Dont ever patch/upgrade Cisco Vem module in ESXi hosts. the host will not be communicated to 1000V switch

Task: I was assigned to perform patching for  all the ESXi hosts on Japanese environment where the vcenter servers were in Japanese language.

Issue: I have created base line and patched one of the ESXI server. after patching, the ESXi server was out of synch from Cisco 1000V switch and all system up-link and vm up-link accessible VLAN was shown as 1. I logged to 1000V switch and checked the Module status by Show Module command. but unfortunately, this particular patched server connection was not available. So I logged in to the server and compared the version of CISCO VIB software with other server. up on checking I noticed that this issue server  CISCO 1000V VIB updated to latest and it was not connected to 1000V switch.

Solution: removed host from 1000V switch and uninstalled the latest version of VIB from host and installed the older version of VIB. after that the server has been connected back to 1000V switch and all the VLAN access available as normal.

Root cause: somehow because of language issue, I added the Cisco 1000V VEM patches with the base line policy.

Upgrade EMC powerpath from 5.7 to 5.9 SP1 on ESXi's 5.0

Task: I have been asked to upgrade the power path to the latest version.

Up-gradation Procedure:

1) downloaded the powerpath tool from EMC web site  ( required EMC Login creantial). https://download.emc.com/downloads/DL54746_PowerPath/VE-5.9.1.2-for-VMWARE-vSphere-Install-SW.zip

2) then you download you will get VE-5.9.1.2-for-VMWARE-vSphere-Install-SW.zip file.

3) unzip this file and copy EMCPower.VMWARE.5.9.SP1.P02.b054.zip file to your shared data store.

4) you cannot install with this VE-5.9.1.2-for-VMWARE-vSphere-Install-SW.zip file. if you do that it will give you error that index.xml file error. So use EMCPower.VMWARE.5.9.SP1.P02.b054.zip as up-gradation file

5) put the host in tomaintenance mode and migrate all the VM to another Hosts. and log in thru SSH and exeute below command

# esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volume/datastore/EMCPower.VMWARE.5.9.SP1.P02.b054.zip

datastore should be where you exported the EMC file.

6) reboot the ESXi host. 

before that bear in mind about the compatibility

Security scanner detected openSSL vulnerability on Vmware Vcenter, ESXi and other products

Issue: Recently received security vulnerability list from Security team that included openSSL vulnerability affected Vcenter and ESXi as below

Solution: VMware has released relative patches on their Security Advisories page: http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2014-0006.html

kindly download appropriate patches and update it.