Upgrading to ESXi 4.1 with vihostupdate Utility

 vihostupdate Utility

If you have a standalone ESXi host, upgrading to 4.1 is very simple. If your hosts are connected through vCenter, then you need to upgrade vCenter server first.

Note that you cannot upgrade your host through the following methods

• VMware vCenter Update Manager. vSphere module that supports direct upgrades from ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.1.

• vihostupdate. Command-line utility that supports direct upgrades from ESX/ESXi 4.0 to ESX/ESXi 4.1. This utility requires the vSphere CLI.

• esxupdate. Command-line utility for ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.1

• esxupgrade.sh script. For ESX 3.5 hosts that do not have network access. 

Only the first 2 methods can be used to upgrade the ESXi hosts. Here I used the vihostupdate Utility.

Procedure is as follows, here I installed through vihostupdate.

1) Download the zip file from the vmware site (upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip)

2) Keep the file in the local PC or laptop where vSphere CLI is installed. ( I placed on F drive)

3) Put the host in maintenance mode.

4) Invoke the vSphere CLI and update the hosts through below command

The upgrade ZIP bundle contains and esxupdate bulletin and an upgrade bulletin.
Install the esxupdate bulletin first by the command

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server vm4 --install --bundle F:\upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip -B ESXi410-GA-esxupdate


Then Install the upgrade bulletin by the command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server vm4 --install --bundle F:\upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip -B ESXi410-GA

 
Enter username: root
Enter password:

Please wait patch installation is in progress ...
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>

5) Reboot the host and exit maintenance mode.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server vm4 -q
Enter username: root
Enter password:
---------Bulletin ID--------- -----Installed----- ----------------Summary-----------------
ESXi410-GA                           T03:55:16          ESXi upgrade Bulletin
ESXi410-GA-esxupdate          T07:29:43          ESXi pre-upgrade Bulletin

ESXi, Installing the CNA card for 10GBE and FCoE

Last week I installed the Q-logic CNA card on the ESXi server through vSphere CLI. It was a Live production machine.
1) Migrated all the VMs to the other machine on the cluster and put the ESXi on maintenance mode.
2) Then shutdown the machine and install the CNA adapter.
3) Power-on the server and it came back to maintenance mode.
4) Download the driver for 10GB Ethernet and FCoE from the Q-logic site ( it will re-direct to vmware site).    
(we need 2 drivers here, one for Ethernet and another for FCOE. The drivers are in ISO format.)
5) Burn the driver to the cd or use an ISO mounter on your Laptop/PC where the vSphere CLI is installed. ( here I mounted on drive H)
6) Start-Program-vmware-vSphere CLI, launch the CLI and install the driver by below command

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin> vihostupdate.pl --server vm3 --install --bundle H:\offline-bundle\qlgc-qlge-100.2.1-offline_bundle-261179.zip
Enter username: root
Enter password:
Please wait patch installation is in progress ...
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

7) Install the driver for FCoE (qlg.831.k1.23vmw-offline_bundle-207277.zip) also the same way. reboot the server and it will be back to maintenance mode
Check the adapter by click on configuration-network adapters.