go about updating these host? I know the windows server vms have to be shut down. If I shut down the vm with Update Manager on it, how will it update the host its on? Should I allow every update to update? If not, how do you chose which updates to update. Is there a way to move these vms around when you don't have centralize storage?

I have had these questions out there for 2 days and no one seems to be able to answer them.

Can someone answer this one question: Is it possible to update the ESXi host that vCenter server is install on, with some sort of schedule that will shut down the vms(even the one that vCenter is install on) and put it in to maintenance mode and run the updates on the ESXi host.

Ok, here is how I did it:

I cloned the vm with vCenter Server on it. I put the clone on the other host.

I changed the ip address of the original server before I shut it down. I deleted the dns entry on my dns server that pointed to it and flush the cache.

I booted the clone and change the ip address and rebooted.(It will not let you use the ip address of the original server, it still sees the ip address of that server on the network).

Make sure you give the vCenter Server services enough time to come up before you log on.

You will loose connectivity to the Update Manager Plugin because of the ip address change. Follow these kb articles to fix that-kb 1013222,kb 1014639,2007398. Did not have any trouble with the fixes.

Once you get Update Manager running you can scan and do the update for the host.

You have to do your normal shut down the vms and put in maintenance mode to update.

After that shut down the clone and delete it.

Bring up the original vCenter Server and change the ip and reboot.

I answered this in case someone else runs across this problem.

Hi,

I can't upgrade Update Manager from 5.5.0 u1 to 5.5.0 u2d (maybe it's the same that 5.5.0 u2). The installer start to install after asking the login and failed. I found in the release note of Update Manger u2 that install it on a host that have a SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 may be a problem. I also have a Backup Exec Server on this host that use a SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2. My VMware database is on SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Here what i found on the release note:

• Update Manager installer stops responding if you already have Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 SP2 database on your system
  If on the system where you are installing the Update Manager server or the UMDS there is an existing instance of Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 SP2 database, when you attempt to install the Update Manager server or the UMDS if you select the option to install the bundled database (Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express), the installer stops responding.
  Workaround: To workaround this issue, perform the following steps:
  1. On the machine you are installing the Update Manager server or the UMDS, open a command line interface and type the following command:
     .\redist\SQLEXPR\SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe /ACTION=install /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /HIDECONSOLE /FEATURES=SQL /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /NPENABLED="1" /TCPENABLED="1" /INSTANCENAME=VIM_SQLEXP
  2. Atempt to install the Update Manager server or the UMDS again.

I think the workaround work for new install but do you know what i have to do for an upgrade ?

Hi All,

i have the following issue on Update Manager 5.5 Update2b installed on Win2012R2.

The Extension plugin is not present only from vSphere Web Client (from plugin tab is not present).

From vSphere Client i can install and use correctly the plugin an the Update Manager.

The service start correctly and the path is standard during installation.

I have tried to reinstall it but issue is the same.

Any idea for fix this issue, or similar case?

Thanks and regards

Luca

Hi all,

we have 4 VC appliances that control 4 clusters.

I installed a VUM server for the main site.

I've read some articles that for every VC you need a VUM server.

That is not the big issue. I'm seeing more problems in the fact that all 4 of them will download all the updates.

Is there a way to have a "main" VUM that downloads the updates and the other 3 use the downloads of the first one. A bit like you config WSUS for remote sites.

Thnx!

Tim

I created a lab environment with 2 ESXi hosts (5.5.0) and a vCenter appliance (5.5.0).

I need to perform some tests using Update Manager but I was unable to locate the procedure to install it.

I understood that UM cannot be installed on the vCente Appliance.

I can use a Windows Server 2008 R2 host to host it, but I can't find the procedure...

Can anybody please point to a detailed documentation?

Regards

marius

Long story, but, where update manager had been installed had to be rebuilt.  I am now wanting to remove traces of it.  When I look in vcenter it still looks as though it is queuing requests to look for udpates.  How to stop vcenter from using update manager?

Thanks in advance... this is driving me crazy, I've spent a huge part of my day dealing with this.... thanks again..

I am having an issue with manually importing patches to our Update Manager server.  We are using the Air-Gap model as our servers do not have access to the internet.  We have followed the instructions in the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.5 guide for creating the Oracle 11g database and installing VUM.  When I follow the procedures to manually import a .zip file to the repository, in this case ESXi550-201502001.zip, everything goes smooth until I click finish.  I get a notification in the Recent Tasks area of vSphere Client that Confirm Importing Offline Patches is in Progress and it stays that way indefinitely.  When I check Tasks & Events for the Datacenter I see an error for Host patch offline bundle upload did not succeed about 8 seconds after the task started.

As I follow this process with the VMware-vum-server-log4cpp.log on the VUM server I see the following errors in the screenshot.  I have downloaded the patch several times and tried repeatedly, all with the same results.  We even deleted the Database schema and did a clean install of VUM.  VMware's documentation for this error is very vague and I have not been able to find any article referencing a similar issue.  If anyone has any suggestions of where to look for the problem, or hopefully a solution, I would be greatly appreciative of any help.

Thanks,

Jason

In order to keep administration at a minimum, we'd like to use one UM server for many vCenter Server Appliances?

Is this possible, and is it supported?

How can I set VUM to use a specific version of vmware tools for all VM's?  I need 9.4.10 on all VM's but VUM seems to use whatever is the next version not the most current even though it downloading version fine.

When I try to install update manager in says that the product can only be installed on a 2008 or later server.  This is...

Also receive a message that internal error occurred in vsphere client...  unable to connect to the remote server.

I had install update manager on a server which is not longer available.

Hi

We have a UMDS Server where we download our patches for 5.5.  On this Server we are running IIS and everything appears to be working fine.

However, even though the HTTP Address validates successfully within vCenter Update Manager (running on another Server, no Firewalls between them) when I click 'download new notifications' it appears to be doing something but there are no new notifications/patches uploaded into VUM.  What concerned me slightly was I selected only the 5.5 patches to download and they were around 42Gb - seems quite large to me?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

So, we upgraded hosts from Dell image of 5.5.0 to 5.5.0U1 using Update manager to remediate.  After upgrade, it shows non-compliant.  Another host which had ESXi installed from scratch with the same ISO image (Not through update manger) shows compliant.  When I compare the VIB versions of the two hosts, I see the following differences.

elxnet

sesxm02: 10.0.575.7-1OEM.550.0.0.1198611

sesxc08: 10.0.783.13-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820

lpfc

sesxm02: 10.0.575.8-1OEM.550.0.0.1198611

sesxc08: 10.0.727.44-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820

net-be2net

sesxm02: 3.2.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560

sesxc08: 4.6.100.0v-1vmw.550.0.0.1331820

net-r8168

sesxm02: 8.013.00-3vmw.510.0.0.799733

sesxc08: Missing

net-r8169

sesxm02: 6.011.00-2vmw.510.0.0.799733

sesxc08: Missing

net-s2io

sesxm02: 2.1.4.13427-3vmw.510.0.0.799733

sesxc08: Missing

net-sky2

sesxm02: 1.20-2vmw.510.0.0.799733

sesxc08: Missing

scsi-bfa

sesxm02: 3.2.1.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560

sesxc08: Missing

scsi-lpfc820

sesxm02: Missing

sesxc08: 8.2.3.1-129vmw.550.0.0.1331820

scsi-qla2xxx

sesxm02: 2.4.10-1OEM.500.0.0.472560

sesxc08: 902.k1.1-9vmw.550.0.0.1331820

scsi-qla2xxx

sesxm02: 934.5.20.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560

sesxc08: Missing

tools-light

sesxm02: 5.5.0-1.16.1746018

sesxc08: 5.5.0-2.39.2143827

vcloud-agent

sesxm02: Missing

sesxc08: 5.5.0-1280396

What can cause this?  What's the difference between upgrading vs install from scratch?  Is this expected behavior?

Hi guys,

I tried to install VMware vSphere update manager client 5.1 update 3 to upgrade the old client (5.1 update 2) and keep failing without any visible error. I notice that right after start installing sun java runtime environment  the installation fail and the rolling back process start and abort the installation. Did any of you have experience this before? if yes what is the solution.

vCenter 5.1 update 3 Build 2306353

ESXi 5.1.0,2191751

Thanks in advance.

Hello there,

after i've upgraded my vCenter from 5.1 to 5.5-u2 i cannot download patch definition anymore. Yes, there is a proxy between the vC and the Internet, but the vC can pass the Proxy without any problems. When i click on "Test connection", i get "Internet connection is working proberly. All tested URLs hav been accessed successfully".

Right now i have 3 different download sources:

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/csco-main/csco-depot-index.xml

http://vmwaredepot.dell.com/index.xml

As you can see, all of them are accessible and online. My update manager even shows me, that it's online, since in the "Connectivity Status"-Column it says "Connected".

My Proxy-Log shows me, that the Update Manager can access the files, but this:

The file size is 0. "TCP_MEM_HIT" means, that the file already is in the cache of the proxy-server. To make things more strange, i have a lab-domain with two hosts and a vCenter with Update Manager who can download the files.

What i have done so far:

• Upgrade the vCenter-Server from 5.1 to 5.5-u2 (including Update Manager)
• Restarted the vCenter-Server a couple of times
• Deleted the contents of "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Data\"

To be clear, this is a Windows Server 2008 R2, it's activated, recent updates, the VMware Infrastructure is licensed and so on.

Hi all,

we're using VMware Essentials Plus Kit. Now I want to update our vSphere ESXi hosts. Unfortunately I can't find Update Manager in vSphere Client when connected to vCenter. See attached screen.

1. Is Update Manager part of Essentials Plus Kit?

2. How can I add Update Manger plugin to my installation?

Thanks for Help.

I'm encountering this error and not sure how to fix, I'm quite new to vCenter so please bear with me.

I'm trying out vCenter 5.1 with Update Manager 5.1 right now.  No license key has been entered and I still have 50 odd days to try it out.

2 ESXi hosts are being managed by this vCenter, and they're both running ESXi 4.0

I'm looking to use Update Manager to try to upgrade the ESXi 4.0 hosts to ESXi 5.1

I downloaded the image file VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.1.0-799735.iso from VMWare website, and is looking to import it using the Update Manager so I can update the ESXi hosts, but I keep on getting the error:

File name:     VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.1.0-799735.iso

Failed to transfer data

Error was: A web exception has occurred during file upload

I tried importing it by using vSphere client to connect to vCenter server both remotely and locally, with firewall disabled.

I've read http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026602

I've disabled firewall, and there is no anti-virus program on the server.  I've also restarted the machine several times, to no avail, I didn't reinstall update manager because the whole Windows and VCenter installations are clean from scratch.

I logged into the vSphere Client using Active Directory credentials, and I've made all Domain Admins (which my account is a member of) part of the administrator group on the vCenter server. I can't log in using admin@System-Domain because it tells me I don't have permissions for it, I still haven't really had the chance to figure out why that is and not sure if that makes a difference.

Also, I'm fairly certain I'm using the right image file, as I've burned some DVD's used that image file to upgrade some other ESXi hosts.  Unless there's a special image file I need to download?

I'm at lost on what I can do to make it work.  Please advise.

Thanks.

I have Vcenter 4.1 running Update Manager currently.  I also have a Vcenter Appliance running ESX1 5.5.

Is it possible to connect the ESXi environment to the current Update Manager instance in use? 

I did see a similar post stating it is not possible, though I believe the person had 2 Vcenter servers.

Thanks in advance.

Hi vSphere Community,

Can you run vSphere Update Manager (installed on Windows Server, with a separate MS SQL Server instance) when your vCenter Server is the vCenter Server Appliance?

Thanks in advance...

We had a vSphere 5.5 cluster configured for us by a 3rd-party through Dell as part of our purchase agreement. We are running vCenter Server 5.5 U2e on Windows 2012 R2 as a physical host. It does run Update Manager. In my most recent check today, Update Manager will scan a host and report patches that are needed. In this case we're at 5.5.0 Build 2456374 on our ESXi hosts. Update Manager detects 5 missing patches. After I put the host in maintenance mode, I remediate, select the patch group, and proceed through the screens. It starts its process and goes from 0% to 16% to 25% then sits there for about 1–3 minutes, then goes to 90%, 91%, and errors out saying:

"Cannot download software packages from patch source. Check the events and the Update Manager log for download details."

Multiple strange things:

• This server was updating just fine a few months back when some previous patches were released.
• It can see the internet just fine. No firewall issues.
• Our failover site on the same network, but in a different location in the city is able to update just fine. Same hardware, network, and software versions.

Any ideas on where to look or what to try? I had gone ahead and update from vCenter Server 5.5 U2b to U2e (along with a VUM reinstall) hoping that would fix it, but it did not. Any help would be greatly appreciated, because we're not VMware experts and thought everything was set up correctly by the vendor. We were given a small amount of knowledge transfer, but nothing that would allow us to troubleshoot this.

The Update Manager config listed in vCenter Server points to just three sources, that look to be the default from hostupdate.vmware.com and vapp-updates.vmware.com. None of the settings have been changed from the initial install and configuration that were working at one point in the last few months (when I last patched the hosts to 2456374).

Looking through the vmware-vum-server-log4cpp.log I see these failures:

[2015-05-06 16:17:33:039 'JobDispatcher' 6068 DEBUG]  [JobDispatcher, 405] The number of tasks: 11

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 545] Url: https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib, Download destination: C:/ProgramData/VMware/VMware Update Manager/Data/hostupdate/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 396] Inserted download job {45798736} to queue

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 416] Current download count: 0

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 432] Current download count: 1

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 438] Adding download job {45798736} to scheduler

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:642 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 458] Waiting for download job {45798736} to finish...

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:643 'DownloadMgr' 6364 INFO]  [downloadMgr, 593] Executing download job {45798736}, url=https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:38:644 'httpDownload' 6364 INFO]  [httpDownload, 556] Downloading https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:501 'httpDownload' 6364 INFO]  [httpDownload, 791] Status code: 404

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:501 'httpDownload' 6364 ERROR]  [httpDownload, 827] Error retrieving document 'https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib'. Status code: 404

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:502 'httpDownload' 6364 WARN]  [httpDownload, 420] Download https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib failed: Error retrieving document 'https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib'. Status code: 404

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:502 'httpDownload' 6364 ERROR]  [httpDownload, 435] Reached retry download limit

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 6364 ERROR]  [downloadMgr, 618] Executing download job {45798736} throws error: Reached retry download limit

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 6364 ERROR]  [downloadMgr, 705] Download failed for url: https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 6364 INFO]  [downloadMgr, 567] Download job {45798736} finished, bytes downloaded = 0

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 464] Download job {45798736} finished

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 477] Removing download job {45798736} in queue

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:503 'DownloadMgr' 2448 DEBUG]  [downloadMgr, 496] Current download count: 0

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:504 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 2448 ERROR]  [vibDownloaderImpl, 402] Error downloading vib file from https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib Error:downloading file: https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib failed, 0 bytes downloaded.

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:504 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 2448 ERROR]  [vibDownloaderImpl, 418] Downloading file failed for: https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:504 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 2448 WARN]  [vibDownloaderImpl, 440] Failed to download 1 VIBs:

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib,

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:504 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 2448 ERROR]  [patchDepotManager, 466] Failed to download the vibs: https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/esx-base/VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.62.2702864.vib

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:504 'HostUpdateDepotManager' 2448 ERROR]  [installController, 349] Install on host: <HOST FQDN REMOVED>(Entity: host-16) failed. Error: Failed to download Vibs

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:548 'SingleHostRemediateTask.SingleHostRemediateTask{29}' 2448 ERROR]  [singleHostRemediateTask, 492] Remediation error: Failed to download Vibs

[2015-05-06 16:17:39:571 'VciTaskBase.VciClusterJobDispatcherTask{25}' 2448 INFO]  [vciClusterJobSchedulerTask, 613] Remediation failed due to non mmode failure

Host is Dell PE R610 with all peripherals on the HCL.

Any ideas? VUM throws a generic error.

VUM was upgraded from 5.5 to 6.0 after vCenter was. Would like to get hosts done this weekend.