My beef with Update Manager

First, I’ll start off with what caused me to make this post.

KB Article 1007512 – Scan of host fails after upgrade to Virtual Center 2.5 Update 3.

The resolution to this KB article is to rename the hostupdate folder and let Update Manager download all the ESX patches again.  5.60 GB worth!!!  So, without further ado, here are my beefs with Update Manager:

1. Update Manager is not smart enough to know I do not have any ESX 3.0.3 hosts in my cluster.  Furthermore, there is no option to disable downloading ESX 3.0.3 updates.
2. Unlike with Windows hosts where Update Manager only downloads the updates that are needed as per the baselines, Update Manager downloads every ESX update available, even if it’s not needed.
3. Resolution to KB 1007512
4. No ability to schedule reboots when patching a Windows host.  You can schedule when a patch will be pushed to a Windows host, but you can not push patches and then schedule a reboot for a maintenance window at a later time.
5. Unable to have more than one patch repository (would be very useful in networks with one VC server, but multiple clusters located across a WAN).

Now, Update Manager is a really good product for a 1.0 version.  I hope to see some of these changes in future releases of this software.

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