Note to self: updating my standalone ESXi host

10. January 2020 SDDC, Tips & Tricks, VMware, vSphere 1

Update April 15th 2020: If you are doing a full upgrade, make sure you specify the proper profile name using:

esxcli software profile update -d </path/to/depot.zip> -p <profile name>

You can list the profiles included in the depot with:

esxcli software sources profile list -d </path/to/depot.zip>

I’m running a fully nested homelab on a single SuperMicro server. In order to update and patch it, I need to follow an offline procedure using the command line. Although this is a really straightforward procedure, I always need to resort to Google twice per year or so to find the correct commands. I haven’t dealt hands-on with patch management of vSphere in customer environments in ages :-).

So, this short blogpost is nothing more than a note to myself. If it happens to help somebody else … perfect!

Place the host in Maintenance Mode

[root@esxi:~] esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true
[root@esxi:~] esxcli system maintenanceMode get
Enabled

Download the patch bundle

Patches are cumulative https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2018/07/new-rollup-bulletins-simplify-vmware-esxi-updating.html so grab the latest patch from https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch#search

Upload the offline patch bundle to the host using the Datastore Browser

Install the patch using ESXCLI

[root@esxi:~] esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/ SSD960/Patches/ESXi670-201912001.zip
[root@esxi:/vmfs/volumes/5a8c8a49-2cf99aca-545e-ac1f6b1de514/Patches] esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/5a8c8a49-2cf99aca-545e-ac1f6b1de514/Patches/ESXi670-201912001.zip
Installation Result
   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
   Reboot Required: true
   VIBs Installed: VMW_bootbank_bnxtnet_20.6.101.7-24vmw.670.3.73.14320388, VMW_bootbank_brcmfcoe_11.4.1078.25-14vmw.670.3.73.14320388, VMW_bootbank_ [...]

Reboot the host

[root@esxi:~] Reboot

Take the host out of Maintenance Mode

[root@esxi:~] esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false
[root@esxi:~] esxcli system maintenanceMode get
Disabled

Verify the version

[root@esxi:~] vmware -vl
VMware ESXi 6.7.0 build-15160138
VMware ESXi 6.7.0 Update 3

1 thought on “Note to self: updating my standalone ESXi host”

  • 1
    Anonymous on February 6, 2021 Reply

    Even easier is to subscribe a RSS reader to https://esxi-patches.v-front.de/ and when you get a notification of a new patch click on the “Imageprofile” link to get a copy/paste list of commands to run to update your Host!

    An example for the most recent 7.0 patch is:

    # Cut and paste these commands into an ESXi shell to update your host with this Imageprofile
    # See the Help page for more instructions
    #
    esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
    esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0U1d-17551050-standard \
    -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
    esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient
    #
    # Reboot to complete the upgrade

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