Importing virtual disks of hosted formats in ESXi 5.1

Recently I stumbled over a new issue that really puzzled me. I was trying to import a virtual appliance (the Bitnami ownCloud stack) into my lab ESXi host. This appliance is provided with a virtual disk in 2gbsparse format to make it compatible with VMware Workstation. For using it in ESXi instructions were given to clone the disk into an ESXi supported disk format using vmkfstools like this:

   vmkfstools -i bitnami-owncloud-4.5.5-0-ubuntu-12.04.vmdk owncloud.vmdk

On my ESXi 5.1 box this command promptly failed with a very confusing error message:
  "Failed to open 'bitnami-owncloud-4.5.5-0-ubuntu-12.04.vmdk': The system cannot find the file specified (25)."

Of course the file existed in the current directory, so how could it not be found?!?

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Are ESXi 5.x patches cumulative?

I find this question being asked again and again in the VMware forums by people who cannot just use Update Manager for patching, and most times the answers that are given there are a bit vague and unclear or even plain wrong. This is because ESXi patching is a really complex and not well documented matter. So I need to provide some background information before I'm going to answer this question:
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VMware Converter 5.0.1 released, now supports vSphere 5.1

As announced in my last post VMware released the Converter 5.0.1 today which now supports ESXi 5.1 and vCenter 5.1.

• Download link
• Release Notes

Be aware: Converter 5.0 does not (yet) work with vSphere 5.1

Those of you who have just completed a brand new vSphere 5.1 deployment or upgraded your production environment to 5.1 may run into a real show stopper ... once you try to virtualize a physical server into this environment using VMware Converter. Why? Because the current release of VMware Converter (5.0) does not work together with ESXi 5.1 and vCenter Server 5.1! The 5.0 version of the Converter is a bit old now and has not yet been adapted to work with vSphere 5.1. Maybe VMware just forgot that, or was in such a hurry to release vSphere 5.1 that they intentionally neglected Converter compatibility.

If you desperately need to use Converter with vSphere 5.1 *now* then you have the following work arounds available:
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New esxcli namespaces (incl. SMART disk monitoring)

With ESXi 5.1 there were several enhancements to the esxcli command that you can use in an ESXi shell, but also remotely, to get and set system configuration parameters.
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Updated ESXi-Customizer-PS script allows to create ESXi 5.1 Offline bundle

Following the availability of the ESXi 5.1 packages in the VMware Online depot I have updated my ESXi-Customizer-PS script and made two minor, but important changes:
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ESXi 5.1 GA is now available in the VMware Online Depot

The brand new ESXi 5.1 GA packages have finally been uploaded to the VMware Online Depot. That means you can use them with the PowerCLI ImageBuilder snapin and my ESXi-Customizer-PS script to build your own customized installation ISOs or Offline bundles.

To improve the usage of the new ESXi 5.1 ImageProfiles I have updated my ESXi-Customizer-PS script (see my next post).

The ESXi 5.1 GA ImageProfiles

[Updated] How to update your (free / whitebox) ESXi server to ESXi 5.1

Now that vSphere 5.1 (incl. ESXi 5.1) has been released one of the most frequently asked questions of home users is: How can I update my existing ESXi 5.0 installation without too much effort and without taking any risk? Here is a step-by-step procedure:
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vSphere 5.1 is generally available (incl. the free and the HP customized version of ESXi)

Late yesterday VMware made vSphere 5.1 generally available. Go to
   http://www.vmware.com/go/download-vsphere
to download. The free version of ESXi 5.1 is also already available:
   http://www.vmware.com/go/get-free-esxi

And HP hardware owners will be happy to find that there is also an HP customized version of the ESXi 5.1 ISO available for download. The shortcut http://www.vmware.com/go/downloads-image-hp-esxi still points to the 5.0 version, but HP's ESXi 5.1 GA is available here:
   https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.1.0-GA-10SEP2012&productId=285

Right now it is not yet possible to update an existing ESXi 5.0 installation to 5.1 using the well known methods (via Update Manager and the VMware Online Depot). You will probably be able to update by booting the host with the ESXi 5.1 ISO, but the other methods should also be available shortly.