How to upgrade?

[MichaelDiggs]

I have version 5.1 right now and there was an update already. It is very easy to update any "Windows" based operating system. Pretty much just a couple of mouse clicks and it is done. How much of a project is it to upgrade my ESXi box? I remember when installing it I created a disc from an ISO file and then just installed it. I have rarely ever used the console itself, once my VM's load up there really is no need to access the console. Is there a way to control/run the console via remote? How can I reboot the console remotely? What if I want to run the box headless, is that possible? I'm finding out the hard way that it seems that ESXi you may need an LCD, keyboard, mice, the works to run it. Is that true? Maybe a little too many questions. I guess I'll go back to my original one. How can I update the ESXi version? Are there patch files via CD or something? Thanks.

So far everything has been running ok. I only have 16MB of ram and I'm running 5 VM's right now and they all have been running smoothly. Two of them are Linux, and they run very lean anyway.

[JCMorrissey]

Hi,

Regards update to 5.1 update 1 there is a number of methods you can employ to do this (see below):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-7C9A1E23-...

In terms of remote access - you could:

i) enable ssh on the host and use a ssh tool (eg putty etc) to do a command-line update (using esxcli command - details included above)

ii) Can do via the actual console of your machine remotely depending on whether you have a remote management card (eg iDrac card in the case of certain Dell models, iLO in the case of HP, IBM have their own) but will need to check if you have such a facility in place

Generally i) is the most straightforward method though

Hope this helps

Many tx