How to upgrade ESXi host using offline bundle

vSphere Update Manager (VUM) is the way to go for ESXi-based host patching/upgrade however there are times you will need to rely on a client based approach to upgrade your host. 

We aren’t able to use LifeCycle Manager / Update manager to patch esxi versions old than 7.X on a vCenter running on 7.1X, thus we need to rely on the CLI to do an ESXi OS upgrade.

Typically Update Manager doesn’t work if your esx is one version below the vCenter level so we’ve to go rely on a cli approach. 

In this exercise, we are going to patch our esxi host from 6.5 U3 to 6.7 U3

We will need to verify the compatibility matrix between vCenter, ESXi, NSX etc by checking it with the Interop matrix.

https://interopmatrix.vmware.com/#/Interoperability

Ensure if the new ESX version we are planning to upgrade to is certified by the hardware vendor. We will always need to use the OEM image when we are upgrading the host as their drivers are best suited for their hardware. 

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Step 1. Select View & Download products > All Products and then click the View Download Components link of VMware vSphere.

Step 2. Expand the OEM Customized Installer CDs option, and then click Go to Downloads to download the offline bundle.zip file

Step 3. Logon to ESXi host via http://sfo01-m01-esx01/UI 

Step 4. Upload the file to a datastore path 

Step 5. Establish an ssh session to the host

Step 6. Verify if there are any VMs running on the host

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] esxcli network vm list

Step 9. Make a note of the management VMkernel adapter IP as well 

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get

Name  IPv4 Address    IPv4 Netmask   IPv4 Broadcast   Address Type  Gateway       DHCP DNS
—-  ————–  ————-  —————  ————  ————  ——–
vmk0  172.16.11.84     255.255.255.0    XXX :XXX:XXX     STATIC        172.16.11.253     false

Step 10. Verify the esx version on the host and its build number 

root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] vmware -vl

VMware ESXi 6.5.0 build-5310538

VMware ESXi 6.5.0 GA

Step 11. Verify the file uploaded by using profile list -d 

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/507d6172-80291ce1-20fd-002655d73aa5/ISO/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-17700523.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A11.zip

Name Vendor Acceptance Level
——————————- —— —————-
DellEMC-ESXi-6.7U3-17700523-A11 Dell PartnerSupported

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

Step 12. Update the esx version using profile update -p

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20180502001-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-17700523.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A11.zip

Update 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_brcmfcoe_11.4.1078.0-8vmw.650.2.50.8294253, VMW_bootbank_i40en_1.3.1-19vmw.650.2.50.8294253, VMW_bootbank_igbn_0.1.0.0-15vmw.650.1.36.7388607, VMW_bootbank_ipmi-ipmi-devintf_39.1-5vmw.650.2.50.8294253,

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

Step 13. We will now need to reboot the host 

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] reboot

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~]

Step 14. Verify esx version again after the server is rebooted 

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] vmware -vl

VMware ESXi 6.7.0 build-17700523

VMware ESXi 6.7.0 Update 3

Once the host has rebooted, take it out of maintenance mode