vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0

Had some difficulties upgrading my ESXi 4 host today using this utility.  The patching process failed several times with an uninformative error message.

I was instructed to check the log file, unfortunately it was not obvious where that log file was.  After several Internet searches I was no closer to finding the source of my problem, let alone the log file that was going to answer my questions.

Finally found it so thought I would share in case anyone else finds themselves looking for the log file created by the Host Update Utility.  The logs can be found in C:\%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\VIU\logs.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

Attended an interesting presentation tonight on the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010.  This appears to be a very powerful way to manage image deployments for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I have to admit I’ve been eyeing this tool up for some time and been looking for a way to give it a try.  For a free tool it appears to have promise.

The presenter deviated from the canned Microsoft presentation and showed us some examples from his production MDT environment.  To any presenters this is an excellent approach and I highly recommend it.  Real world approaches almost always make for a better demo.

The presenter was able to show a depth of experience with the MDT product.  His blog appears to have a large amount of information on this subject, it can be found at http://www.toddlamothe.com/.

Here is a link to the Microsoft MDT site, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx.