[Update] ESXi5 Community Packaging Tools 2.1

I just published updated versions of my ESXi5 Community Packaging Tools. What's new:

• The TGZ2VIB5 tool now allows to build the VIB payload file from a directory structure (rather than using a pre-packaged tgz file as input)
• You can now change the Acceptance Level of the VIB package

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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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HP releases Service Pack 2012.10.0 for ProLiant and updated drivers for ESXi 5.0 und 5.1

HP has released version 2012.10.0 of their Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP). This is a (bootable) ISO file that contains the latest firmware and driver packages for ProLiant servers. What's new:
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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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The status of SMP Fault Tolerance

VMware FT (Fault Tolerance) has been around for a while an enables you to protect a VM in a way that allows for a seamless non-disruptive fail over to a copy of it running on another host. The execution of the primary and the secondary copy of an FT-protected VM is synchronized through the vLockstep protocol by sending all input data over a dedicated FT logging link to the host that runs the secondary copy and replaying it there. If the primary host fails for whatever reason the secondary host will detect this and instantly activate its own copy of the VM to become the primary one - with no loss of data or network connections.
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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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