SPICE | vCenter & ESXi Patching Guide - UMCST/SPICE-user-info GitHub Wiki

Patching vCenter

  1. patch vCenter via the management console found at: https://[hostname].:5480

  2. Once here select “Updates” from the left

  3. Search for updates

  4. Update with the latest patch

Patching ESXi hosts through vCenter

  1. Power down all VMs safely

  2. Enter maintenance mode

  3. Menu > Lifecycle manager

  4. Remediation process includes a REBOOT

Patching ESXi via SSH

Prerequisites

  1. Power down VMs

  2. Maintenance mode

  3. Enable SSH(disable after use)

    • Web UI > Manage > Services > TSM-SSH > Start

Option 1: Direct internet connection The following have commands generated for different patch releases:

v-front ESXi patch tracker

TinkerTry.com

When the use of a web proxy is needed:

web proxy config –proxy=http://<proxy-url:port>

  1. Ensure prerequisites are in place

Option 2: Offline bundle .zip

  1. Ensure prerequisites are in place

  2. acquire offline bundle

  3. Upload zip to local datastore on host

    • scp or web interface

  4. Verify path of uploaded zip from CLI

    • Datastores are at /vmfs/volumes/ by UUID and display label

  5. Run upgrade command esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/<DATASTORE-UUID>/VMware-ESXi*.zip

    • There is often no output from command when run

    • To check for success or error, monitor /var/log/esxupdate.log

Example complete message: image1

  1. Reboot

    • Depending on the host and hardware, can take several minutes

  2. Verify upgrade success

    • CLI: esxcli system version get

    • Web UI > Host > System Information

image2

REF:

  1. How to update ESXi 6.5 using an Offline Bundle

  2. ESXi 7.0 ESXCLI Command Reference

Patching ESXi via ISO

Prerequisites

  1. Power down VMs

  2. Maintenance mode

  3. Power down host

Direct network connection to IPMI needed for supermicro servers with java virtual media

  1. Open console via IPMI java viewer

  2. Use virtual media function to “plug in” ISO file

  3. Power on server, and wait for white supermicro screen

  4. Continually press F11 until bottom left of screen reports “invoking boot menu” (often best to open the virtual media keyboard

  5. In the blue menu, select the virtual media item

  6. It may take a long time to boot the ISO

  7. Follow the steps as if a new install. Select the drive with the existing VMware installation. When the drive is selected, it should provide an upgrade option

  8. Reboot server once the process is complete. “Plug out” the ISO from the virtual media window before reobooting