Note to self: updating my standalone ESXi host
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
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