I was using PowerCLI to go from Update 02 ot 03 on a 4.1 ESXi server using the localhost option. However, the powercli install command failed during the update "Unable to write data to the transport connection" . Anyway, that's not my problem...
So, I gave up on that, copied the files to a vmfs volume (because I see that VMware recommend not doing the updates over the wire) and decided to use the trusty esxupdate instead. But now I get the error that "Skipping bulletin ESXi410-Update03; it is installed or obsoleted." I had that heart-sinking feeling when I realised that failed ESXi updates do not roll back failed updates in a transactional way - or so it seems. (Even Windows gets that right!):
/usr/lib/ipkg # vmware -v
VMware ESXi 4.1.0 build-502767 [This is Update 2]
/usr/lib/ipkg # esxupdate query
---------Bulletin ID--------- -----Installed----- -------------Summary-------------
ESXi410-Update03 2013-07-20T07:44:38 VMware ESXi 4.1 Complete Update 3
So, as you can see, the update hasn't happened, but esxupdate thinks it has and is refusing to let me try again - catch 22.
I have rebooted the server which didn't help. I have read this: VMware KB: The esxupdate query command does not list the correct bulletins after performing an update and done a syncdb. None of which helped.
What I'm looking for is a simple way to tell the server that actually, it doesn't have Update03 (or to force an update - kind of "do it again even if you think it is already installed - which it isn't"). However, I can't seem to find the commend to do that.
Can someone point me in the right direction please? TVM.