• ESX Patch Management with
  ‘VMTS-ESX Patch Manager’

  By Mark Bedford

   

  As we all know patch management for ESX 3 in its current state is just terrible, a really manual slow processes where you have to go to each and every host or at best do it via a ILO connection or equivalent. The VMTS-ESX Patch Manager app really helps speed this process up using a nice to use windows GUI based app complete with a small in-built web server you can install anywhere and works very well! Here’s how to install and use the app.

   

  Installing

   

  1. Download, install and setup the program ‘VMTS-ESX Patch Manager’ from: http://www.vmts.net/ Here are the settings you should use:

   

  

  

  

  Note: On the ‘WebServer’ tab, the ‘Binding Address’ field is just the IP of the local system you have installed this program on.

   

   

  Downloading patches

   

  1. Download the updates into a folder, I’ve chosen C:\ESXpatches

   

  Note: The program has the feature to auto-download the patches for you but this feature does not seem to be working currently even after entering our correct proxy details in the settings tab you can see above so just click the icon in the URL Column and it will send you straight to the download link to download manually.

  Add by M. Daneri:

  Now proxy settings works only with basic authentication on 32bit OS, I’m investigating on this issue.

   

   

  

  
  
  2. Extract the downloaded TGZ files using WinACE or WinRAR into the same folder, you can safely delete the TGZ files to reclaim space. The end result should look like below:

   

  

   

  3. Suggested - You can also use the untar built-in VMTS Patch Manager, click on Action/Extract Patch select the directory where you downloaded the tar file, click start and wait the process end.
     
     Now select filter and select ESX 3.0.1 only and you should see all the ticks in the download column which shows the program can see the downloaded and extracted patches in the folder

   

  

   

   

  
  

  Patching ESX Hosts

   

  1. Select the ESX host you want to patch in the left window, click ‘Update’ to scan the host for what patches it has installed and any it missing.
     When prompted enter in the root username/password followed by the esxmanager username/password.
     You can also use the right mouse button on the host name and select Login Settings
     
     

  

   

  
  
  2. The ‘Installed’ and ‘Installation Date’ columns show which patches are already installed and when they wee installed.
     Tick the boxes of the patches you want to install and click the ‘Install’ button:

   

  

   

  
  
  3. After entering the root and esxmanager passwords again the Host will go into maintenance mode if it isn’t already, the patches will get uploaded to the ESX host via a small ftp server built into the program and then it will call the ESXupdate command to install the patches in the right date order.
     If a patch is not needed to be installed as it as been superseded, a Downgrade warning will show during the install and will be skipped, this is fine.
     
     

  

   

  
  

  Note: Even multiple hosts at the same time can be patched as long as you enter the correct Root password for each host. Here we are updating ESX Hosts Sydney 01 & Sydney 02 at the same time:

  

   

  4. Click reboot afterwards to reboot the now patched ESX host.

   

  
  
  5. Proof is in the pudding! After the reboot running an ‘ESXupdate query’ on the host afterwards proves all the patches have been installed correctly:

   

  

   

  
  

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