Upgrading ESX 4.0 to 4.0 Update 1 on HP Proliant systems can fail or time out and leave the host in an unusable state if the host has HP Insight Management Agents running

Symptoms

On HP Proliant systems, when attempting to upgrade ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.0 Update 1 (U1), you may experience these symptoms:
  • Upgrade operation may fail or hang and can result in an incomplete installation
  • Upon reboot, the host that was being upgraded may be left in an inconsistent state and may display a purple diagnostic screen with the following error:

    COS Panic: Int3 @ mp_register_ioapic

Purpose

Upgrading ESX 4.0 to 4.0 U1 on HP Proliant system can fail or time out and leave the host in an unusable state if Insight Management Agents are already installed and running on the host being upgraded. VMware and HP are investigating interactions between VMware esxupdate tool and HP Insight Management Agents for a possible solution.

Note: VMware esxupdate tool can be used standalone and is used by VMware Update Manager and VMware Host Update Utility.

Resolution

Who is affected

Customers using VMware vSphere 4 upgrading to ESX 4.0 U1 with a supported version of HP Insight Management Agents running.
 
This affects any of the following upgrading scenarios:
  • Upgrade using Update Manager
  • Upgrade using esxupdate
  • Upgrade using vSphere Host Update Utility
Note: ESXi is not affected.

Solution

To avoid this issue, prior to the update, disable HP Insight Management Agents running on the ESX 4.0.0 server.
 
HP Insight Management Agents can be disabled using these commands:
  • service hpsmhd stop
  • service hp-snmp-agents stop
  • service hp-health stop
HP management agents can be enabled after the upgrade is completed. Refer to HP documentation on how to re-enable these management agents.
 
If you have already updated the ESX host, do not reboot the ESX host. Open a support request with VMware support. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.
 
WARNING: Rebooting the host means the host has to be reinstalled because it is not recoverable after a reboot.
 
WARNING: If you have virtual machines running on local storage, they may not be retained if you reinstall ESX 4.0 as a result of this issue. Contact VMware Support for assistance before reinstalling.