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VMware Releases Updated ESX 3.5.0 ISO

On Feburary 20th VMware released an updated version of the ESX 3.5.0 ISO image with the same build number, and no additional release notes. It appears that VMware has finally clarified what changed in this new ISO image:

The download bundle available for ESX Server 3.5 from the VMware Web site is an update from the original release download bundle. The updated download bundle fixes an issue that might occur when upgrading from ESX Server 3.0.1 or ESX Server 3.0.2 to ESX Server 3.5. The updated download bundle and the original download bundle released on 12/10/2007 are identical with the exception of a modification to the upgrade script that automates the installation of an RPM. For information about manually installing an RPM for upgrading ESX Server, refer to KB 1003801.

Posted by Dominic Rivera at Friday, February 29, 2008.

esx-autpatch.pl Updated, now supports ESX 3.5.0

I've had a number of visitors write in to inquire about esx-autopatch.pl, and when I would update the script to support ESX 3.5.0. To be honest I didn't really plan to update the script since VMware's Update Manger seems to be doing an adequate job of filling that need. But if you need to get the patches installed at build time, or don't have VirtualCenter at your disposal I still believe esx-autopatch.pl is the best answer out there.

I'd like to throw some props out to Kees van Vloten who made the changes necessary to support ESX 3.5.0 and the new patch format.

You can download the latest version of the esx-autopatch.pl script ( v 1.3 ) and updated versions of the patchlist.txt files over at the esx-autopatch page.

Labels: esx-autopatch.pl 3.5.0 patch

Posted by Dominic Rivera at Thursday, February 28, 2008.

Emulex Utilities for administration and configuration

I've started rolling scripts around most of the administrative tasks here, mainly so I'm not always the guy who has to pull the trigger on things. It also helps with consistency and makes integrating the changes into an automated build easier.

Here's a set of scripts I recently created to help me with managing and updating my Emulex HBA's with ESX 3.0.2. Specifically I use the HP Emulex LPe1105 (403621-B21) with BL460c blades.

First, get the bits from Emulex & HP. I use 2 components:

1. Lpfc Utility tarball:
   http://www-dl.emulex.com/support/vmware/lputil/20a14/lpfcutil-7.3.2-3.tgz
2. Model specific firmware (2.72 Nov. 07) :
   ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software9/COL11981/co-55809-1/fw_lpe11002_lpe1105_zf272a2.all

I'm still a little old school with my systems and I have a NFS mount made in the COS. It's a little more complicated and unsupported, but it works great. You can put the files anywhere that's accessibile to all systems or just copy them locally using scp or sftp.

Installation script (installEmulex.sh):

#!/bin/sh
SOURCE=#your source dir here
TARGET=/tmp/emulex
LFCUTIL=lpfcutil-7.3.2-3.tgz
LPBIN=/usr/sbin/lpfc

if [ -d $SOURCE ] ; then    
    if [ ! -d $TARGET ] ; then
         mkdir -p $TARGET
    fi
    cd $TARGET
    cp $SOURCE/$LFCUTIL $TARGET
 
    if [ -f $LFCUTIL ] ; then
        tar xvzf $LFCUTIL
        ./Install.sh
        cp Remove.sh $LPBIN
        cp README $LPBIN
            else
        echo "$LFCUTIL not found"
        exit 1
    fi
else     echo "Source directory $SOURCE cannot be accessed"
    rm -rf $TARGET
    exit 1
fi

I also like to make sure the topology is set to only allow point-to-point mode. Here's the code to do that globally on the system for all cards using the lpfcdd_732 driver.

setting emulex topology (setEmulexTopology.sh)

#!/bin/sh
esxcfg-module -s "lpfc_topology=0x2" lpfcdd_732esxcfg-boot -b

Here's how I update the firmware versions on the dual-channel HBA

update firmware (updateEmulexFW.sh)

#!/bin/sh
SOURCE=#your source dir here
LPUTIL=lputil
LPBIN=/usr/sbin/lpfc
ELFW=fw_lpe11002_lpe1105_zf272a2.all

if [ -d $SOURCE ] ; then
    cp -f $SOURCE/$ELFW $LPBIN
    if [ -f $LPBIN/$ELFW ] && [ -f $LPBIN/$LPUTIL ] ; then
       $LPBIN/$LPUTIL download 0 $LPBIN/$ELFW
       $LPBIN/$LPUTIL download 1 $LPBIN/$ELFW
     else
        echo "$LPUTIL or $ELFW not found"
        exit 1
    fi
else
     echo "Source directory $SOURCE cannot be accessed"
    exit 1
fi

finally let's drop these into a script that runs everything:

Emulex util installs (installEmulexUtils.sh)

#!/bin/sh
EXSOURCE=#dir where these live
$EXSOURCE/setEmulexTopology.sh
$EXSOURCE/installEmulex.sh
$EXSOURCE/updateEmulexFW.sh
echo "Reboot system for changes to take effect"

Labels: storage; fiber channel; emulex

Posted by Jae Ellers at Tuesday, February 26, 2008.

vmpmotion.pl updated to combat VMware bug

VMware has released KB 1003874 that explains the thin provisioning bug with Storage VMotion. They also released a perl script to determine if a VM is affected by the bug and announced that an unreleased patch ( ESX350-200802411-BG ) deals with the bug. I have taken the script that VMware has provided to determine if the VM is affected by the bug, and integrated it into the vmpmotion.pl script. When the script is run it tags each affected VM. Some sample output:

esxcfg-rcli:~# ./vmpmotion.pl
cluster: cluster01
[01] VM01 : [VMFS3-LUN00] VM01/VM01.vmx [thin provision bug]
[02] VM02 : [VMFS3-LUN05] VM02/VM02.vmx [thin provision bug]
[03] VM03 : [VMFS3-LUN02] VM03/VM03.vmx
[04] VM04 : [VMFS3-LUN04] VM04/VM04.vmx
[05] VM05 : [VMFS3-LUN02] VM05/VM05.vmx

If you use Storage VMotion on a VM affected by the bug, the process will fail at 99% with the error:

Received an error from the server: A general system error occurred: DMotion:
Failed to unstun VM after disk reparent. You will have to manually
perform the relocation.

VMware has also released a perl script that can be run to complete the failed Storage VMotion, but it needs to be run on the ESX host that had the Storage VMotion fail which means I can't incorperate it into vmpmotion.pl. I don't suggest that you use Storage VMotion on any VM that is affected by the bug.


Go grab a fresh copy of vmpmotion.pl

Posted by Dominic Rivera at Thursday, February 21, 2008.