Update Manager (VMware)

Import Updates

Import Off-line Bundle

Useful for when you need to apply additional drivers etc to your ESX's

Often drivers are only available as an ISO, in which case you need to mount the image and extract the off-line bundle ZIP file (use something like WinImage

1. Open Update Manager Administrator, and go to the Patch Repository tab
2. Click on the Import Patches link
3. Locate the ZIP file and click next, the bundle will be imported

In order to deploy the bundle you'll need to create a baseline with the bundle as a member. You've three choices here

• Create an individual baseline for that bundle, then when newer versions of the driver become available, just add it to the existing baseline
  • Best for situations where you've different types of hardware being managed by the same vCentre and so you need to distinguish between different ESX's and different bundles
• Add the bundle to an existing baseline
  • Best for when you've got uniform hardware, and you like to apply uniform waves (aka controlled releases) of deployments to your ESX's
• Create an individual baseline for that bundle, that gets added to when new versions become available, and add the baseline to a baseline group which applies to clusters etc (hybrid of both of the above)

Import Updates From Another vCenter

Useful when you've a isolated VC (without internet access), and another with a full compliment of updates.

1. Copy the updates from to the VC, copy the entire Data directory
   • Default location for updates C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\Vmware Update Manager\Data
2. On the isolated VC, run a version of the following example command to update the Update Manager database
   • vmware-updateDownloadCli -p <path to patches>\Data -f esx -U <user ac>

Troubleshooting

Scan/Remediate fails

• Error: VMware Update Manager had a failure
• Detail: Patch metadata for <ESX> missing, please download patch metadata first, despite the fact that Update Manager is fully up to date.
• /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log shows connection errors

1. On the VC, stop the VMware Update Manager Service
2. Edit vci-integrity.xml file
   • Normally found in C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\
3. Edit the following entry, adding the VC IP address
   • <PatchDepotUrl>http://VC-IP/vci/hostupdates/hostupdate</PatchDepotUrl>
4. Restart the VMware Update Manager Service

• Error: VMware Update Manager had an unknown error
• Detail: vim.fault.noHost

1. Check that you have no inaccessible/invalid/orphaned VM's on the host, if so resolve
2. Disconnect the ESX from vCentre and reconnect

Best Practice

As advised by VMware, see http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_41_perf_UpdateManager_Best-Practices.pdf for further info

• Separate the Update Manager database from the vCenter database when there are 300+ virtual machines or 30+ hosts.
• Separate both the Update Manager server and the Update Manager database from the vCenter Server system and the vCenter Server database when there are 1000+ virtual machines or 100+ hosts.
• Make sure the Update Manager server host has at least 2GB of RAM to cache patch files in memory.
• Allocate separate physical disks for the Update Manager patch store and the Update Manager database.
• Deploy the Update Manager server close to the ESX hosts if possible. This reduces network latency and packet drops.
• On a high-latency network, powered-on virtual machine scans are preferred because they are not sensitive to network latency.
• Host operations in a slow network will take a long time. Refer to the white paper for the maximum time estimation. Don’t interrupt ongoing operations.