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Updating VMware ESXi

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Back in January I built a VMware ESXi 5 whitebox as my home server.  I updated the hypervisor today and I thought I’d record the process so that I can refer back to it later.  The blog post I found most useful was from VMware Front Experience.  If you’re looking for the detailed procedures, I’d suggest you look at that post.

Upgrading from 5.0 to 5.1

  1. The upgrade file can be found here on the VMware download site. For an upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1, the file to download is: VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zip.
  2. After downloading the file, scp it to the ESXi host, onto one of the data stores.
  3. SSH into the ESXi host, and run the command:
    esxcli software profile install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zip -p ESXi-5.1.0-799733-standard
    You can also run esxcli software profile update .... The difference is described in the blog post I referenced above.
  4. When the update completes, reboot the server. When you bring up the VMs again the first time, vSphere Client might ask you whether you moved or copied the VMs since the UUID changed. Select “I moved the VMs”.

Rolling back to ESXi 5.0

ESXi 5.1 wasn’t working too well for me. I was having problems passing through my USB controllers to the VMs. I decided to roll back to 5.0, and luckily VMware makes rolling back easy.

  1. When you reboot the host, press SHIFT+R when the hypervisor first boots up (you’ll see the cue at the bottom right of the screen
  2. Type ‘y’ to confirm rolling back the hypervisor
  3. The hypervisor will boot up with the old version.

Patching 5.0

So what I ended up doing was just patching the hypervisor to the latest build.

  1. The latest patches can be found on the VMware patch download portal.
  2. After downloading the file, scp it to the ESXi host, onto one of the data stores.
  3. SSH into the ESXi host, and run the command:
  4. esxcli software vib install -d "/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/patches/ESXi500-201209001.zip"
  5. When the update completes, reboot the host if required.

I apologize if this blog post is a little terse, it is mainly a reference for myself. If you want further information, please check out the pages below:

VMWare ESXi 5 Whitebox

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I have 2 old computers (Pentium III and Celeron computers circa early 2000′s) that I currently use as servers for file storage, backups, and testing.  I thought it was about time to consolidate these servers I had, up the performance, and set up a flexible test environment for my coding endeavours.

VMWare’s free ESXi hypervisor piqued my interests earlier last year.  It’s comparable to XenServer but apparently has better support for Windows virtual machines.  Being a bare-metal hypervisor, it should give better performance than a usual virtual machine sitting on top of a full-blown operating system.  So I set my eyes on building an inexpensive but powerful ESXi whitebox that would take over the roles of my old computers.

I did a lot of research on ESXi and compatible components from various sites, blogs and forums.  I learned that ESXi was quite picky in what hardware it would run on.  I definitely wanted to buy the correct components that would work with ESXi 5, aiming to get everything under $500.

This is what I came up with (prices after price matching/rebates):

  • AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 6-Core 2.8GHz Processor @ $122.17
  • ASRock 990FX EXTREME3 Motherboard (ATX, AM3+, DDR3, SATA3) @ $156.60
  • Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte PC3-12800 8GB 2x4GB Memory Kit @ $44.99
  • Gigabyte Radeon HD 5450 Low Profile Video Card @ $14.99
  • Coolermaster Elite 350 Black ATX Case with 500W PSU @ $49.69
  • Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EARS
  • Trendnet Gigabit Network Adapter TEG-PCITXR

This selection got me well within my $500 budget even after taxes.  The hard disk and network adapter were components I already had.

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