Installing Patches for VMware ESX 3.5 Update 5

1. Download the contents.zip file.

$ wget -q http://download3.vmware.com/software/esx/ESX-3.5.0-contents.zip
$
$ unzip -l ESX-3.5.0-contents.zip
Archive:  ESX-3.5.0-contents.zip
  Length     Date   Time    Name
 --------    ----   ----    ----
    18304  11-19-10 01:11   contents.xml
      701  11-19-10 01:11   contents.xml.sig
 --------                   -------
    19005                   2 files
$

2. Create a patch depot.

$ mkdir -p ESX350.Depot/ESX350
$ ( cd ESX350.Depot/ESX350 ; unzip ../../ESX-3.5.0-contents.zip )
Archive:  ../../ESX-3.5.0-contents.zip
  inflating: contents.xml            
  inflating: contents.xml.sig        
$

3. Create list of patches to download (Dec-2009, and newer).

$ egrep 'ESX350-20(0912|10)' ESX350.Depot/ESX350/contents.xml | \
    cut -d\" -f4 > patch-list.txt
$
$ head -1 patch-list.txt ; tail -1 patch-list.txt
ESX350-200912401-BG
ESX350-201012410-BG
$ wc -l patch-list.txt 
47 patch-list.txt
$

4. Download all patch bundles.

$ ( while read p ; do
      wget -q http://download3.vmware.com/software/vi/${p}.zip
    done ) < patch-list.txt
$

5. Extract patch bundles into the patch depot.

$ for f in ESX350-*.zip ; do
    ( cd ESX350.Depot/ESX350 ; unzip -q ../../$f )
  done
$
$ ls -log ESX350.Depot/ESX350
total 212
-rw-rw-rw- 1 18304 Nov 19 01:11 contents.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1   701 Nov 19 01:11 contents.xml.sig
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912401-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912402-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912403-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912404-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912405-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Dec 21  2009 ESX350-200912406-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002401-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002402-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002403-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002404-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002405-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002406-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002407-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002408-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002409-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Feb  9  2010 ESX350-201002411-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Mar 22  2010 ESX350-201003401-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Mar 22  2010 ESX350-201003402-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Mar 22  2010 ESX350-201003403-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:05 ESX350-201006401-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006402-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006403-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006404-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006405-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006406-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006407-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006408-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Jun 22 00:06 ESX350-201006409-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:52 ESX350-201008401-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:52 ESX350-201008402-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:52 ESX350-201008403-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:52 ESX350-201008405-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:52 ESX350-201008406-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:53 ESX350-201008407-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:53 ESX350-201008409-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:53 ESX350-201008410-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:53 ESX350-201008411-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Aug 18 22:53 ESX350-201008412-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:10 ESX350-201012401-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012402-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012404-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012405-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012406-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012407-BG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012408-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012409-SG
drwxr-xr-x 3  4096 Nov 19 01:11 ESX350-201012410-BG
$

6. Make an ISO image, burn a DVD.

$ mkisofs -J -r -V ESX350u5-20101217 -o ./ESX350u5-20101217.iso ./ESX350.Depot
 [...]
$ ls -log ESX350u5-20101217.iso
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1942310912 Dec 17 16:34 ESX350u5-20101217.iso
$ cdrecord -sao -data ESX350u5-20101217.iso

7. Put the DVD into ESX host's optical drive, mount it up, install the patches.

esx3# mkdir /mnt/cdrom
esx3# mount -r /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
esx3# esxupdate --noreboot -d file:///mnt/cdrom/ESX350 update
 [...]
esx3# esxupdate query | grep 12/17/10
 ESX350-200912403-BG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Updates e1000e driver
 ESX350-200912404-BG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Updates igb driver
 ESX350-200912405-BG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Updates ixgbe driver
 ESX350-201002401-SG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Updates Net-SNMP
 ESX350-201002402-SG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Security updates to Python package
 ESX350-201002404-SG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Security update to BIND
 ESX350-201002405-BG    17:59:06 12/17/10 Updates Aacraid driver
 ESX350-201002407-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates Libxml2
 ESX350-201002408-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates MPT SCSI driver
 ESX350-201002409-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates iSCSI driver, iSCSI daemon
 ESX350-201003403-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates vmware-webCenter-esx
 ESX350-201006401-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates VMkernel,Tools,Hostd,VMX,VMnix
 ESX350-201006403-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates Qlogic driver
 ESX350-201006404-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates e1000 driver
 ESX350-201006405-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates GNU GCC package
 ESX350-201006406-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates GNU zip package
 ESX350-201006407-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates NTP package
 ESX350-201006409-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates CIM and Pegasus
 ESX350-201008402-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates bnx2x driver
 ESX350-201008405-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates cpio
 ESX350-201008406-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates expat
 ESX350-201008407-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates tar
 ESX350-201008411-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates krb5
 ESX350-201008412-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates perl
 ESX350-201012401-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates VMkernel, hostd, VMX
 ESX350-201012402-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates VMware-esx-tools
 ESX350-201012404-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates VMware-esx-scripts
 ESX350-201012405-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates kernel-vmnix
 ESX350-201012406-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates VMware-esx-perftools
 ESX350-201012407-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates Emulex Fiber Channel driver
 ESX350-201012408-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates samba
 ESX350-201012409-SG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Updates bzip
 ESX350-201012410-BG    17:59:07 12/17/10 Important: Update ESX 3.5 secure key
For a differential list of rpms, use the -l/--listrpms option.
esx3#

See Also

​http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_infrastructure_3/3_5
VMware ESX 3.5 Update 5 - Release Date 2009/12/03

​http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_esxupdate.pdf
ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide