10 Feb 2010

VMware Update Manager 1.0 u3 Fix for "There are errors during the remediation operation"

We have a fairly sizeable VMware ESX environment which we use VMware's Update Manager for the patching of our Hosts and guest VMs. Occasionaly when trying to patch VM's, I've attached a Baseline, already selected 'Scan for updates' but when selecting remediate received the message "There are errors during the remediation operation".

By manually running the 'VMware Update Manager Update Download' Scheduled Task using Run and then restarting the VMware Update Manager Service, I've found that the issue disappears. I'm wondering if there's some inconsistency between the metadata download and the data that Update Manager is holding? If anyone knows, i'd love to know!

RSA Authentication Manager 7.1 on VMware ESX 3.5

I'm right in the middle of an RSA Authentication Manager 7.1 SP2 deployment onto VMware ESX 3.5 as I type and having stumbled across some "gotcha's" already, I've decided to note them as I go.

  • It's perfectly acceptable for RSA AM 7.1 to take approximately 15 minutes to start up thanks to Java and the 'new' Oracle Database backend. About 13 minutes of the delay is at "Applying Computer Settings". (Even with 2vCPU's and 4GB RAM).
  • Give the server 4GB of RAM if possible even though RSA only recommend 2GB, that way all the services will be able to start at boot up
  • When installing a Replica Instance, you'll need the replica package creating on your Primary Instance and also a copy of your RSA License certs handy. Also make sure that there is connectivity from it to your existing Primary Instance and any other Replica instances that you may have. TCP port 2334 will need to be open if you've got a firewall or two in the way.
  • I'm not really having a great deal of luck with RSA AM 7.1, I'm finding it very finicky in terms of connecting Replica instances to the Primary. I'm considering another rebuild of the VMs so that I'm happy that they're working as they should. I've also experienced my Primary Instance running out of disk space eventhough it had 30GB set aside just for Authentication Manager.
  • I've rebuilt my Primary and Replica now and they seem to be a little more stable. I've noticed that by default AM will assume that there is 100GB of disk available for replication. Now apparently this can be changed by following the directions in Appendix G of the Administrators PDF. I cannot find the relevant instructions although I am wondering if it can be achieved using rsautil manage-database and resizing the database files. Update - I've found that I was referring to the old documentation for the above problem. Please see my most recent post to resolve this issue.