Looking for assistance on Patching

[BaghdadIT]

Good day all

I inherited a 4 node cluster with all hosts running ESXi 5.0.0 (721882) I was trying to create a new VM with Server 2012 when I discovered these host have not been patched in a long time. SO I am trying to figure out the procedure to get the patches on these host and was wondering if I could get a push in the right direction. The Update Manager is something I am having trouble grasping

[vmroyale]

Hello and welcome to the communities.

Check out the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager document for more info on Update Manager. Its really pretty straightforward and easy to set up.

You could also use a manual approach, like the one detailed here:

Updating ESXi 5 - Single use esxcli How To

[dhanarajramesh · Accepted solution]

Dear BaghdadIT, you can do patching for vmware in two different ways. one is by update manger and another one is offline patching.  if you want do patching through update manager, your vcenter  must connected with internet to download patches ( the easiest way) and it would be vulnerable to attackers.  so in most of the environment they prefer to do patching in offline way. so below is the following steps you can follow to do patching in offline. 1) download the applicable ESX latest patch from vmware site to you internet connected PC. http://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatch.portal 2) copy the downloaded patch file (.zip) to vcenter and from there u can copy the file to one of your shared data-store via winscp or u can use data store browser and upload file method. in order to patch all host,  the data store must be visible to  all of your host  3) log in to the vcenter and put the host in to maintenance mode ( DRS should be enabled in order to move VMs automatically another host) 4) login to esxi host  thru SSH that you want to patch ( if it is not enabled please enable it thru console or thru vcenter ) 5) go to data store and browse the patch file example:    cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore0/patch  here datastore0 is shared datastore and patch is the patch file folder name 6) execute below command to install patches  example  ESXi500-1254542  esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore0/ESXi\ patch/ESXi500-1254542.zip 5)  after you execute the command you will see the message as below and the system will be rebooted Message : the update completed successfully. but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.  6)  reboot the host and run this command to see your patches esxcli software vib list . more over when it's get rebooted, you might see the connectivity lose in v center. wait for some times and connect back the host again to v center. and exit the maintenance mode. run the DRS again. that all your host patched . if you have any question post here so that our people will give you solutions. thanks

[BaghdadIT]

Thanks Guys You were so helpful. I got it figured out and all Hosts patched!!