DISM to fix issues that SFC can’t

SFC, which stands for System File Checker, is a built-in administrative tool to verify the integrity of operating system files and to repair files that are corrupt, damaged or changed.

SFC scans have three possible outcomes:

  1. The scan did not find any issues.
  2. The scan did find issues and fixed them.
  3. The scan did find issues and couldn’t repair them (Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them).

Note: It is recommended that you do a full backup of the Windows system partition before you run DISM.

SFC may also correct issues but it may not resolve the issue that you tried to correct in first place by running it.

DISM comes to the rescue in these situations. Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)  is a command line program for Windows that is used for a variety of purposes.It is available in all versions of Windows starting from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

 

Plesae always run the DSIM commands with elevated privileges.

Command 01: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth – Run this to check status

The command checks the image for the corruption flag and returns its findings to you but does not run repair operations.

Command 02: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth – Run this to check component store corruptions

The scan takes longer to complete if corruption is found during the scan of the image.

Command 03: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth – Run this to fix the corruption

The /RestoreHealth parameter runs a scan for corruption and attempts to repair any issues that it finds automatically.

 

Patch VMware ESXi hosts using command line

There a several ways to patch a VMware ESXi server. vSphere Update Manager (VUM) can update for example a complete ESXi host cluster fully automatic. vSphere Update Manager requires a vCenter Server. When you don’t have a vCenter Server patching can be done from the command line.

Here is a quick overview how to patch an ESXi host;

Step 1. Download the latest patch bundle from the VMware Web site, link

Step 2. Upload the patch bundle (zip) to a datastore with the vSphere Client or using vSphere Web Client.

Step 3. Enable SSH (Start the SSH service and make a SSH session to the ESXi host).

Step 4. Put the host in maintenance mode.

Step 5. Install the patch bundle

NOTE: Using esxcli with the install method has the possibility of overwriting existing drivers. If you are using third-party ESXi images, VMware recommends using the update method to prevent an unbootable state. The following command will install the patch bunde:
Install: esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/vibbundle.zip

Update: esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/vibbundle.zip

NOTES:

  • In the above given example, we have used (-d) switch to install the bundle, if you wish to install an individual VIB you may use the (-v) switch instead of (-d).
  • The volume and the related datastore information can be retrived through the Vsphere client.

Step 6. After the successful Installation, you may reboot the host and remove the Maintenance Mode.