Dell SUU 5.4.0 Works Under ESX Server
By Bob Plankers on Mar 28, 2008 in Featured, Virtualization
If you’re a Dell sort of person you’ll be happy to know that version 5.4.0 of the Dell OpenManage Server Update Utility DVD works under VMware ESX 3.5. Older versions didn’t work, which made firmware management more difficult.
I don’t currently run the OpenManage suite of tools[0]. Instead, I copy the SUU DVD contents to an NFS share, and I have a shell script which handles the mounting & unmounting, and updating my servers. I’m glad that the whole process works on ESX now, too.
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[0] I might, in the future, especially as things like ESX 3i remove the OS.
10 Comment(s)
By aharden on Mar 28, 2008 | Reply
Before Dell started supporting a bootable firmware updates CD with OM 5.3.0, I recommended HP for our VMware capacity. HP has had bootable firmware maintenance CDs for the ProLiants for years. With this additional support, Dell is finally doing more than just lip service with regards to ESX. Thanks for the note.
By Brad on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
That’s great news. I just ordered 4 more Poweredge 1955 ESX boxes on Friday :)
By James on Apr 8, 2008 | Reply
Well…I’d love to know how you made it work. It’s not working for 3.0.2 Update 1 for us. I’ve been stuggling with accomplishing just that scenario (updating through a NFS share containing the DVD contents) to no avail. Everytime I run the suu script I get some “nullstem update in progress” message and then the application quits without updating anything. I’ve only been able to update through the Build and Update Utility boot disc.
By Bob Plankers on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply
It’s only compatible with ESX 3.5, as far as I can tell. :-(
By Scott Hanson on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply
The DUPs (Dell Update Packages) that are located in the ./repository directory on the SUU DVD (the .BIN files) will install under ESX 3.X.
The SUU (Server Update Utility) does not work fully under the service console. The comparison functionality works … so if you so ./suu -c , you will get a comparison report telling you what DUPs are applicable for that server. But if you do a ./suu -u or ./suu -p you will get the ‘null’ message mentioned above and a java exception error on the -p.
The SBUU (Systems Build and Update Utility) in conjunction with the SUU DVD will work, SBUU is bootable and uses the SUU for the packages to install. Of course you have to take the machine down to boot the SBUU.
I’m in the process of writing a script to query the system using ./suu -c and then grep out the package names to drill into the repository and install the DUPs (*.BIN). Keep an eye out for it on our Dell TechCenter site (http://www.delltechcenter.com)
Headed out for a doctors appt, so probably get to it first thing in the morning.
Great blog, btw, hope you don’t us linking back to you.
- Scott
By Bob Plankers on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply
Awesome, thanks Scott!
By Mark Mathers on Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
Is there a way to bypass having to use multiple CD’s such as SBUU and SUU? Could the SUU be run under WinPE or BartPE?
I have tried to do so but it keeps hanging while searching the local machine for applicable updates.
By Scott Hanson on Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
Doctor said I need to lose weight (of course !). Finished up the script after struggling with regular expressions a little bit.
I posted it on my blog on our site, have to drive a little traffic our way too, right :-)
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Systems+Edge
Or here’s the link directly to the script : http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Script+to+deploy+Dell+Updates+on+ESX+3.x
Hope that helps.
By Bob Plankers on Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
Mark, I don’t know about Windows, but under Linux I’ve been able to copy the SUU CD contents to an NFS share so I can use it over the network and avoid CDs altogether.
By Planet Malaysia on Apr 13, 2008 | Reply
OMSA 5.4 worked with ESX 3.5 perfectly on my production environment here.