August 12th Bug Hits VMWare

When the date hit August 12, VMWare's ESX 3.5 Update 2 hypervisor refused to switch on — VMWare says it's a licensing flaw.

It’s an unlikely bug, but it’s really happened, as people around the world have discovered. After being powered off, VMWare’s ESX 3.5 Update 2 hypervisor refused to start again on August 12, ZDNet reports.

Martin Niemar, group manager of virtual infrastructure product marketing at VMware, said:

"We had an issue with 3.5 Update 2. It’s actually a licensing problem. Currently, what we know is that licensing prevents new virtual machines from powering up after shutdowns, and it prevents virtual motioning — moving a virtual machine from one host to another."

The company is working on a patch as a “top priority,” and Niemar advised that "customers should not stop virtual machines. Keep virtual machines going until we release a patch. You can also move the clock backwards on the server."

However, where customers can’t turn the clock back, there’s currently no fix available. Nor could the company say when it would be available or comment on various forum posts about solutions, which may involve a complete re-installation from ISO or TAR images, followed by a patch for the installed code.