Sean Crookston

For the most part all of the content you are going to find for this objective can be found in the  vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide. These notes for the most part will point you towards page numbers there or respell out what is in the admin guide.

For a complete list of study objectives for the VCAP-DCA ( VDCA-410) browse to http://www.seancrookston.com/vcap-dca/.

Knowledge

Identify firewall access rules for Update Manager

Network port requirements for Update Manager are outlined in this kb article from VMware.

Skills and Abilities

Determine use case for, install and configure Update Manager Download Service
Configure a shared repository

To configure a shared repository you will need to download the files to a location of your choice then follow the following steps.

From the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

Use a Shared Repository as a Patch Download Source
You can configure Update Manager to use a shared repository as a source for downloading patches and notifications.
Prerequisites
You must create the shared repository using the UMDS and host it on a Web server or a local disk. The UMDS you use must be of a version compatible with Update Manager. You cannot set up Update Manager to use a shared repository if the patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications are downloaded with a version of UMDS that is not compatible with the current version of Update Manager. For more information, about the compatibility, see “Compatibility Between UMDS and the Update Manager Server,” on page 58. You can find the detailed procedure about exporting the patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications in “Export the Downloaded Patches and Notifications,” on page 63. Connect the vSphere Client to a vCenter Server system with which Update Manager is registered, and click Update Manager under Solutions and Applications on the Home page. If your vCenter Server system is part of a connected group in vCenter Linked Mode, you must specify the Update Manager instance to  use, by selecting the name of the corresponding vCenter Server system in the navigation bar.

Procedure
1 On the Configuration tab, under Settings, click Patch Download Settings.
2 In the Patch Download Sources pane, select Use a shared repository.
3 Enter the path or the URL to the shared repository.
For example: C:\repository_path\, https://repository_path/, or http://repository_path/
In these examples, repository_path is the path to the folder to which you have exported the patches and notifications. In a semi-air-gap environment (where the Update Manager server does not have direct access to the Internet, but is connected to a machine that has Internet access), the folder can be on a Web server. You can enter an HTTP or HTTPS address, or a location on the disk on which Update Manager is installed. HTTPS addresses are supported without any authentication.IMPORTANT You cannot use folders located on a network drive as a shared repository. Update Manager does not download patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications from folders on a network share either in the Microsoft Windows Uniform Naming Convention form (such as \ \Computer_Name_or_Computer_IP\Shared), or on a mapped network drive (for example, Z:\).
4 Click Validate URL to validate the path. IMPORTANT If the patch binaries, patch metadata, and notifications in the folder you specify are downloaded with a UMDS version that is not compatible with the Update Manager version you use, the validation fails and you receive an error message. Make sure that the validation is successful. If the validation fails, Update Manager reports a reason for the failure. You can use the path to the shared repository only when the validation is successful.

5 Click Apply.
6 Click Download Now to run the VMware vCenter Update Manager Update Download task and to download the patches and notifications immediately. The shared repository is used as a source for downloading patches and notifications. Example 11-1. Using a Folder or a Server as a Shared Repository You can use a folder or a Web server as a shared repository. n When you use a folder as a shared repository, repository_path is the top-level directory where patches and notifications exported from UMDS are stored. For example, export the patches and notifications using UMDS to F:\, which is a drive mapped to a plugged-in USB device on the machine on which UMDS is installed. Then, plug in the USB device to the machine on which Update Manager is installed. On this machine the device is mapped as E:\. The folder to configure as a shared repository in the Update Manager is E:\. n When you use a Web server as a shared repository, repository_path is the top-level directory on the Web server where patches exported from UMDS are stored. For example, export the patches and notifications from UMDS to C:\docroot\exportdata. If the folder is configured in a Web server and is accessible from other machines at the URL https://umds_host_name/ exportdata, the URL to configure as a shared repository in Update Manager is https://umds_host_name/ exportdata.

Configure smart rebooting

From the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

Smart rebooting selectively reboots the virtual appliances and virtual machines in the vApp to maintain startup dependencies and possibly reboots the appliances that are not remediated. You can enable and disable smart rebooting of virtual appliances after remediation.

Smart rebooting is enabled by default. If you disable smart rebooting, the virtual appliances are restarted according to their individual remediation requirements and disregard any startup dependencies.
To disable smart rebooting:

1 Connect the vSphere Client to a vCenter Server system with which Update Manager is registered, and select Home > Solutions and Applications > Update Manager in the navigation bar. If your vCenter Server system is a part of a connected group in vCenter Linked Mode, specify the Update Manager instance to configure, by selecting the name of the corresponding vCenter Server system in the navigation bar.
2 Click the Configuration tab.
3 Under Settings, click vApp Settings.
4 Deselect Enable smart reboot after remediation to disable smart rebooting.

Manually download updates to a repository

You can manually download updates and import them to update manager as an offline bundle.

From the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

Prerequisites
The patches and extensions you import must be in ZIP format.
To import patches and extensions, you must have the Upload File privilege. For more information about managing users, groups, roles, and permissions, see vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide. For a list of Update Manager privileges and their descriptions, see “Update Manager Privileges,” on page 80.

Connect the vSphere Client to a vCenter Server system with which Update Manager is registered, and click Update Manager under Solutions and Applications on the Home page. If your vCenter Server system is part of a connected group in vCenter Linked Mode, you must specify the Update Manager instance to use, by selecting the name of the corresponding vCenter Server system in the navigation bar.

Procedure
1 On the Configuration tab, under Settings, click Patch Download Settings.
2 Click Import Patches at the bottom of the Patch Download Sources pane.
3 On the Select Patches page of the Import Patches wizard, browse to and select the .zip file containing the
patches you want to import.
4 Click Next and wait until the file upload completes successfully.
In case of upload failure, check whether the structure of the .zip file is correct or whether the
Update Manager network settings are set up correctly.
5 Click Next.

6 On the Confirm Import page of the Import Patches wizard, review the patches that you import into the
Update Manager repository.
7 Click Finish.

Perform orchestrated vSphere upgrades

From the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

Orchestrated Upgrades of Hosts and Virtual Machines
You can perform orchestrated upgrades of the hosts or virtual machines in your vSphere inventory. Orchestrated upgrades allow you to upgrade all hosts in the inventory using a single host upgrade baseline that is attached to a container object in the vSphere inventory. You can use orchestrated upgrade to upgrade the virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools of all the virtual machines in the vSphere inventory at the same time, using baseline groups containing the following baselines:

n VM Hardware Upgrade to Match Host
n VMware Tools Upgrade to Match Host

You can perform an orchestrated upgrade at the cluster, folder, datacenter, or individual object level. Upgrading the virtual hardware of the virtual machines exposes new devices and capabilities to the guest operating systems. You must upgrade VMware Tools before upgrading the virtual hardware version so that all required drivers are updated in the guest. Upgrading the virtual hardware of the virtual machines is impossible if VMware Tools is not installed, is out of date, or is managed by third-party vendors.

Create and modify baseline groups

From the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.

Baselines contain a collection of one or more patches, extensions, service packs, bug fixes, or upgrades, and can be classified as upgrade, extension, or patch baselines. Baseline groups are assembled from existing baselines. Baseline groups might contain a number of patch or extension baselines, and only one upgrade baseline per upgrade type (like VMware Tools, virtual machine hardware, virtual appliance, or host).

When you scan hosts, virtual machines, and virtual appliances, you evaluate them against baselines and baseline groups to determine their level of compliance.
Update Manager includes four default patch baselines and four upgrade baselines. You cannot edit or delete the default baselines. You can use the default baselines, or create patch, extension, and upgrade baselines that meet the criteria you want. Baselines you create, as well as default baselines, can be combined in baseline groups. For more information about baselines and baseline groups, see “Using Baselines and Baseline Groups,”
on page 19 and Chapter 12, “Working with Baselines and Baseline Groups,” on page 83.

Troubleshoot Update Manager problem areas and issues

I have not seen a ton of information out there specifically on troubleshooting Update Manager, but installing it and playing around with it will go a long way.

You can also check out these two links for a little more information. Additionally pg 161 of the admin guide starts a troubleshooting section specific to Update Manager.

http://blog.michaelburger.de/Virtuozity.php/2009/02/25/troubleshooting-vmware-update-manager

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/02/02/vmware-update-manager-sql/

Generate database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL

Pg 159 and 160 of the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide..

Upgrade vApps using Update Manager
Attach an upgrade baseline to the vApp just as you would a folder, cluster, or datacenter.

Tools

VMware vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide
Product Documentation
vSphere Client
vmware-umds

On the machine you have installed Update Manager on(Windows box) you can do the following with the vmware-umds command

To set up a download of all ESX/ESXi host updates, run the following command:

vmware-umds –set-config –enable-host 1 –enable-win 0 –enable-lin 0

To set up a download of all Windows updates, run the following command:

vmware-umds –set-config –enable-host 0 –enable-win 1 –enable-lin 0

To set up a download of all Linux updates, run the following command:

vmware-umds –set-config –enable-host 0 –enable-win 0 –enable-lin 1

To set up a download of all available updates, run the following command:

vmware-umds –set-config –enable-host 1 –enable-win 1 –enable-lin 1

Change the patch repository directory by running the command:

vmware-umds –setup-config –patch-store your_new_patchstore_folder

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