ESX

ESX / ESXi 3.5 Update 4 Released

@mpoore

• 1 min read

Yesterday, VMware announced the availability of ESX / ESXi 3.5 Update 4 (build number 153875). As usual you can view the release notes for all of the juicy details but in summary they are:

  • Support for the Xeon processor 5500 series
  • QLogic Fibre Channel Adapter Driver Update
  • An updated version of the VMXNET driver (VMXNET enhanced) for Windows 2003 / XP
  • Support for new Guest OSs:
  • – SUSE Enterprise Desktop / Server 11
  • – Ubuntu Desktop / Server 8.10
  • – Windows Preinstallation Environment 2.0
  • Newly supported IO devices / Network Interfaces (see the release notes for a full list)
  • A reasonable number of patches (again, see the release notes for details)

For some of the features added it is necessary to be using Virtual Center 2.5 Update 4 and a VMware Tools upgrade will be required also.

Also included, and I look forward to trying it, is experimental support for PXE with ESXi U4. A KB exists that talks about in more detail (KB 1008971) but I have just plucked this paragraph from the KB:

The main benefit of PXE booting ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 4 is that it allows you to run the deployment on systems with no disk or other local persistent storage. Furthermore, PXE booting greatly simplifies both the booting and upgrading processes. Therefore, scaling to many machines is greatly facilitated. No manual installation steps are necessary when the system is fully-realized.

That says it all doesn't it?