I decided to rebuild my test lab earlier this week and couldn’t lay my hands on the latest ESX 3.5 Update 3 CD so instead used my ESX3.5 Update 1 disk. I built a couple of hosts, created a VM for vCenter (2.5.4) then proceeded to try and manage the hosts with vCenter. I couldn’t add a host, the error reported “Network copy failed for file”. What the devil is this message referring too?
Google came to the rescue as per this articlehttp://communities.vmware.com/thread/126900. I searched a little more and found this link helpful http://vmware-land.com/Vmware_Tips.html#ESX6 . I copied the files and still no joy. A little more digging and it transpired the vmxnet driver in vCenter 2.5.4 doesn’t communicate correctly with ESX 3.5 Update 1.
Crackers.
I un-installed the VMTools and rebooted. No change and still reported the error message. In the meantime I had downloaded Update 3 so thought I’d be better off doing a fresh install of the hosts after all, it only takes a few minutes. I re-installed the VMTools into the vCenter VM before trashing the ESX hosts.
After the hosts were rebuilt I powered on the vCenter VM and received service error failures so used the Add / Remove programs ‘Modify’ option. This fixed vCenter so I merrily added the hosts. Hold on, where’s the Update Manager plug-in? Oh dear, back to Add / Remove programs for the Update Manager component. Back in to vCenter, hold on where’s the Converter plug-in? Back to Add/ Remove programs…
Lesson learned don’t remove VMTools from a vCenter VM it’s more harmful than you first think.
