Problem installing or upgrading HP Management Agents v8.5.1 on ESX Server 4.0 Update 2

Updated note:

This problem seems to persist and reoccur with ESX / vSphere 4.1 as well. Same steps noted below seem to work around the problem.

HP recently released an updated version of their Management Agents for ESX Server 4.0. As usual, HP “…recommends users update to this versio at their earliest convenience…” so I did. Well, at least I tried to…

Here’s how it went:

——————————————————-
# ./install851vibs.sh –install

HP Insight Manager Agent 8.5.1-1 Installer for VMware ESX
Target System is VMware ESX 4.0.0 build-261974
Server: ProLiant ML370 G5

This script will now attempt to set ESX Host in Maintenance Mode
for IM agents install.
Do you wish to continue? (y/n) y

Insufficient arguments.
Insufficient arguments.
An active Virtual Machine [ ] has been detected on host [SERVERNAME]

The ESX host will be put into maintenance mode
to be able to install/uninstall the agents.
The Virtual Machines must be either Powered off or Suspended
by the operator to allow the transition
of the ESX host into maintenance mode.
Please modify the state of the VMs to be Suspended or powered off
and then retry Agents Installation.
——————————————————-

“An active Virtual Machine [ ]” ?? What?! All of the virtual machines on this host had already been suspended or powered off like the README suggested, but the script still thought something was running. Hmmm.

After incurring many bruises on my forehead from hitting the desk I figured it out…

It appears there is a bug in the HP software. The v8.5.1 agents install script can’t seem to deal with _any_ VMs being registered on the host.

I managed to successfully upgrade the host from v8.4.0 > v8.5.1 by de-registering all VMs on the host in question, then running the 8.5.1 install script. The v8.5.1 install script then successfully uninstalled v8.4.0 and installed v8.5.1.

I then had to manually re-register all VMs in the datastore (vmware-cmd -s register PATH-TO-VMX).

Problem solved. Thanks, HP – there’s four hours of my life I’ll never get back…