Upgrading/Installing vSphere 5.5 Update 1 skipping the NFS bug

Lately I had to deal with a customer who run into the NFS bug without even knowing it.

Most people updated vSphere to 5.5 update 1 to fix the Heartbleed bug (or maybe because it was just the latest version available to install) but then they had to deal with the other problems; I blame the Heartbeat bug for the rush out of update 1 which lead to the NFS bug. Just my 2 cents.

Anyway, sooner or later you will have to get there but you definitely don’t want to deal with NFS problems, so I figured I would write a small how-to for building a customized vSphere ISO that is already patched for Heartbleed and NFS bugs.

In case you just have to update you can use VMware Update Manger or do it manually, but if  you have to do a fresh install you will need a two steps approach (and still get the NFS bug before you patch) or install an older version and jump straight to the latest patched version; one way or another it would just be better to start with a patched version.

First of all you need PowerCLI and the latest patch (ESXi550-201406001.zip).

Then in my case I created a folder in “C:\vSpherePatches” and did as follows:

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\vSpherePatches\ESXi550-201406001.zip     # Adding the patch file to the repository
Get-EsxImageProfile | fl     # Listing Image Profile in the repository
Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi-5.5.0-20140604001-standard -ExportToIso -FilePath C:\vSpherePatches\VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update01-1881737.x86_64.iso     # Exporting the standard Image Profile to an iso file

If you want to have the feel of an official VMware release you can name the iso file like I did: “VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update01-1881737.x86_64.iso”. At least I have the feeling this would be what they would call it based on their naming convention.

Now you can install the latest build with no fear of incurring in (known) bugs. 😉